Historical Biographical Fiction

1814 Sydney Town. When Mary Greenway, freshly arrived from the old country, steps into the maelstrom of Sydney Port with three children at her skirts, she has high hopes of a new beginning, despite having little money and a husband in irons. After all, the sudden death of her sadistic first husband has mean freedom from her gilded cage and Francis Greenway is an architect of some promise, under the protection of Admiral Phillip himself.

On the lam for an act of violence against the American government, 25-year-old Jenny Shimada agrees to care for three younger fugitives whom a shadowy figure from her former radical life has spirited out of California. One of them, the kidnapped granddaughter of a wealthy newspaper magnate in San Francisco, has become a national celebrity for embracing her captors' ideology and joining their revolutionary cell.

During the sweltering Roman summer of 1492, Rodrigo Borgia has risen to power as pope. Rodrigo’s eldest son Cesare, forced to follow his father into the church and newly made the Archbishop of Valencia, chafes at his ecclesiastical role and fumes with jealousy and resentment at the way that his foolish brother has been chosen for the military greatness he desired. Maddalena Moretti comes from the countryside, where she has seen how the whims of powerful men wreak havoc on the lives of ordinary people. But now, employed as a servant in the Vatican Palace, she cannot help but be entranced by Cesare Borgia.

In The Last Great Road Bum, Héctor Tobar turns the peripatetic true story of a naive son of Urbana, Illinois, who died fighting with guerrillas in El Salvador into the great American novel for our times. Joe Sanderson died in pursuit of a life worth writing about. He was, in his words, a "road bum", an adventurer and a storyteller, belonging to no place, people, or set of ideas. He was born into a childhood of middle-class contentment in Urbana, Illinois, and died fighting with guerillas in Central America.

Esther, hija de una familia de orígenes judíos, nace el mismo día en que se firma el Tratado de Versalles, que pone fin a la devastadora Primera Guerra Mundial. Su padre, el doctor Paul Dukas, obsesionado con su ascenso personal y profesional, y convertido al cristianismo, descubrirá muy pronto que el pasado judío de un hombre no se perdona fácilmente.

Three stories about historical heroes (Matthew Henson, Michael Faraday, and Joseph Lister) and three exciting adventures!

Eine außergewöhnliche Frau auf der Suche nach ihrer eigenen Stimme. Während ihre Mutter alles daran setzt ihre Tochter zu verheiraten, schlägt die rebellische Elisabeth einen Verehrer nach dem anderen in die Flucht – ganz im Gegensatz zu ihrer Schwester Helene, die sich auf die Verlobung mit Kaiser Franz von Österreich vorbereitet und von der Aussicht auf die Ehe geradezu begeistert ist. Gemeinsam machen sich die Schwestern auf den Weg nach Bad Ischl, um den Geburtstag des Kaisers zu feiern. Auf einmal steht Elisabeth Franz unerwartet im Schlosspark gegenüber und fühlt sich sofort zu ihm hingezogen.

A fascinating glimpse into the life of Lady Elinor de Lacey, the illegitimate daughter of Queen Elizabeth I, that will appeal to fans of Tudor era historical fiction. Secreted away from the woman who gave birth to her, Elinor de Lacey is raised in blissful ignorance in the English countryside by a beloved and forward-thinking father, and a loving but remote mother. After her father's death, Elinor defies her mother's wishes and accepts an invitation to become a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I in London.

Gracias a su pasión por los libros y gusto exquisito, Belle da Costa Green se ha vuelto, con tan solo veinte años, la bibliotecaria más joven de la prestigiosa universidad de Princeton. Sin embargo, un golpe de suerte mayor está por impulsar su carrera: el famoso millonario J. P. Morgan la quiere para curar una colección de manuscritos raros, libros y obras de arte que compondrán el corazón de su biblioteca personal.

Laura descubre por casualidad los diarios de una monja jerónima del siglo XVII, en el Archivo General de Indias, en Sevilla. Esto la lleva a involucrarse en una vorágine, que amenaza su vida, pues hallará más de un secreto que la Iglesia católica ha querido ocultar durante siglos; entre ellos, una misión diplomática y una provocativa pintura que ha permanecido oculta.

