Historical Fiction

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Buddha
by Deepak Chopra
The youth of a motherless boy becomes a spiritual leader as foretold by astrologers at his birth. But his powerful father refuses to bow to fate and keeps his prince isolated from the world. Prince Siddhartha marries, becomes a father, and sees the suffering outside and decides to leave his life of leisure and become a monk. Siddhartha sees the error of his ways, achieves enlightenment and becomes the Buddha.

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
by Diana Gabaldon
From barracks to parade gounds, to the battlefields of Prussia and the stoney fells of the Lake District, Lord John’s struggle to find the truth leads him through danger and passion, ever deeper toward the answer to the question at the center of his soul – What’s most important in life: love, loyalty, family name, self respect or honesty?

Vivaldi’s Virgins
by Barbara Quick
Quick has re-created 18th century Venice at the height of its splendor and decadence. 14-year-old Anna Maria was abandoned as a baby, and grows up in a foundling home where Antonio Vivaldi is maestro and composer. The story of her search for her roots is interwoven with a glimpse inside the source of Vivaldi’s musical legacy.

Into the Prairie: The Pioneers
by Rosanne Bittner
Jonah Wilde, his wife Sadie, and their 3-yr old son, Paul, head into the prairies of Indiana to build on Jonah's dream of a farming empire. But an encounter with the Shawnee, and in particular, their leader Tecumseh, may change that dream forever.

Obscure Destinies
by Willa Cather
These three stories, “Neighbour Rosicky”, “Old Mrs. Harris”, and “Two Friends”, reflect Cather's return to the well of memory of the Great Plains that had inspired the books that made her reputation.

Silas Marner: the Weaver of Raveloe
by George Eliot [classic]
Feeling abandoned by his friends, the woman he is to marry, and his God, Silas exiles himself to a small village. The townspeople begin to think him strange. His growing stack of gold coins becomes his only companion, until his gold is stolen and a young, golden-haired girl appears in his cottage.

The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory [bestseller]
In this story about a court ruled by the gallows and 3 women whose positions brought them wealth, admiration and power as well as deceit, betrayal, and terror, a vanished world is brought to life.

Under the Greenwood Tree
by Thomas Hardy [classic]
One of Hardy's most popular novels, this is a delightful and humorous depiction of life in an early Victorian rural community.

The Marble Faun: or, the Romance of Monte Beni
by Nathaniel Hawthorne [classic]
Hawthorne's novel of Americans abroad, this was the first to explore the influence of European cultural ideas on American morality, specifically on the nature of transgression and guilt.

It Can't Happen Here
by Sinclair Lewis
A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy; an eerily timeless look at how fascism takes hold. Written during the Great Depression, when America was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a democratically elected president who becomes a dictator.

The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield [bestseller, British historical]
Setterfield is being compared to Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters with this debut novel.
Biographer Margaret travels to Yorkshire, where she interviews a dying writer, walks the remains of her estate at Angelfield and tries to verify the old woman's tale of a governess, a ghost and more than one abandoned baby.

Jo's Boys
by Louisa M. Alcott [classic]
Revisit Plumfied, the school presided over by Jo and her husband, Professor Bhaer. All Jo's children are grown young men scattered around the world.

This Vast Land
by Stephen E. Ambrose
George Shannon grows up on the expedition of Lewis and Clark as the corps forges west. Ambrose creates a fictional diary of the 19 yr old who was in fact the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery.

In the Company of the Courtesan
by Sarah Dunant
Escaping Rome in 1527, the courtesan Fiammetta and her dwarf companion, Bucino, head for Venice to mix with Venetian society. As their fortunes rise, this perfect partnership comes under threat from a young, blind, healer woman who has devastating consequences for them all.

Stowaway
by Karen Hesse [adventure, bestseller]
A fictionalized journal relates the experiences of a young stowaway from 1768 to 1771 aboard the Endeavor which sailed around the world under Captain James Cook.

