Historical Literary Fiction Saga

How did the families who live on Manhattan's Upper East Side get to where they are today? As much a penetrating social history as it is engaging fiction, East Side Story tells of the Carnochans, a family whose Scottish forebears establish themselves in New York's textile business during the Civil War. From there they quickly move on to seize prominent positions in the country's top schools and Manhattan's elite firms. As the novel unfolds, family members across the generations recount their stories, illuminating lives steeped in both good fortune and moral jeopardy.

The frontier of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1783. In the years since the first settlers arrived, looking to build new lives, the township of Grafton has flourished. Together, European immigrants, Native Americans, indentured servants, and former slaves have established a tight-knit community. As time passes and America becomes a nation, Grafton is swept up in the tumult of the outside world. The Cherokees are rounded up and driven west. The Civil War leaves a long shadow. Newcomers make their mark, fortunes are won and lost, and loyalties are tested in the march of history.

The Awakening Land trilogy traces the transformation of a middle-American landscape from wilderness to farmland to the site of modern industrial civilization, all in the lifetime of one character. The trilogy includes The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946), and The Town (1950) and follows the varied fortunes of Sayward Luckett and her family in southeastern Ohio. The Town tells how Sayward completes her mission and lives to see the transition of her family and her friends, American pioneers, from the ways of wilderness to the ways of civilization.

The Peacock Feast opens on a June day in 1916 when Louis C. Tiffany, the eccentric glass genius, dynamites the breakwater at Laurelton Hall - his fantastical Oyster Bay mansion. The explosion shakes both the apple crate, where Prudence, the daughter of Tiffany’s prized gardener, is sleeping and the rocks where Randall, her seven-year-old brother, is playing. Nearly a century later, Prudence receives an unexpected visit at her New York apartment from Grace, a hospice nurse and the granddaughter of Randall, who Prudence never saw again after he left at age 14 for California.

Sweden, 1732. Strong-willed Jess van Sandt knows only too well that it's a man's world. She believes she's being swindled out of her inheritance by her stepfather and she's determined to stop it. When help appears in the unlikely form of handsome Scotsman Killian Kinross, Jess finds herself both intrigued and infuriated by him. In an attempt to recover her fortune, she proposes a marriage of convenience.

It's 1943 and the country is at war. An unlikely group of land girls are finding out about life, love and loss, forming surprising friendships along the way. When Alice Todd's husband runs off with another woman, she is forced to find a means to provide for herself and her young son. Accepting a position as a hostel warden at an old Devonshire farmhouse, Alice finds herself looking after ten volunteer land girls. The job is not as easy as it first seems.

Following the death of their matriarch, the lives of Chye Hoon's family are turned upside down. Now that the British have fled and the Japanese have conquered, their once-benign world changes overnight. Amid the turmoil, Chye Hoon's daughter-in-law, Mei Foong, must fend for her family as her husband, Weng Yu, becomes increasingly embittered. Challenged in ways she never could have imagined and forced into hiding, Mei Foong finds a deep reservoir of resilience she did not know she had and soon draws the attentions of another man.

Facing challenges in an increasingly colonial world, Chye Hoon, a rebellious young girl, must learn to embrace her mixed Malayan-Chinese identity as a Nyonya - and her destiny as a cook, rather than following her first dream of attending school like her brother. Amidst the smells of chillies and garlic frying, Chye Hoon begins to appreciate the richness of her traditions, eventually marrying Wong Peng Choon, a Chinese man. Together, they have ten children.

Francis Arrowsmith is a man without a country, a soldier-of-fortune in search of a war. An English orphan raised in France by exiled Jesuits, he hopes to make a quick pile out of his rare skills in building and operating artillery. Little does he know that when he joins a Portuguese expedition to aid the decadent and corrupt Ming dynasty in its fight against the Manchu invaders, he is embarking on a journey that will merge his destiny with the fate of China itself.

When her favourite beech tree is felled in a storm, Ann feels as if someone has died. But when long-hidden seed packets are found inside the trunk, Ann realizes there are more memories than her own lurking within the ancient tree. A century earlier, head gardener William Hatherwick and Hester Mordaunt, mistress of Beechgrave, share a love for the mighty estate - and an undeclared love for each other. But when war breaks out, William is sent to the battlefields of France, and as the conflict rages on, Hester grieves beneath the tree.