After the death of his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, 22-year-old Louis steps in to govern France. He’s still a young man, but one who, as king, willfully takes everything he can get—including his brother’s wife. As the love affair between Louis and Princess Henriette burns, it sets the kingdom on the road to unmistakable scandal and conflict with the Vatican. Every woman wants him. He must face what he is willing to sacrifice for love.

January, 1980. At the height of the Cold War, Petra Kelly inspires hundreds of thousands to take to the streets to protest the placement of nuclear missiles on West German soil - including a NATO general named Emil Gerhardt, who shocks the establishment by converting to the cause. Petra and her general not only vault to fame as the stars of the Green Party, but they also fall in love. Then Manfred Schwartz, an ex-lover, urges Petra to draw back the curtain on Emil's war record, and they enter a world both complicated and threatening.

"The Heroic Slave" is the only work of fiction by the eminent abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The narrative was inspired by Madison Washington, a slave on the Creole who led a rebellion on the ship in November 1841, and had it sail to Nassau in the Bahamas instead of New Orleans. The short story appeared in the collection Autographs for Freedom (1852).

Rome, AD 51: Vespasian brings Rome's greatest enemy before the emperor. After eight years of resistance, the British warrior Caratacus has been caught. But Agrippina, Emperor Claudius' wife, pardons Caratacus. Claudius is a drunken fool, and Narcissus and Pallas, his freedmen, are battling for control of his throne. Separately,they decide to send Vespasian east to Armenia to defend Rome's interests. Meanwhile the East is in turmoil.

In the cold spring of 1936, Arthor Crandle, down-on-his luck and desperate for work, accepts a position in Providence, Rhode Island, as a live-in assistant for an unnamed shut-in. He arrives at the gloomy colonial-style house to discover that his strange employer is an author of disturbing, bizarre fiction. Health issues have confined him to his bedroom, where he is never to be disturbed. But the writer, who Crandle knows only as "Ech-Pi", refuses to meet him, communicating only by letters left on a table outside his room.

1857. Three women—once strangers—come together in unpredictable Utah Territory. Hopeful, desperate, and willful, they’ll allow nothing on Earth or in Heaven to stand in their way. Following the call of their newfound Mormon faith, Tamar Loader and her family weather a brutal pilgrimage from England to Utah, where Tamar is united with her destined husband, Thomas Ricks. Clinging to a promise for the future, she abides an unexpected surprise: Thomas is already wedded to one woman—Tabitha, a local healer—and betrothed to still another.

Elizabeth, queen of England, has taken on the mighty Spanish Armada and, in a stunning sea battle, vanquished it. But her troubles are far from over. Just across the western channel, her colony Ireland is embroiled in seething rebellion, with the island's fierce, untamed clan chieftains and their "wild Irish" followers refusing to bow to their English oppressors. Grace O'Malley—notorious pirate, gunrunner, and "Mother of the Irish Rebellion"—is at the heart of the conflict.

José Miguel Carrillo de Albornoz ha novelado con gran maestría la vida de su antepasada doña Isabel de Moctezuma, una mujer que nació princesa, fue dos veces emperatriz por sus matrimonios con Cuitlahuac y Cuauhtemoc, los dos sucesores de Moctezuma, y se convirtió en la madre del mestizaje hispano-mexicano. Tras la conquista tuvo una hija con el propio Cortés, a la que repudió, y seis hijos de sus matrimonios con Pedro Gallego de Andrade y Juan Cano de Saavedra.

Skillfully interweaving historical fact with psychological insight and vivid imagination, Sharratt's redemptive novel brings to life one of the most extraordinary women of the Middle Ages: Hildegard von Bingen, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Offered to the Church at the age of eight, Hildegard was entombed in a small room where she was expected to live out her days in silent submission as the handmaiden of a renowned but disturbed young nun, Jutta von Sponheim.

Deeply moving and illuminating, Trouble the Water reveals the little-known real-life story of Robert Smalls. Born enslaved before the Civil War, Smalls witnesses great privilege and immense suffering alongside his owner's daughter. When the war erupts and his cotton steamer becomes a confederate warship, Robert attempts a harrowing escape to freedom for himself and the people he loves. Robert Smalls is one of America's great unsung heroes, and Trouble the Water finally brings his story into the light.