Historical Sagas

AD 573. Imprisoned in her chamber, Languoreth awaits news in torment. Her husband and son have ridden off to war against her brother, Lailoken. She doesn’t yet know that her young daughter, Angharad, who was training with Lailoken to become a Wisdom Keeper, has been lost in the chaos. As one of the bloodiest battles of early medieval Scottish history abandons its survivors to the wilds of Scotland, Lailoken and his men must flee to exile in the mountains of the Lowlands.

Cornwall, 1790. Ross Poldark faces the darkest hour of his life. Accused of wrecking two ships, he is to stand trial at the Bodmin Assizes. Despite their stormy married life, Demelza has tried to rally support for her husband. But there are enemies in plenty who would be happy to see Ross convicted, not least George Warleggan, the powerful banker whose personal rivalry with Ross grows ever more intense.

Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day.

Shasa Courtney, heir to the Courtney fortunes, dreams only of uniting his divided, beloved country. Against all his principles, he allows his half brother Manfred to persuade him to join South Africa's right-wing National Party, hoping to moderate from within their dangerous policies of apartheid. But Shasa's wife is working against everything he's working for while Manfred has deadly secrets he cannot afford to be revealed, either to his family or the public who are on the brink of war.

October 1943. Nancy Dalton, working at the RAF base at Scampton in Lincolnshire, has been holding vigil for the Lancaster bomber pilots whose missions seem endless. But her watchfulness has not prevented her own pilot brother from failing to return. In the midst of mourning him, fresh recruits arrive to continue the war effort, among them charismatic Canadian Steve Allard. The months ahead will be long and hard, with danger a constant companion, and although both Steve and Nancy never intend to complicate wartime life with romance, their attraction becomes impossible to ignore.

Bombay was the city everyone came to in the early decades of the 19th century: among them, the Goans and the Mangaloreans, looking for safe harbour, livelihood, and a new place to call home. Communities congregated around churches and markets, sharing lord and land with the native East Indians. The young among them were nudged on to the path of marriage, procreation and godliness, though noble intentions were often ambushed by errant love and plain and simple lust. As in the story of Annette and Benji (and Joe) or Michael and Merlyn (and Ellena).

Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state—separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family's strangeness; of François's union with Barbara; of Chloe, the result of that union.

In April of 1846, 21-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and 14 others set out for California on snowshoes and over the next 32 days endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors.

Against the immense backdrop of the American West, Larry McMurtry tracks the Berrybender's as they make their way up the great river, surviving attacks, discomfort, savage weather, and natural disaster. Sin Killer is an adventure story as big as the West itself, full of incident, and suspense, as well as a charming love story between a headstrong and aristocratic young Englishwoman and the stubborn, shy, and very American Jim Snow.

Gwyneira (l'une des deux héroïnes du "Pays du nuage blanc") élève sa petite-fille Kura et s'inquiète pour elle. La jeune métis de quinze ans, surnommée la reine maorie, possède un physique et une voix magnifiques qui suscitent l'admiration. Mais, capricieuse et uniquement intéressée par la musique, Kura refuse d'assumer son rôle d'héritière de Kiward Station, le domaine familial. Gwyneira décide alors de l'envoyer en pensionnat pour lui donner une éducation stricte.

Elizabeth of York is the oldest daughter of King Edward IV. Flame-haired, beautiful, and sweet-natured, she is adored by her family; yet her life is suddenly disrupted when her beloved father dies in the prime of life. Her uncle, the notorious Richard III, takes advantage of King Edward’s death to grab the throne and imprison Elizabeth's two younger brothers, the rightful royal heirs. Forever afterward known as the princes in the tower, the boys are never seen again.

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia is the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of London's grandest postcode. Set in the 1840s, when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is peopled by a rich cast of characters. But the story begins on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. At the Duchess of Richmond's new legendary ball, one family's life will change forever.

In the burning heat of the Sudanese sun, the city of Khartoum is under siege from the fearsome forces of the Mahdi, the charismatic leader of those who tire of the brutal Egyptian government. In Khartoum, along with thousands of innocent citizens, are trapped the fanatical General Charles Gordon, intrepid soldier Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars, English trader Ryder Courtney and the British consul and his three beautiful daughters.

Peter Behrens' eagerly awaited second novel is The O’Briens. In the character of Joe O’Brien - ambitious railroad magnate and industrialist, fiercely loyal family man, brooding troubled soul - he gives us one of the most compelling and complex characters to come along in years. A brilliant follow-up to The Law of Dreams, and yet standing masterfully on its own, The O’Briens is a tragic, romantic, and ultimately hopeful epic of great heart, imagination and narrative force.

Ensign Richard Sharpe, newly made an officer, wishes he had stayed a sergeant after he is put in terrible danger by Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill at the impregnable Gawilghur's ravine. To regain his confidence and his authority, Sharpe will fight as he has never fought before.

Richard Sharpe is fighting for his Irish battalion and his own honour through the blood-stained streets of the town. Quartered in a crumbling Portuguese fort, Richard Sharpe and his men are attacked by an elite French unit, led by an old enemy of Sharpe's, and suffer heavy losses. The army's high command blame Sharpe for the disaster and his military career seems to be ruined. His only hope is to redeem himself on the battlefield.

It is 1685 and England is on the brink of a renewed civil war. King Charles II has died without an heir and his brother James is to take the throne. But the people are bitterly divided, and many do not welcome the new king or his young queen. Ned Ferryman cannot persuade his sister, Alinor, that he is right to return from America with his Pokanoket servant, Rowan, to join the rebel army. Instead, Alinor and her daughter Alys, have been coaxed by the manipulative Livia to save the queen from the coming siege. The rewards are life-changing.

"La légende veut que les premiers Maoris arrivèrent en pirogue depuis la Polynésie. La première image qu'ils eurent de la Nouvelle-Zélande fut cette île enveloppée d'un long nuage blanc. D'où le nom qu'ils lui donnèrent." Londres, 1852. Helen, préceptrice de deux enfants dans une riche famille, répond à une annonce qui propose à des jeunes femmes de partir épouser des Britanniques installés en Nouvelle-Zélande.

From strangers to rivals, four men embark on a journey for the highest stakes of all - the keys to No. 10 Downing Street. Unfolding over three decades, their honor will be tested, their loyalties betrayed, and their love of family and country challenged. But in a game where there is a first among equals, only one can triumph.

On Gotland Sidroc wakes from a disturbing dream; one of his sons, Hrald or Yrling–perhaps both–are in trouble. Both are in far-off Angle-land, and beyond his reach. Eskil the Svear sails to the island, offering Sidroc a rare opportunity to gain untold riches, with equal risk to life for those joining the venture. Edwin, Lord of Kilton, returns empty-handed from his search for a bride, while his brother Ceric knows true delight with his young wife Dwynwen, the Princess of Ceredigion.