National Network for Equitable Library Service

A gripping historical fiction friendship story that will grab everyone by the heartstrings and never let go. A giant, a dwarf, and three doomed circus animals... By her fourteenth birthday, Babe Killingsworth measures 6'9" and weighs 342 pounds. In 1896, what other options does a giant have but to join a carnival' Her only real talent is handling animals: "Critters is folks to me." The cheap outfit her feckless father sells her off to offers critters galore; an escape from Neal, Idaho; and a bit of fame. It also opens the doorway to exploitation and neglect.

Les Amériques ne figurent encore sur aucune carte quand Moshé décide de fuir son shtetl misérable et les pogroms qui le ravagent. Répondant à l’appel du large et de l’inconnu, le boychik de quatorze ans embarque comme moussaillon sur un navire de commerce et se retrouve bientôt en plein cœur de l’Inquisition espagnole. Commence alors une aventure rocambolesque qui le mènera à sauver les Juifs des flammes du bûcher, à voyager aux côtés d’un certain Christophe Colomb et à prendre la barre d’un bateau pirate pour découvrir, avant la puissante Armada, le secret de l’immortalité.

Un homme erre dans les rues de Montréal. Selon l’état civil, il s’appelle Jimmy Blanchard, mais il s’exprime dans le plus pur anglais du XVIIIe siècle. Lui-même affirme qu’il n’est nul autre que le général James Wolfe, vainqueur de la bataille des plaines d’Abraham. Fait troublant, Jimmy est le portrait tout craché du fameux général : corps dégingandé, tignasse rousse et menton fuyant. Et il en montre aussi le caractère, celui d’un homme perpétuellement assailli par la mélancolie, à la fois tendre et têtu, qui aime ses chiens et ses camarades, et par-dessus tout sa mère.

The Confabulist is a clever and suspenseful narrative that weaves together the rise and fall of world-famous Harry Houdini with the surprising story of Martin Strauss, an unknown man whose fate seems forever tied to the magician's in a way that will ultimately startle and amaze. It is at once a vivid portrait of an alluring, late-nineteenth/early-twentieth-century world; a front-row seat to a world-class magic show; and an unexpected love story. In the end, the book is a kind of magic trick in itself: there is much more to Martin than meets the eye.

Phoebe is obsessed with the memory and death of her sister Faith, a beautiful idealistic hippie who died in Italy in 1970. In order to find out the truth about Faith's life and death, Phoebe retraces her steps from San Francisco across Europe--a quest that yields both complex and disturbing revelations about family, love, and Faith's lost generation.

Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan.

When a couple is found dead in their bedroom, some of their slaves fear they will be accused of the crime and flee to the Temple of Ceres, a haven for refugees. The authorities, under pressure to find a solution, seek out Flavia Albia to solve the murders.

Edge of Eternity, the finale, covers one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the 1960s through the 1980s, encompassing civil rights, assassinations, Vietnam, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution, and rock and roll. East German teacher Rebecca Hoffman discovers she's been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for generations George Jakes, himself bi-racial, bypasses corporate law to join Robert F.

The long-awaited first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill.

"Echoes of Elena Ferrante resound in this sumptuous saga."'O, The Oprah Magazine "A masterfully choreographed saga of friendship, envy, sacrifice and love'as soulful, layered, and intoxicating as the samba that reverberates from the page." -Georgia Hunter, New York Times-bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones The story of an intense female friendship fueled by affection, envy and pride'and each woman's fear that she would be nothing without the other. Some friendships, like romance, have the feeling of fate.