Category Archives: Historical Fiction

Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

01 Saturday May 2021

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After she is abandoned by her mother, Noriko is taken in by her strict Japanese grandparents only to suffer stinging, chemical baths and regular confinement to the attic.  Life takes a new twist when her older half-brother (unbeknownst to her) comes to live with them.   The author’s new voice and storytelling won me over completely.

“Fifty Words for Rain is an impressive debut novel about a mixed-race girl growing up in post WWII Japan. Sensitive and bristling with closely-observed humanity, Asha Lemmie tells a story that we have not heard before with an ending that is as surprising as it is brutally honest.” —Mark Sullivan, bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky

“[An] epic, twisty debut… Sometimes bleak, sometimes hopeful, Lemmie’s heartbreaking story of familial obligations packs an emotional wallop.” —Publishers Weekly

“Lemmie’s debut novel is a gripping historical tale that will transport readers through myriad emotions… Lemmie intimately draws the readers into every aspect of Noriko’s complex story, leading us through the decades and across the continents this adventure spans, bringing us to anger, tears, and small pockets of joy. A truly ambitious and remarkable debut.” —Booklist 

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Code Name Hélène: A Novel by Ariel Lawhon

19 Friday Mar 2021

Posted by in Biographical fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction

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This engaging work of historical fiction is based on the real life figure of Nancy Wake. Raised in Australia, she works as a freelance journalist in Europe during the 1930s and falls in love with a French man. As the country enters World War II, Nancy is drawn into the French Resistance, where she uses her intelligence, strength, and wit to go on several dangerous missions. Nancy Wake — who went by many code names besides Hélène — lived an incredible life, reflected in this page-turner.

“Fascinating”
—NEW YORK POST “REQUIRED READING”

“A spellbinding work of historical fiction. . . [and] one of the most sensual romance novels you’ve ever read. . . She is real, this really did happen is the mantra you may find yourself repeating, in awe of every page.”—BOOKPAGE, *STARRED*

“Magnificent. . . Lawhon carries us into the heart of the French resistance [and] into the mind of a badass heroine with uncanny instincts who takes on the Nazis and men’s arrogant sexism with uncommon bravado. . . Even long after the last page is turned, this astonishing story of Wake’s accomplishments will hold readers in its grip.”—BOOKLIST, *STARRED*

“Readers will be transfixed by the story of a woman who should be a household name.”–LIBRARY JOURNAL *STARRED*

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Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O’Farrell

19 Friday Feb 2021

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The title of Hamnet refers to William Shakespeare’s son, who died as a child and may have served as the inspiration for Hamlet. However, Shakespeare himself is not the main character of this novel, and is never even referred to by name. Instead, Shakespeare’s wife Agnes (commonly known as Anne) is the main character of this story. She is a fascinating character, and the book follows her as a young woman into adulthood, as she fights against society’s expectations, marries, and becomes a mother. I have loved all of Maggie O’Farrell’s books, and this was no exception. 

Hamnet was recently awarded the UK’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.

“Magnificent and searing… A family saga so bursting with life, touched by magic, and anchored in affection that I only wish it were true. Of all the stories that argue and speculate about Shakespeare’s life, about whether he even wrote his own plays, here is a novel that matches him with a woman overwhelmingly more than worthy… I nearly drowned at the end of this book, and at some other spots besides. It would be wise to keep some tissues handy… So gorgeously written that it transports you from our own plague time right into another and makes you glad to be there.”
—The Boston Globe

“This striking, painfully lovely novel captures the very nature of grief.”—Booklist [starred review]

“A tour de force…Although more than 400 years have unspooled since Hamnet Shakespeare’s death, the story O’Farrell weaves in this moving novel is timeless and ever-relevant… O’Farrell brilliantly turns to historical fiction to confront a parent’s worst nightmare: the death of a child…Hamnet vividly captures the life-changing intensity of maternity in its myriad stages — from the pain of childbirth to the unassuagable grief of loss. Fierce emotions and lyrical prose are what we’ve come to expect of O’Farrell. But with this historical novel she has expanded her repertoire, enriching her narrative with atmospheric details of the sights, smells, and relentless daily toil involved in running a household in Elizabethan England — a domestic arena in which a few missing menstrual rags on washday is enough to alarm a mother of girls.”–NPR

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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

28 Monday Dec 2020

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“With strong female characters, author See deftly confronts the changing role of minority women, majority-minority relations, East-West adoption, and the economy of tea in modern China. Fans of See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan will appreciate this novel.”—Library Journal

“The story begins small, plunging us into the immersive detail of a single grueling day picking tea with the young girl, Li-yan, her mother, A-ma, and the rest of their ethnic minority Akha family…What makes life bearable for the Akha is their belief system, which infuses every aspect of their daily lives. The full sweep of their practices is flawlessly embedded in See’s prose…The hardships that confront Li-yan in her life are as compelling as the fog-shrouded secret groves where she and her mother cultivate a special healing tea. I could have hung out here in remote China forever, but See has wider ground to cover, including Chinese adoption, the international fine tea market and modern Chinese migration to the United States… A lush tale infused with clear-eyed compassion, this novel will inspire reflection, discussion and an overwhelming desire to drink rare Chinese tea.”–Helen Simonson, The Washington Post

“One of the fascinating elements of See’s epic novel is the contrast between the isolated lives of the Akha and the globalized world of China’s larger cities — a contrast bridged by tea…Fans of the best-selling Snow Flower and the Secret Fan will find much to admire in The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, as both books closely illuminate stories of women’s struggles and solidarity in minority-ethnic and rural Chinese cultures…In rendering the complex pain and joy of the mother-daughter bond, Lisa See makes this novel — dedicated to her own mother, author Carolyn See, who died last year — a deeply emotional and satisfying read.”—Emily Gray Tedrowe, USA Today

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Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

07 Monday Dec 2020

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Historical writing is Jiles’ specialty (News of the World).  Now through the eyes of a rag tag assortment of musicians, we experience the dicey times just days after the end of the Civil War where law enforcement  is vague, disease runs rampant, and trying to survive is undermined at every juncture.

