Renaissance Fiction

“Can you recommend fiction that has main characters who are like us?” This is a question we who are disabled, Deaf, neurodiverse, Spoonie, and/or who manage mental illness ask way too often. Typically, we’re faced with stories about us crafted by people who really don’t get us. We’re turned into pathetic, tragic souls; we merely exist to inspire the abled main characters to thrive; or even worse, we’re to overcome “what’s wrong with us” and be cured.

Safety. Security. For Christopher Stone and those closest to him, these concepts evaporate in a matter of moments as the world is ravaged by a wave of violent transformation which leaves everyone facing an enemy no one ever prepared for. It starts out small, so subtly that anyone who could possibly do anything to counter it fails to take notice until well past the tipping point. The outbreak of savage behavior eventually spills over, leaving governments in shambles, infrastructure disrupted, and millions seemingly dead.

Elle Newmark's richly seductive prose brings to life the color and scandal of 15th-century Venice. Through Luciano, a street urchin apprenticed to a great chef in the palace of the doge, Newmark tells a wicked tale of political and papal intrigue. In Venice where every whisper is a secret or a lie, Luciano's initiation into the chef's spicy world makes for deliciously suspenseful listening.

Palermo 1632: Giulia is thirteen when she learns her mother's greatest secret: Teofania makes an undetectable, slow-acting, lethal poison—Acqua Tofana—which she uses to free the broken and abused women of Palermo. Now Teofania wants to pass her recipe on to her daughter, and Giulia soon realizes that in a time when women have no voice, justice is sometimes best served in a cup of wine or broth.

Angelic Essie Belle Johnson and devilish Laura Reed both agree that they need to do something to spice up their lives and earn more money. So, they start their own church on the street in front of their Harlem apartment. With Laura's gift for performing and Essie's melodious voice, the two quickly become a hit and must move their services into a renovated theater. But as their congregation grows, a host of misfits enter the scene - some honest, but others who just want a piece of the pie.

It's 1593, Elizabeth I is Queen and everyone is terrified of the worst outbreak of plague in a generation. Shakespeare has only written six plays and is lagging behind his friend Christopher Marlowe, London's leading playwright. When Marlowe is stabbed to death in mysterious circumstances, rumours abound – but the one that won't go away is that Shakespeare did it to remove his greatest rival. Will is determined to clear his name, and teams up with his old flame, Marlowe's sister Ann, who has plenty of secrets of her own.

Giulia Tofana never wanted to be a nun, but she is determined to atone for her past misdeeds by making her new monastery a success. When an unexpected disaster closes the convent, Giulia is forced to turn to her old friend, Fabio Pasello, for help. Giulia still has intense feelings for Fabio, and Fabio’s passion for her has never diminished. But they are not the same people they were before. Giulia has taken her vows, and Fabio is apprenticed to Gianlorenzo Bernini, the famous sculptor, and has become one of Bernini’s rakish libertines.

Surrounded by her large family, Loma is happy living in the judería of Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and wants nothing more than to someday have a family of her own. Still, when her intimidating grandfather, her Belo, decides to bring her along on his travels, she's excited to join him. Belo has the ear of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and Loma relishes her adventures with him, adventures that are beyond the scope of most girls of the time. She soon learns just how dangerous the world is for the Jews of Spain, and how her grandfather's influence keeps their people safe.

Christian Stern, an ambitious young scholar and alchemist, arrives in Prague in the bitter winter of 1599, intent on making his fortune at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, the eccentric Rudolf II. The night of his arrival, drunk and lost, Christian stumbles upon the body of a young woman in Golden Lane, an alley hard by Rudolf’s great castle. Dressed in a velvet gown, wearing a large gold medallion around her neck, the woman is clearly well-born—or was, for her throat has been slashed.

After her husband of 15 years comes out of the closet, a blindsided, 40-year-old Amanda Lewis is forced to salvage what remains of her shattered heart and navigate a new life for herself and her teenage daughter. But will a sizzling secret romance with a famous young NFL quarterback lead her to winning the life she deserves or set her up for her biggest loss yet?

