Catherine de Medici is one of 16th-century Europe's most notorious figures, accused of everything from poisoning enemies to practicing witchcraft to ordering the massacre of the Huguenots (French Protestants). In this novel by the author of The Last Queen, Catherine tells her side of the story. Orphaned as an infant and married at the age of 14 to the future King Henri II of France, Catherine does whatever she must to survive, whether it's vying with her husband's influential mistress, Diane de Poitiers; serving as regent to her young sons; or fighting off the ambitious Guise and Bourbon families, who have their eyes on the throne. For more about Catherine de Medici, try Jeanne Kalogridis' The Devil's Queen.

In 1487, as King Fernando and Queen Ysabel attempt to unite the (formerly Muslim-controlled) Iberian Peninsula under their rule, the pope authorizes the Inquisition to enforce Christian orthodoxy by eliminating all "heretics." Royal chancellor of Aragon Luis de Santángel is a converso--a "New Christian" whose forebears converted from Judaism under duress--and thus a potential target of the inquistors. A friend and sponsor to Christóbal Colón, who's just set out on an epic voyage, Santángel's own horizons expand when he rediscovers his ancestral faith through his friendship with Jewish silversmith Judith Migdal. But by focusing on his soul, will he end up losing his life?

In this "lively and engaging" novel (Booklist), former slave Miss July, born on a sugar plantation in Jamaica in the 19th century, recounts her eventful life, which unfolds in the years leading up to and following the abolition of slavery. The child of a slave and a white overseer, July toils as a field laborer until her mistress takes her into the great house and trains her as a lady's maid, altering the course of her life in surprising ways. Like her Orange Prize-winning Small Island, about Jamaican immigrants in post-WWII London, Andrea Levy's The Long Song uses satire to explore racism and the legacy of slavery. Another novel with a similar setting, but a very different tone, is Marlon James' The Book of Night Women.

At the height of the Edo period, Japan is effectively closed to the West--with the exception of the artificial island of Dejima, a trading port controlled by the Dutch East India Company. In 1799, red-haired Jacob de Zoet travels to Japan, hoping to earn enough to marry his fiancée. However, his plans quickly fall apart. First Jacob refuses to condone his colleagues' corruption, leading to demotion. Then he falls in love with Japanese midwife-turned-medical-student Orito Aibagawa, even though contact between Japanese women and European men is strictly prohibited. Publishers Weekly calls The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet a "dense and satisfying historical with literary brawn and stylistic panache."

Lillian Leyb arrives in New York City in 1924, the survivor of a Russian pogrom that killed her family. Barely able to speak English and still mourning the loss of her husband and three-year-old daughter, Sophie, Lillian lucks into a job as a seamstress at the Goldfadn Theater and starts to make a new life for herself in America. But then she learns that Sophie may still be alive. Unsure of whether to believe the rumor but unable to disregard it, Lillian sets out on an arduous journey to find her child--one that will take her from New York to Chicago to Alaska and finally to Siberia and beyond. Don't miss this unusual immigrant saga, filled with fully realized, sympathetic characters.

At the end of World War II, four women meet at Atlit, an internment camp in the British Mandate of Palestine where refugees are held when they don't have identification papers. Each one--Polish Zionist resistance fighter Shayndel; Tedi, who spent the war hiding in a barn in Holland; Parisian prostitute Leonie; and Auschwitz survivor Zorah--is trying to come to terms with the horrors in her past while attempting to envision a future. This novel by the bestselling author of The Red Tent takes place in the days leading up to an actual event, the October 1945 liberation of more than 200 detainees by the Palmach, an underground Jewish fighting force.

This stand-alone 3rd volume of Marek Halter's Canaan trilogy, after Sarah and Zipporah, focuses on Lilah, sister of the biblical prophet Ezra. When Ezra announces his intention to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, Lilah abandons her longtime Persian lover in order to accompany her people to their homeland. But then zealous Ezra banishes all non-Jewish wives and children, prompting Lilah--horrified by her brother's intolerance--to go with them to an uncertain future. Fans of Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, India Edgehill's Queenmaker, or Rebecca Kohn's The Gilded Chamber will appreciate this look at women's lives in ancient Canaan and Mesopotamia.

This "all-consuming novel" (Booklist) features a strong, passionate heroine, a sadistic villain, and a detailed rendering of 17th-century Cologne, Germany. Ruth bas Elazar Saul, daughter of the chief rabbi of Deutz (the Jewish section of the predominantly Catholic city), is a midwife who combines a scientific approach to her profession with a knowledge of Kabbalah. For this reason, Ruth endures imprisonment and torture by the Inquisition, but finds an unlikely ally in Canon Detlef von Tennen, who becomes her friend and then her lover. If you like emotionally intense stories full of three-dimensional characters who face life-threatening challenges, be sure to read The Witch of Cologne.

Three interconnected stories of troubled times, religious persecution, and doomed love unfold in this intricately structured novel set during three different time periods. In the last days of the Roman Empire, philosopher Manlius Hippomanes produces a Neoplatonic manuscript called "The Dream of Scipio." Fourteenth-century Christian poet-scholar Olivier de Noyen discovers the manuscript, but the Black Death, religious schism, and his love for a married Jewish woman consign it to obscurity once more. Finally, during WWII, historian Julien Barneuve researches de Noyen while attempting to protect himself and his Jewish lover in anti-Semitic Vichy France. While different in tone from The Instance of the Fingerpost, The Dream of Scipio will appeal to bibliophiles who enjoy books that make you think.