Historical fiction

  • Forever in Texas

    Creator

    Thomas, Jodi

    Abstract

    From the New York Times bestselling author of the Harmony McLain and Whispering Mountain series—Sanford Colston left his hometown of Saints Roost to hire its school a new teacher, but instead found himself stuck at the Dallas train station, robbed of the clothes off his back. It was clear to Ford that this thief wasn't your ordinary outlaw—and he was right. Hannah was a beautiful woman on the run, desperate for a disguise that would help her escape her dangerous past. But when fate forced their paths to cross again, Ford couldn't let Hannah get away twice.

    Audience
    Adult**
    Publisher (Source)

    New York

    Berkley

    New York

    Berkley

    Not specified
  • Fools of fortune

    Creator

    Trevor, William

    Abstract

    Penguin Classics is proud to welcome William Trevor—"Ireland’s answer to Chekhov" (The Boston Globe) and "one of the best writers of our era" (The Washington Post)—to our distinguished list of literary masters. In this award-winning novel, an informer’s body is found on the estate of a wealthy Irish family shortly after the First World War, and an appalling cycle of revenge is set in motion. Led by a zealous sergeant, the Black and Tans set fire to the family home, and only young Willie and his mother escape alive.

    Audience
    Adult**
    Publisher (Source)

    New York

    Penguin Classics

    New York

    Penguin Books

    Not specified
  • Five miles from outer hope

    Creator

    Barker, Nicola

    Abstract

    The sly and subversive sixth book from Nicola Barker, one of our most funny and anarchic writers. It's the summer of 1981. Medve, sixteen years old and six foot three inches tall (a positive girl giant) is stuck in a semi-derelict art-deco hotel on a tiny island off the South coast of Devon, with the rest of her crazy family members. There's nothing to do but paint Margaret Thatcher mugs to supplement the meagre family income, wait for Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love' to come out and dream of literary murderer Jack Henry Abbott.

    Audience
    Adult**
    Publisher (Source)

    Glasgow

    Fourth Estate

    [S.l.]

    HarperCollins Publishers

    Not specified
  • Fire in the streets

    Creator

    Magoon, Kekla

    Abstract

    What means more, shared values or shared blood? Maxie's choice changes everything in this acclaimed companion to The Rock and the River. Bad things happen in the heat, they say. Maxie knows all about how fire can erupt at a moment's notice, especially now, in the sweltering Chicago summer of 1968. She is a Black Panther—or at least she wants to be one. Maxie believes in the movement. She wants to belong. She wants to join the struggle. But everyone keeps telling her she's too young.

    Audience
    Adolescent
    Publisher (Source)

    New York

    Aladdin

    New York

    Aladdin

    Not specified
  • Fire in Beulah

    Creator

    Askew, Rilla

    Abstract

    “A haunting, engrossing portrait of two families – one white, one Black – whose lives are woven together and then shattered” (The Washington Post) by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Oil-boom opulence, fear, hate, and lynchings are the backdrop for this riveting novel about one of the worst incidents of violence in American history. Althea Whiteside, an oil-wildcatter’s high-strung white wife, and her enigmatic Black maid, Graceful, share a complex connection during the tense days of the Oklahoma oil rush.

    Audience
    Adult**
    Publisher (Source)

    New York

    Penguin Books

    New York

    Penguin Books

    Not specified
  • Echo cycle

    Creator

    Edwards, Patrick

    Abstract

    Gladiator meets 1984 in this near-future thriller featuring timeslips, ancient magic, and a disturbingly plausible dystopian Britain... 68 CE—Fleeing disaster, young Winston Monk wakes to find himself trapped in the past, imprisoned by the mad Emperor Nero. The Roman civilization he idolized is anything but civilized, and his escape from a barbaric home has led him somewhere far more dangerous. 2070 CE—As the European Union crumbled, Britain closed its borders, believing they were stronger alone.

    Audience
    Adult**
    Publisher (Source)

    New York

    Titan Books

    London

    Titan Books Limited

    Not specified
  • Don Juan : his own version

    Creator

    Handke, Peter

    Abstract

    Nobel Prize winner Peter Handke offers a wry and entertaining take on history’s most famous seducer as he takes a respite from his stressful existence. Don Juan’s story—“his own version”—is filtered through the consciousness of an anonymous narrator, a failed innkeeper and chef, into whose solitude Don Juan bursts one day. On each day of the week that follows, Don Juan describes the adventures he experienced on that same day a week earlier. The adventures are erotic, but Handke’s Don Juan is more pursued than pursuer.

    Audience
    Adult**
    Publisher (Source)

    New York

    Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    New York

    Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    Not specified
  • Darkness visible : with an introduction by Philip Hensher

    Creator

    Golding, William

    Abstract

    The destinies of three mysterious lost children entwine in this James Tait Black Memorial Prize-winning fable by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies. A figure had condensed out of the shuddering backdrop of the glare. He is born in fire: a naked child in the blood-red flames of London’s Blitz. Miraculously saved but grotesquely burned, this mysterious orphan is named Matty. Doomed to a life of torment, he becomes a wanderer, a spiritual seeker after unknown redemption.

    Audience
    Adult**
    Publisher (Source)

    London

    Faber & Faber Fiction

    London

    Faber and Faber

    Not specified
  • Cutting it short

    Creator

    Hrabal, Bohumil

    Abstract

    Set in small-town Bohemia between the wars, Cutting It Short centers on the flamboyant and unpredictable Maryska, who loves food and prepares endless feasts. Until one day, she scandalizes the town when she cuts short her golden tresses, leading to a small revolution in gender roles.

    Audience
    Adult**
    Publisher (Source)

    London

    Penguin

    London

    Penguin Classics

    Not specified
  • Comfort woman

    Creator

    Keller, Nora Okja

    Abstract

    Possessing a wisdom and maturity rarely found in a first novelist, Korean-American writer Nora Okja Keller tells a heartwrenching and enthralling tale in this, her literary debut. Comfort Woman is the story of Akiko, a Korean refugee of World War II, and Beccah, her daughter by an American missionary. The two women are living on the edge of society—and sanity—in Honolulu, plagued by Akiko’s periodic encounters with the spirits of the dead, and by Beccah’s struggles to reclaim her mother from her past.

    Audience
    Adult**
    Publisher (Source)

    New York

    Penguin Books

    [S.l.]

    Penguin Publishing Group

    Not specified