Historical Fiction – Peering into Alternate Timelines

Maggie O’Farrell is the kind of author who enjoys taking a deeper dive into history than most of her literary peers, a quality which shines through in her latest novel, The Marriage Portrait. It follows Lucrezia de’ Medici as she is thrust into a marriage with Alfonso II d’Este, barely out of girlhood. Largely alone and unprepared, she must learn to navigate the ruthless world of the Italian court with her very future hanging in the balance, depending on whether or not she can produce a heir for the duke.

Continue Reading “The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O’Farrell – Duty of the Duchess

Amor Towles has shown unequivocal talent for delivering sophisticated stories examining the human condition under unusual circumstances, and in his third novel, The Lincoln Highway, he places an eighteen-year-old boy under his microscope. Transporting us to 1954, the story follows ten days in the life of Emmett Watson, recently released from a juvenile work farm for involuntary manslaughter, now standing on the threshold of drastic personal changes.

Continue Reading “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles – No Plans for the Future

Marie Benedict has no shortage of experience introducing the twist of fiction into the realm of factual history, and in The Mystery of Mrs. Christie she puts it to good use in an attempt to shed some light on one of the most famous cases of unexplained disappearance. In December of 1926, the timeless author of mystery novels Agatha Christie disappeared for a period of eleven days, claiming total amnesia upon her return. The author attempts to reconstruct the events of those missing days with the help of both a fictional narrative and factual research.

Continue Reading “The Mystery of Mrs. Christie” by Marie Benedict – A Vanished Star

Umberto Eco is an author who has earned the right to write just about anything he wishes, and one of his more recent novels, The Prague Cemetery, he has taken it upon himself to write about a complex subject, hardly explicable in a sentence. In short, it follows a man responsible for creating conspiracies and spinning webs of prejudice as he tries to recollect his past and the event which led him to lose his memory.

Continue Reading “The Prague Cemetery” by Umberto Eco – No Rest for the Jews

Natalie Haynes has been exploring many venues of literature through the novels and books she has written, with her latest one, A Thousand Ships, taking us back to antiquity once again. Following the fall of Troy at the hands of the immortalized ruse by the Greeks, the book follows the stories of many women all affected in one way or another by the war and its resolution.

Continue Reading “A Thousand Ships” by Natalie Haynes – The Lost Perspective

Guy Gavriel Kay is without question one of the more prominent and outstanding speculative fiction authors writing today, and I think we can add A Brightness Long Ago to his list of successes. The story follows an old and powerful man, part of the ruling council in a fantasy version of Venice, as he remembers his rather turbulent youth, how he came to be where he is, as well as all the different men and women who shaped his fate.

Continue Reading “A Brightness Long Ago” by Guy Gavriel Kay – The Meeting Between Free Will and Fate

Michael Christie began his career as an author in promising fashion, being nominated for awards left and right. In his second published novel, Greenwood, he attempts to make full use of his talents to tell the complicated story of a family across multiple generations. Taking us on a trip through time from 1908 to 2038, we meet the four pivotal members who through their actions, both purposeful and unwitting, dictated their family’s history.

Continue Reading “Greenwood” by Michael Christie – Tracing the Tangled Roots of a Family

Sue Monk Kidd has never run short on imagination in her books, and her latest work, The Book of Longings, yet again bears testament to this. Set in the first century during the Roman occupation of Israel, the novel borrows some elements from history to tell the story of Ana, who is determined to give a voice to the other silenced women of her times while trying to carve a most difficult path for her own fulfillment.

Continue Reading “The Book of Longings” by Sue Monk Kidd – The Rebellious Thorn

Arthur Phillips has really been exploring his abilities as an author by diving into different genres since his first novel, and in The King at the Edge of the World he transports us into the realm of historical fiction. Taking place in 1601, we follow a web of courtly intrigues anchored around the impending death of Queen Elizabeth I, the leading candidate to her succession King James VI, and Mahmoud Ezzedine, a Muslim physician who stayed behind from the Ottoman Empire’s last diplomatic visit.

Continue Reading “The King at the Edge of the World” by Arthur Phillips – What Does a Monarch Believe?

James McBride has always had a remarkable ability to examine and understand the human mind, and in Deacon King Kong he puts his talents on display once again. Taking us to a housing project in Brooklyn, we witness the shooting of a drug dealer by an old church deacon and its far-reaching effects on those who witnessed it, as well as those who didn’t.