An American sports journalist has come to the city to report on efforts by the rancher Don Cayetano Mota to revive his once-proud line of bulls. Not only does Mota pray to the Virgin Mary, but he takes on herculean acts of devotion during the solemn celebrations of Holy Week. With treacherous enemies waiting in the ring, Mota's struggle taps deeply in to life's mysteries, shaking the newspaperman's skepticism and opening his eyes to the wonder of faith.

Paris, 1921. Lorsque Valentine se marie avec l'héritier de la prestigieuse maison de fourreurs, la Maison Fontenoy, elle est loin de se douter de la vie qui l'attend. Malgré l’amour que lui porte son mari André et la naissance de ses deux enfants - Camille et Maxence -, Valentine s'enfonce dans un profond ennui et la frustration la gagne peu à peu. Lassée par ce quotidien et ce rôle d'épouse et de mère qui ne la comble pas, elle décide de partir pour assouvir ses aspirations.

Hofmiller, un oficial de la caballería austrohúngara, es invitado a una fiesta en la casa de un rico terrateniente Kekesfalva, lo que le lleva a un mundo completamente distinto del de su rutina cuartelaria habitual: se encuentra en un entorno glamuroso, donde el vino fluye libremente y acaba estimulándole, a pedir a la bella hija de su anfitrión que baile con el. Sin embargo para su horror descubre que la joven es inválida. Esta torpeza inconsciente va a ser el comienzo de la pérdida del respeto hacia sí mismo.

Novel·la breu i intensa, esbalaïdora i poètica, sobre el misteri de la mirada de l'auriga de Delfos. La mirada de l´auriga, enllà e la trama de la nissaga dinomènida i de l´entrellat d´unes atziagues morts familiars, és una novel·la tan breu com intensa i tan esbalaïdora com poètica.

A principis del segle XX, una dona jove viu una passió prohibida, un enardiment que no havia sentit mai abans i que la trasbalsa tota. On la conduirà aquest amor? Quan la seva vida fa un gir inesperat, haurà de ser valenta per tirar endavant. Religió, sexe, sentiment i dolor marquen l’existència de Caterina en una època que les emocions es callaven i els pecats mataven. Una precisió mesurada, una elegància literària única i una tècnica narrativa sorprenent ens demostren que ens trobem davant d’una jove promesa en català.

L'aproximació de Jean Echenoz a la Gran Guerra, a aquesta barbàrie sense precedents que va sacsejar mig món i va destrossar l'altre mig, se salda amb un relat precís i afilat sobre la marxa dels soldats per França, l'estrèpit de la carn i el metall , els projectils i els morts, la massa sense ment enviada a morir. Una novel·la d'absències, de desesperació i de fugida.

In this immersive novel, Zuravleff weaves Russian fairy tales and fables into a family saga within the storied American landscape. The challenges facing immigrants-and the fragility of citizenship-are just as unsettling and surprising today as they were 100 years ago.

Eine genial erzählte Geschichte über Menschlichkeit in einem der dunkelsten Kapitel der Weltgeschichte! Im Jahr 1944 tobt der Zweite Weltkrieg. Auf einem Bauernhof in Österreich taucht eines Tages das Flüchtlingsmädchen Nelli auf; traumatisiert, allein und ohne jegliche Erinnerung. Die Bauernfamilie Leithner nimmt die Jugendliche bei sich auf und versucht, ihr ein sicheres Zuhause zu bieten. Doch dann tritt ein weiterer Fremder in ihr Leben: ein junger Russe, dessen wertvollster Besitz ein geheimnisvolles Gemälde ist.

Verona, 2001. Anna, ventinove anni, è una ragazza ingenua, ricca e viziata dall’adorato padre, un facoltoso imprenditore. Dopo la laurea in medicina Anna vuole specializzarsi in chirurgia plastica per aprire uno studio estetico, sposarsi e avere una famiglia. Quando però un ictus colpisce il padre e un misterioso amico gli fa visita, Anna inizia un’indagine sul passato in guerra del padre. Le tracce la conducono nell’Italia del 1944, nel pieno della furia omicida delle SS in fuga, quando le truppe scelte di Hitler trucidarono per vendetta almeno quindicimila civili.

A compelling drama and a merciless scrutiny of a newly monied upper-middle-class family at the turn of the 20th century, The Forsyte Saga has a sumptuous range of characters. If you have enjoyed The Forsyte Saga on television in the past, you will be familiar with this engrossing story; if not, prepare to be completely captivated and engaged by one of the best tales ever told.