Historical Biographical Fiction

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.

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.

I sentimenti, il corpo, il sesso, la gelosia, l'onore, la morte, il sangue e l'esilio... Il riscatto di Napoli attraverso la formazione di un giovane orfano che cresce alla scuola di don Gaetano, diventando testimone dei giorni della rivolta della città alla fine dell'occupazione tedesca.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fourteenth-century Scotland suffers under the heel of England's King Edward, and James Douglas refuses to submit to the conqueror. As he wages a scorched-earth guerrilla war to drive out the invader and reclaim his birthright, Edward brings a vast army to crush the Scots. In the midst of the brutal war, even the woman James loves is threatened by his implacable duty.

In 1937, 28-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It's the adventure she's been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly - and uncontrollably - falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, Martha and Ernest's relationship and their professional careers ignite.

The year is 1601. Queen Elizabeth I is dying, childless. Her nervous kingdom has no heir. It is a capital crime even to think that Elizabeth will ever die. Potential successors secretly maneuver to be in position when the inevitable occurs. The leading candidate is King James VI of Scotland, but there is a problem. The queen’s spymasters - hardened veterans of a long war on terror and religious extremism - fear that James is not what he appears.

In November 1944, 18-year-old June Walker boards an unmarked bus, destined for a city that doesn't officially exist. Oak Ridge, Tennessee has sprung up in a matter of months - a town of trailers and segregated houses, 24-hour cafeterias, and constant security checks. There, June joins hundreds of other young girls operating massive machines whose purpose is never explained. They know they are helping to win the war, but must ask no questions and reveal nothing to outsiders.

St. Petersburg, 1725. Peter the Great lies dying in his magnificent Winter Palace. The weakness and treachery of his only son has driven his father to an appalling act of cruelty and left the empire without an heir. Russia risks falling into chaos. Into the void steps the woman who has been by his side for decades: his second wife, Catherine Alexeyevna, as ambitious, ruthless, and passionate as Peter himself.

A slave's brave journey to living his dream. John Ware, a well-known, highly loved, and acclaimed Black cowboy, arrived in Alberta at the beginning of the extraordinary ranching story on the grasslands. He faced and conquered snowstorms, vast distances, rough horses, not to mention a few rough men. As John participated in the building of some of the great Alberta ranches, he faced racism and delayed, but not forgotten, dreams of a ranch and family of his own. Being one of only a handful of Black men on the grasslands, his dream seemed to be passing him by.

Japan, 1745, is a land under the iron grip of the Tokugawa shoguns. Roads are monitored, dissent stifled, and order maintained through blackmail and an extensive network of informers. Amid rumors of rebellion, Kurosawa Kinko—samurai and monk—is expelled in disgrace as the head music instructor of his Zen temple in Nagasaki. He begins an odyssey across Japan, dogged by agents and assassins from an unknown foe. Along his journey, Kinko encounters a compelling cast of merchants, ronin, courtesans, spies, warriors, hermits, and spirits, on a quest to redeem his honor.

The lives of writers can often best be understood through the eyes of those who nurtured them and made their work possible. In The Sweetest Fruits, these three women tell the story of their time with Lafcadio Hearn, a globetrotting writer best known for his books about Meiji-era Japan. In their own unorthodox ways, these women are also intrepid travelers and explorers. Their accounts witness Hearn's remarkable life but also seek to witness their own existence and luminous will to live unbounded by gender, race, and the mores of their time.

Based on the true story of Mary Bryant, an iconic figure in the foundational lore of Australia as Great Britain's penal colony, Fled is a sweeping, heart-wrenching account of one woman's lifelong search for freedom.