Continue Reading “Deacon King Kong” by James McBride – The Consequence to Violence

Kate Quinn has firmly cemented her place among the best historical fiction writers of today a few novels, and she continues her good literary streak with The Huntress. The story is composed of three narratives, each one following in some way the titular Huntress, a Nazi war criminal of legendary proportions.

Continue Reading “The Huntress” by Kate Quinn – The Long Hunt After the War

Eoin Dempsey isn’t one to skimp on complexity and emotional depth in his novels, often trying to get to the very core of what his characters are experiencing. In his most recent novel, titled Toward the Midnight Sun, we undertake an epic adventure with Anna Denton, a prospector during the Klondike gold rush with a different goal than most: to reach Henry Bradwell, the King of the Klondike, and the man she is meant to marry.

Continue Reading “Toward the Midnight Sun” by Eoin Dempsey – The Guiding Promise

Tom Miller has truly created a unique and incomparable world of magical realism with The Philosophers Series, and the second book, titled The Philosopher’s War, continues the grandiose adventures of Robert Canderelli Weekes. After his exploits as a pilot, he is allowed to be the first male to join the US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service.

Continue Reading “The Philosopher’s War” by Tom Miller – The Outlawed End of Struggle

Sara Donati may have truly started something remarkable with her Gilded Hour Series, presenting a portrayal of late 19th-century Manhattan from some unique perspectives. In the second novel in the series, titled Where the Light Enters, Donati pursues the story of Sophie and Anna Savard, two cousins who are also doctors. This time around, as they are still trying to find a place for themselves in this world, they are also called upon by the police as consultants for a couple of curious cases which suggest a killer might be on the prowl.

Continue Reading “Where the Light Enters” by Sara Donati – The Shield of the Doctors Savard

Sara Donati, the pen name used by Rosina Lippi, has authored quite a few remarkable historical novels, and out of them all none attracted the same kind of attention as The Gilded Hour, the first book in the series bearing the same name. We begin our journey through 1883 New York as we follow the lives of two female doctors, both struggling in their own ways with the realities of the times, doing their best to bring whatever goodness they can to a suffering world.

Continue Reading “The Gilded Hour” by Sara Donati – Defiance in a Changing World

Catherine Chung has surprised many people with the publication of her popular first novel, Forgotten Country, and with her second novel, The Tenth Muse, she returns with another rather unique premise. The novel follows a woman by the name of Katherine, who attempts to carve a space for herself in the man-dominated academic world of mathematics, while also searching for her real parents, and ultimately, what secrets her family might hold from her.

Continue Reading “The Tenth Muse” by Catherine Chung – The Battle for Personal Validation

Marius Gabriel has the undeniable knack of being able to profoundly penetrate into the soul of his characters while bringing history to life around them. In The Parisians he takes us on another such excursion, presenting us with three women living in occupied Paris: the American Olivia Olsen, the designer Coco Chanel, and the French actress Arletty. In their own ways, they all find themselves getting closer and closer to the enemy, a path which has its own price when the war finally comes to an end.

Continue Reading “The Parisians” by Marius Gabriel – Neighbours and Enemies

Madeline Miller has certainly made the best literary use of her time researching Greece and its mythology, recently penning her second novel titled Circe, told from the perspective of the titular character from the Odyssey. In her own tale, Zeus exiles her to a deserted island after feeling threatened by her power, a place where Circe meets many famous mythological figures and begins her journey onwards to not only defy the Olympians, but also to choose which side she belongs to: gods or mortals.

Continue Reading “Circe” by Madeline Miller – The Bridge Between Gods and Mortals

Steven Saylor certainly never lacked any imagination when it came to warping the threads of history for the purpose of our entertainment, and his recent novel titled The Throne of Caesar follows in the same vein. The story follows Gordanius the Finder, an Ancient Roman investigator who is given a very special task by Julius Caesar himself: to keep an ear on the ground and find out if there are any conspiracies against the dictator.

Continue Reading “The Throne of Caesar” by Steven Saylor – Conspiring Against the Greatest Dictator

Tom Miller has certainly made a good decision in giving authorship a chance after working as an emergency room doctor for many years, gifting us with the very special novel The Philosopher’s Flight. In it, we follow Robert Weekes, a young practitioner of empirical philosophy, an arcane branch of science used to accomplish the unfathomable. After winning a scholarship to study in a famous all-women’s school, he begins struggling to find his place in the world and is soon faced with some real dangers stemming from a group of anti-philosophical radicals.