The Raging Quiet
by Sherryl Jordan
Widowed two days after an unwilling marriage to a man twice her age, Marnie finds herself spurned by townsfolk who suspect her in her husband's death. Soon a new friendship threatens her life when the villagers acuse her of witchcraft.

The Convicts
by Iain Lawrence
His efforts to avenge his father's unjust imprisonment force 14-yr-old Tom Tin into the streets of nineteenth-century London. But after he is convicted of murder, Tom is eventually sent to Australia where he has a surprise reunion.

Pirates!
by Celia Rees
Nancy Kington, a rich merchant's daughter, is escaping an arranged marriage. Minerva Sharpe, her slave, is escaping slavery as well as the fearsome overseer on Nancy's plantation. In the end, the money, the high sea adventure, and the chance to see the world as fearsome pirates is an opportunity neither can deny. They set sail from Jamaica on a ship named "Deliverance."

Taking Liberty: the Story of Oney Judge, George Washington's Runaway Slave
by Ann Rinaldi
After serving Martha Washington for 20 years, Oney realizes that she will never be a part of General Washington's family at Mount Vernon. She must make a choice: does she stay where she is, comfortable with the family that she has known since she was born, or does she take liberty into her own hands and, like her father, become one of the "Gone"?

Heroes
by Robert Cormier
After joining the army at fifteen and having his face blown away by a grenade in a battle in France, Francis returns home to Frenchtown hoping to find--and kill--the former childhood hero he feels betrayed him.

Thirteen Moons
by Charles Frazier
This is the story of one man's remarkable life, spanning a century of relentless change. At 12, orphaned Will Cooper is a bound boy, obliged to run a remote Indian trading post. As he fulfills his lonesome duty, Will finds a father in Bear, a Cherokee chief, and is adopted by him and his people.

The Foreign Correspondent
by Alan Furst [spy]
Paris, 1939. The murder/suicide of an Italian political emigre and the wife of a French politician in a lovers' hotel hits the tabloids. Was his assassination by Mussolini's secret police? Carlo Weisz, the editor of the clandestine newspaper opposing fascism, will spy to find out.

Joshua's Song
by Joan Hiatt Harlow [1919 Boston]
The influenza pandemic took Joshua's father, so he's had to quit school and get a job. Fitting in as a newspaper boy isn't easy where tough competitors roam the streets. Then disaster strikes Boston, and Joshua does what he can to help. It's there he finds the place where he belongs.

The Gods of Newport
by John Jakes [bestseller]
In 1892, Sam Driver, one of the few surviving robber barons of the lawless post-Civil War years, knocks on the door of fabled Newport together with his daughter, Jenny, determined not to be turned away a second time. His "new money" tainted his reputation, but Sam is determined to win a place for him and Jenny in Newport.

Laughing Boy: a Navajo Love Story
by Oliver La Farge [winner of the Pulitzer]
"Laughing Boy" knew nothing of the white man, as he grew up worshiping Indian gods. Slim Girl knew too much about the white man, turned by his schools dreaming of revenge. Slim Girl saw Laughing Boy as her only hope and her salvation.

The Sixth Wife
by Jean Plaidy [16th Century England]
Plaidy tells the story of Katherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII's six queens.

Articles of War
by Nick Arvin
George Tilson is an eighteen-year-old Iowan farm boy who enlists in the army during World War II and is sent to Normandy shortly after D-Day. He becomes shamed by his fears and tortured by the never-ending physical dangers around him. As he struggles to survive, he meets a young French woman.

Sons
by Pearl Buck [classic]
Buck's classic and starkly real tale tells of the bitter struggle to the death between the old and the new in China.

Tarzan of the Apes
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan, son of a British lord, was raised by the great ape Kala and able to communicate with many creatures of the jungle. When his African paradise is invaded by white men, Tarzan's life changes, not only from their depredations, but from the presence of Jane, the first woman he has known and the one human he comes to love.