“Incandescent in its beauty, told in Paulette Jiles’s trademark spare yet lilting style, Simon the Fiddler is a captivating, bittersweet tale of the chances a devoted man will take, and the lengths he will go to fulfill his heart’s yearning.” – Amazon

“Imbued with the dust, grit, and grime of Galveston at the close of the Civil War, Simon the Fiddler immerses readers in the challenges of Reconstruction. Jiles brings her singular voice to the young couple’s travails, her written word as lyrical and musical as Simon’s bow raking over his strings. Loyal Jiles readers and fans of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge will adore the author’s latest masterpiece.”  (Booklist (starred review))

“Vividly evocative and steeped in American folkways: more great work from a master storyteller.”  (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))

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The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

04 Friday Sep 2020

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If you’re reading to escape thoughts of our current pandemic, this probably isn’t the book for you. However, if you’re willing to give it a chance, this novel set in Ireland during the 1918 influenza is worth the time. The main character is a nurse working on the maternity ward caring for pregnant women suffering from the flu. There are many tense scenes of childbirth and illness, and some very timely references to masks and social distancing, but also discussion of Ireland, World War I, the Catholic Church, and women’s lives in 1918. This is a beautifully written book that’s hard to put down.

Donoghue offers vivid characters and a gripping portrait of a world beset by a pandemic and political uncertainty. A fascinating read in these difficult times.– Booklist (starred review)

In Dublin, 1918, a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, in “Donoghue’s best novel since Room” (Kirkus Reviews)

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Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

18 Tuesday Aug 2020

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“I might have been ten, eleven years old – I cannot say for certain – when my first master died.”  So begins the odyssey of a young boy who escapes slavery in Barbados and embarks on a richly imbued adventure to discover the true meaning of freedom. Washington Black is an unforgettable character and I looked forward to every sitting with this book.

“Exuberant and spellbinding. . . . The novel is not only harrowing and poignant in its portrayal of the horrors of slavery on a Caribbean plantation but liberating, too, in its playful shattering of the usual tropes. The result is a book about freedom that’s both heartbreaking and joyfully invigorating.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Wall Street Journal

“Edugyan has created a wonder of an adventure story, powered by the helium of fantasy, but also by the tender sensibility of its aspiring young hero.” —NPR

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The Mirror & the Light (Wolf Hall Trilogy Book 3) by Hilary Mantel

20 Monday Jul 2020

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This book concludes the acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel. These engrossing works of historical fiction follow Thomas Cromwell, an influential adviser to Henry VIII. In this final novel, Cromwell begins to lose favor with the king, who is on his fourth marriage and turning on many of the people around him. If you haven’t read the other books, be sure to read Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies first.

“Deep, suspenseful, chewy, complex and utterly transporting―truly a full banquet. Most miraculously of all, it’s every bit as good as the first two books, both of which won the Booker Prize…. ―Elizabeth Gilbert, The Wall Street Journal Magazine

“The Wolf Hall trilogy is probably the greatest historical fiction accomplishment of the past decade.” ―The New York Times Book Review

 “This is rich, full-bodied fiction. Indeed, it might well be the best of the trilogy simply because there is more of it, a treasure on every page…The brisk, present-tense narration makes you feel as though you are watching these long-settled events live, via a shaky camera phone… Mantel has…elevated historical fiction as an art form… At a time when the general movement of literature has been towards the margins, she has taken us to the dark heart of history.” ―The Times (London)

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Deacon King Kong by James McBride

28 Sunday Jun 2020

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Set in a Brooklyn neighborhood in 1969, this novel follows a large cast of characters, all of whom are connected in some way. The main one is Sportcoat, an older widower who drinks too much and mourns his late wife, along with his friends, members of his church, local criminals, police officers, and more. This book is really funny and well written, with surprisingly emotional moments too. I grew to love all of the characters, no matter how flawed each one is.

“Much is unpacked by the time the book reaches its lovely and heartfelt climax, as McBride shows what can happen when people set aside their differences. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

“McBride has a flair for fashioning comedy whose buoyant outrageousness barely conceals both a steely command of big and small narrative elements and a river-deep supply of humane intelligence. An exuberant comic opera set to the music of life.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

“While historical fiction fans will appreciate the richly detailed approach to Brooklyn’s grittiness, McBride’s neighborhood saga ultimately sets a new standard for multidimensional fiction about people of color.” —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

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The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

04 Monday May 2020

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Inspired by the true “blue-skinned people of Kentucky” and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, here is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman’s belief that books can carry us anywhere—even back home.

“…a hauntingly atmospheric love letter to the first mobile library in Kentucky and the fierce, brave packhorse librarians who wove their way from shack to shack dispensing literacy, hope, and — just as importantly — a compassionate human connection.”—Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants

“A unique story about Appalachia and the healing power of the written word.”—Kirkus

“A timeless and significant tale about poverty, intolerance and how books can bring hope and light to even the darkest pocket of history.”—Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Liar Temptress Soldier Spy

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