Continue Reading “The Philosopher’s Flight” by Tom Miller – Outsider of the Arcane Science

Ronald H. Balson has started one of the more peculiar and interesting literary series with his Liam Taggart and Catherine Lockhart books, and in the fifth one titled The Girl from Berlin we once again follow our two heroes as they come to the aid of an old friend to settle a land dispute in Tuscany. Little did they expect, the battle between old woman and corporation for the rights to a villa sends them down the former’s memory lane all the way back to Berlin 1918.

Continue Reading “The Girl from Berlin” by Ronald H. Balson – Two Deeds; One Villa

Heather Morris is one of the many authors doing their part to ensure the Holocaust remains unforgotten for evermore. She had the great fortune of befriending Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who witnessed first-hand the horrors committed at Auschwitz. After many years of friendship, she came to know the man rather intimately, and decided to immortalize his tremendous life story in her book titled The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Continue Reading “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” by Heather Morris – The Survivor’s Tragedy

Alison Weir has certainly done her part in bringing light to the Tudor dynasty in her Six Tudor Queens series, examining in detail the many women who came and went during this period of great turbulence in British history. In Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen, Weir recounts the life of the titular woman, often overlooked in favour of the more tragic stories revolving around the wives of King Henry VIII.

Continue Reading “Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen” by Alison Weir – Mother of the Heir

Alison Weir has educated us quite a bit on King Henry VIII’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon, and pursues her ambition in Anne Boleyn, A King’s Obsession, telling us the story of the king’s second and arguably most infamous wife. While her beheading has made the pages of countless history books for its ultimate political significance, few have sought to explore the unusually eventful life which led up to that point.

Continue Reading “Anne Boleyn, A King’s Obsession” by Alison Weir – The Infamous Queen

One would be hard-pressed to find a person more qualified than Alison Weir when it comes to tackling the history of British Royalty. Author of countless history books, she also likes to teach history in an alternative, fictionalized way, most notably through her Six Tudor Queens Series, each part dealing with one wife of the infamous King Henry VIII. In Katherine of Aragon, Alison Weir takes us into the life of the king’s first and truly devoted wife as she rises from young Spanish princess to Queen of England and is forced to fight for what is hers in rather unexpected ways.

Continue Reading “Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen” by Alison Weir – The First Wife

Tony Riches has evidently taken it upon himself to not only chronicle the many fates which befell the members of the Tudor dynasty, but to relate their lives through detailed and fact-based narratives, shedding light on some of the lesser-known actors on that stage. In Mary – Tudor Princess he presents us with the titular Mary Tudor, daughter to King Henry VII and sister to King Henry VIII. While her brother plans to use his sister as a gateway towards building a powerful alliance based on marriage, Mary herself has some other plans: a marriage of love rather than interests.

Continue Reading “Mary – Tudor Princess” by Tony Riches – The Feminine Gambit

Eoin Dempsey has given his blood and soul to researching White Rose, Black Forest, going as far as travelling to Germany to gather as much information as he could. This novel of historical fiction takes us to December 1943 and introduces us to Franka Gerber, a German woman who hates the Nazi regime, largely in part due to it claiming the lives of her father and brother. One day, she finds a new reason to live as she comes across an injured airman from the Luftwaffe and takes him in to her family cottage. As she cares for him they begin to develop a strong bond, and it becomes apparent there is much more to this man’s identity than meets the eye.

Continue Reading “White Rose, Black Forest” by Eoin Dempsey – The Lone Flower in the Muck

Tony Riches has enlightened many to the tumultuous saga of the Tudors, the countless times they’ve had to battle the odds to ensure a smidgeon of a chance for their own survival. He has already examined the lives of Owen and his son Jasper, and in third and final book of the trilogy, Henry , we are treated one of the more overlooked names of the dynasty, you guessed it, King Henry VII. After finally having seized the throne, he finds himself in perhaps a more precarious position than before as no one around him has abandoned the idea of seizing the title of king for themselves.

Continue Reading “Henry” by Tony Riches – The Disaster of Being King

The Tudor saga was a long and tumultuous affair that led to innumerable lives being lost and far too much blood being spilled. Nevertheless, where there is death there will always be intrigue, and Tony Riches decided to chronicle this whole affair in his Tudor Trilogy. The second book in the series, titled Jasper, follows the titular Jasper Tudor, son of Owen, as he flees one massacre after the next and tries to carve a path to the throne for his young nephew Henry after King Edward of York seizes the country by brute force.

Continue Reading “Jasper” by Tony Riches – The Unsinkable Dynasty Carrier

Greatness can be born in the least expected ways, something Tony Riches aims to teach everyone in Owen, the first book of the Tudor Trilogy. The name may be famous today, but there was a time when it hung by no more than a thread and its survival hinged on the unquestionable bravery of a few souls.
This first book takes us to 1422 England, when a Welsh servant by the name of Owen Tudor makes the fateful acquaintance of the beautiful Queen Catherine of Valois, now widow of the late king Henry V.