The Sugar Camp Quilt
by Jennifer Chiaverini
Dorothea is asked by her uncle to stitch him a quilt with 4 unusual patterns of his own design. After he meets with a violent end, Dorothea discovers that the quilt contains hidden clues to guide runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad. Dorothea resolves to continue his dangerous work.

Out Of The Dust
by Karen Hesse [award winner]
A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's young life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can't talk about it. And she can't play the piano because of her wounded hands. Billie Jo is left to find peace in the bleak landscape of Oklahoma and in the surprising landscape of her own heart.

The Illuminator
by Brenda Rickman Vantrease
The widowed Lady Kathryn strikes a bargain with the abbot -- she will take in the illuminator and his daughter and gain the monastery's protection. What begins as a hesitant friendship grows into a passionate alliance that touches off betrayals, tragedies, and unexpected acts of heroism.

The Birth of Venus
by Sarah Dunant
Alessandra Cecchi, not quite fifteen and a multi-talented child of the Renaissance, is subject to an arranged marriage. Her life is miserable, except for the surprising freedom she has to pursue a young painter and his art.

The Marriage Bed
by Regina McBride
Dublin Ireland is struggling into the 20th-Century and Deirdre and Manus' marriage is fraught with hope and complicated by legacy. Should the family secrets direct destiny?

Divining Women
by Kaye Gibbons
Autumn 1918. Maureen Ross is experiencing a difficult pregnancy and her husband is a cold and careless emotional cripple. Into this loveless marriage comes Mary Oliver, the husbands niece. Horrified, she realizes that her true duty is to protect her aunt.

The Known World
by Edward P. Jones
Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize & National Book Critics Circle Award. Set in Manchester County, Virginia, 20 yrs before the Civil War, Jones's debut novel, The Known World, is a masterpiece of overlapping plot lines, time shifts, and heartbreaking details of life under slavery.

The Forest Lover
by Susan Vreeland
It was Emily Carr (1871-1945), not Georgia O'Keeffe or Frida Kahlo, who first blazed a path for modern women artists. Her boldly original landscapes are praised today for capturing an untamed British Columbia and its indigenous peoples.

Gettysburg
by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen
What if the battle had been a victory for Lee. It would have changed the destiny of the nation forever. This is the 1st book in a trilogy to tell the story of how history could have unfolded.

Waterloo Station
by Emily Grayson
In 1938 England, World War II disrupts a love affair between a beautiful young American woman and her married literature tutor who joins the Royal Navy and disappears.

Ghost Riders
by Sharyn McCrumb
Malinda Blalock's husband joined the Union army in 1861, and she went with him dressed as a boy. Their story is present-day legend, Civil War ghosts still haunting North Carolina.

The Kitchen Boy: a novel of the Last Tsar
by Robert Alexander
The Romanovs' kitchen boy, Leonka, was mysteriously spared by the Bolsheviks and vanished into the bloody tides of the Russian Revolution.

Sons of Fortune
by Jeffrey Archer
In late 1940's Connecticut, a set of twins is parted at birth - not by accident. As the two grow up apart, they follow similar paths in different directions ... until they both decide to run for governor.

Office of Innocence
by Thomas Keneally
On the outskirts of Sydney, Father Frank Darragh embarks on his new life of priesthood just as war erupts in the Pacific. Darragh becomes his parish's most popular confessor, particularly among the service wives confronted with temptations.

Miracle at St. Anna
by James McBride
The story of 4 American WWII soldiers who take refuge in a village in Tuscany and encounter a miracle - though perhaps the true miracle lies in themselves.

The Dante Club
by Matthew Pearl
In 1865 Boston, the literary geniuses of the Dante Club are finishing America's first translation of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil Dante's remarkable visions to the New World.

Versailles
by Kathryn Davis
Marie Antoinette travels from Austria to France to meet her fiance, Louis, who will become the 16th Louis to reign in France. Antoinette gives birth to 4 children, falls in love and dies at the guillotine.