The story that inspired the famous Twilight Zone episode! "People Are Alike All Over" (which starred Roddy McDowall) became one of the most famous episodes of that classic television series. That memorable script was adapted from veteran science fiction author Paul W. Fairman's story for Fantastic Adventures magazine, where it was published under it's original title "Brothers Beyond the Void".

A lethal attack has descended upon the Denver International Airport. Nobody knows why. Except for Lucius Schafer, also known as the Trillion-Dollar Man. After a failed assassination effort on his life, Lucius declares war on the shadowy organization behind the attempt. As the stakes are raised, he must take drastic action to survive. And so, he calls on the last man in the world who would want to help him. When Booker receives the life-changing phone call, he is thrust into a moral dilemma that sends him reeling. Should he help the devil to save his loved ones?

Langston Hughes was only twenty-four when he published his debut collection of poetry, The Weary Blues. The poems included here blend vernacular speech and musical rhythms to offer a bracing perspective on the African American experience. Traversing a wide range of settings—including the jazz clubs of Harlem, expansive natural landscapes, and seaside taverns—Hughes’s voice as a poet ties these various places together.

February, 1586. When the queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, learns that Ursula is to visit her relatives in Devon, he asks her to find out what has happened to two of his local agents, who have been strangely silent recently. On arrival in the small Devon village of Zeal Aquatio, Ursula discovers that both spies in question have met with mysterious - and fatal - accidents. Or is there more to it than that? What did the two spies find out that got them killed?

"And they lived happily ever after." In fairy tales, that's always how things end. The prince and princess ride away on his white horse and from then on, all's right with the world. But what if it wasn't? What if the prince's life didn't suit the princess? What if she felt stifled by life inside the castle walls? Could she tell him? And if she loved him - really loved him - how could she ask him to give up his kingdom?

Enero de 1497. La corte papal de Alejandro VI recibe una serie de cartas anónimas en las que se denuncia a Leonardo Da Vinci por herejía en su Última cena. Fray Agustín Leyre, inquisidor dominico experto en la interpretación de mensajes cifrados, es enviado sin demora a Milán para supervisar los trazos finales que el maestro está dando a la obra y tratar de descifrar la clave que se esconde en la última de las cartas recibidas. Este audiolibro cuenta con la voz de Javier Sierra para algunos de los fragmentos.

Катерину, девушку, рожденную свободной, угнали в рабство и отняли все – Родину, мечты, будущее. Невероятно сильная духом она выстояла – боролась, страдала, любила, вернула себе свободу и человеческое достоинство. Одного из детей, которого она родила еще рабыней, Катерина любила больше жизни. И он отвечал ей взаимностью, хотя ему нельзя было называть ее мамой. Имя этого ребенка прогремело по всему миру. Его звали Леонардо да Винчи.

Claudie Wells wants more than anything to be a person whose imagination can fly, instead of a person whose feet are stuck on the ground. She believes everyone has a talent except for her. She’s growing up in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City during the 1920s, surrounded by writers and poets, painters and sculptors, actors and dancers, singers and musicians. When an eviction notice threatens her family, friends, and the beloved boardinghouse they share, Claudie has an idea that just might save the day.

It's 1669, and feisty Isobel de Toledo is betrothed to be married to the son of a rich landowner when she learns people in her Seville, including her friends, are being burned at the stake. Outraged, she joins a revolutionary group of ladies of intrigue and danger, healers, and others who question the Church's preoccupation with sexual crimes and women who heal, shaking her very values and birthright. Isobel flees her homeland with Richard, a handsome sailor who saves her from being burned at the stake. They marry and board a ship, setting sail for the New World.

Winter, 1607. A man is struck down in the grounds of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Before dawn breaks, he is dead. Home to the Montagues, Battle has caught the paranoid eye of King James. The Catholic household is rumoured to shelter those loyal to the Pope, disguising them as servants within the abbey walls. And the last man sent to expose them was silenced before his report could reach London. Daniel Pursglove is summoned to infiltrate Battle and find proof of treachery. He soon discovers that nearly everyone at the abbey has something to hide.