Continue Reading “Owen” by Tony Riches – Forging an Unlikely Star

Amongst many things the Second World War played a tremendous role in the development of women’s rights, helping people shed the belief that all they could do was stay at home and take care of the family. One of these women was Katya Ivanova, and in her historical fiction novel Daughters of the Night Sky, Aimie K. Runyan looks into her difficult and memorable life, how one girl with a dream found the courage to pursue it while fighting enemies from abroad and from within. This is the story of one woman’s sacrifices not only in the name of her country, but in the name of women everywhere around the world.

Continue Reading “Daughters of the Night Sky” by Aimie K. Runyan – Shooting for the Stars

Accounts from life of Jesus Christ are undoubtedly numerous, to the point where many of them even seem to contradict each other. If, however, we stick to the purely historical and factual perspective, it becomes painfully obvious that his life from the age of 12 to 30 is shrouded in mystery, with there only being little bits and pieces to hint at what may have transpired. In his book Yeshua, Stan I.S. Law takes it upon himself to fill in this tremendous void, weaving a narrative of these missing years based on what little has been uncovered, tracing his crucial journey towards personal enlightenment.

Continue Reading “Yeshua” by Stan I.S. Law – Hunting for a Lost History

Jennifer Egan certainly did her research when she decided to take us into a very specific time and place in her novel Manhattan Beach: the Brooklyn docks during the Second World War. It serves as the setting for a far-reaching story as the first female diver on the squad finds herself linked to an intricate mystery brewing for years between her now-vanished father and his friend, Dexter Styles. In a world of mobsters and weathered sailors, the three undertake their personal yet undeniably-connected odysseys that will push them together towards lessons they wouldn’t have ever dreamt of.

Continue Reading “Manhattan Beach” by Jennifer Egan – American Glory on the Docks of Brooklyn

Marius Gabriel takes us on a brilliant journey through a newly-liberated Paris in 1944 as we follow the story of Copper Reilly, a woman who is alone in the city after having recently separated from her husband. In an old, nearly-abandoned and decaying fashion house she finds a very unlikely missing piece to the puzzle that is her life: an unexpected friendship with a timid fashion designer by the name of Christian Dior. Inspired by his genius, Copper takes up the camera and typewriter, entering the infinitely vivid and surprising world of fashion journalism. As the city slowly recovers from the atrocities of the war and returns to its former glory, perhaps Copper can find a way to do the same.

Continue Reading “The Designer” by Marius Gabriel – Healing from the Treads of Chaos

For many years to come new stories will keep on surfacing from the times of the Second World War; the pivotal deeds of countless people have gone unnoticed, and slowly but surely they find their way into the light. Mark Sullivan dug up this kind of story in his time spent researching Pino Lella, an Italian man who, as a boy, spied on, fought against and resisted the Nazi occupation in a large number of commendable ways. In Beneath a Scarlet Sky, he recounts the extraordinary life of a teenager whose courage went beyond human boundaries.

Continue Reading “Beneath a Scarlet Sky” by Mark Sullivan – Standing Tall through the Perils of War

Amor Towles seems to have a unique talent for depicting the first half of the twentieth century and taking us into the minds of special individuals who find themselves on the most unexpected roads towards self-discovery and personal enlightenment. In his latest and highly-acclaimed work, A Gentleman in Moscow, Towles presents us with a time period often overlooked and merely glanced over at best in Western education: turbulent Russia during the 1920s. More specifically, we make the acquaintance of Count Alexander Rostov, an aristocrat who never worked a day in his life, now finding himself under house arrest in the attic of a grand hotel. As the years of revolution and conflict quickly shape the country, the Count finds, in his isolation, a rather unexpected path to spiritual growth.

Continue Reading “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles – The Gift of Isolation

p.d.r. Lindsay has taken the habit of trying to shine the light on and turn our attention to the unseen and forgotten elements of society, and while her novel Bittersweet may take place over a hundred and fifty years ago, its messages about rape, violence, power and ignorance remain as current as they ever were. Embark with Bryce Ackerman on his tenuous and harrowing journey through the British Raj as he seeks justice and retribution for his fiancee as well as other women who fell victim to noble English soldiers who turned out to be nothing but predators.

Continue Reading “Bittersweet” by p.d.r. Lindsay – A Savage in Gentleman’s Clothing