The Master Butchers Singing Club
by Louise Erdrich
What happens when a trained killer discovers that his true vocation is love? With a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher's precious set of knives, Fidelis sets out for America.

The Four Feathers
by A.E.W. Mason
A soldier's shame...a love lost...a heroic redemption. 1882 British officer Harry Feversham goes undercover in Africa to win back the respect of his comrades and loving fiance.

The Piano Tuner
by Daniel Mason
In October 1886, piano tuner Edgar Drake receives a request from the British War Office to travel from London to the jungles of Burma to repair the piano of an army surgeon-major.

Second Glance
by Jodi Picoult
Ghost hunter Ross Wakeman discovers a long-hidden murder haunting a small Vermont town.

According to Queeney
by Beryl Bainbridge
Here we are privy to the last 20 years in the life of Samuel Johnson, according to the daughter of Johnson's final confidante, Mrs. Thrale.

Warning of War: a novel of the North China Marines
by James Brady
A story of how small garrisons of marines in North China miss the ship to Manila only to march through hostile territory to rejoin their Corps and the fight against Japan.

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
by Geraldine Brooks
A novel about a historical time in England when faith, science and superstition collide.

Invitation to a Funeral
by Molly Brown
London, 1676, the Earl of Rochester must deal with the discovery of a document that could plunge England into Civil War.

Falling Angels
by Tracy Chevalier
Two families divided by social class meet in London. Their lives become entwined in life and death.

Kate Hannigan's Girl
by Catherine Cookson
This 100th book by Cookson is a companion to her first novel, Kate Hannigan. Set in the early 20th-Century English countryside, it is the story of Annie, Kate's lovely, free-spirited eldest daughter.

The Evidence Against Her
by Robb Forman Dew
In this first of a trilogy, a charmed triangle of families in 1888 Ohio is disrupted by the charms of the unorthodox Agnes Claytor.

The Siege
by Helen Dunmore
Trapped by the German army in 1941 Leningrad, five people come to share one apartment. Not all will survive the siege.

Walk Through Darkness
by David Anthony Durham
The parallel tales of two men in antebellum America: William, a young fugitive slave, and Morrison, a white man hired to track him.

Jackdaws
by Ken Follett
In the most dangerous days of WWII, a new plan requires an all-woman team, none of them professional operatives. Codenamed the Jackdaws, they attempt to infiltrate the German ranks.

An Artist of the Floating World
by Kazuo Ishiguro
In 1948 Japan, Masuji Ono should be in tranquil retirement, but a life touched by the rise of the Japanese military haunts him.

The Good German
by Joseph Kanon
At the end of WWII in 1945 Berlin, journalist Jake Geismar stumbles on a story of corruption and intrigue reaching deep into the heart of the occupation.

Roscoe
by William Kennedy
The 7th novel in Kennedy's Albany series, Roscoe follows Roscoe Conway, a quick-witted, charismatic lawyer-politician who has devoted much of his life to helping his Democratic Party cohorts achieve and maintain political power in 1930s Albany, NY.

Fall On Your Knees
by Ann-Marie MacDonald [Oprah Book Club #45]
This epic tale centers on four sisters and their relationships with each other and their father. Set in the coal-mining communities of Nova Scotia in the early part of this century, the story shifts to the battlefields of WWI and the jazz scene of New York City in the 1920s.

Cold Water
by Mardi McConnochie
Captain Wolfe runs the penal colony off the coast of Australia like he does his family at home. The three young girls know no boundaries in their imagination.

Morgan's Run
by Colleen McCullough
As an experiment in 18th-century English penology, felons set sail from Bristol to Australia's Botany Bay. Only the word "epic" can describe one of the most grueling voyages in human history.

Last of the Amazons
by Steven Pressfield
Following the Athenian-Amazon war in the fifth century B.C., Amazon warrior Selene is taken captive and placed as an unlikely governess to the two daughters of a high-ranking Greek.