Collection: Historical Fiction

From the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude comes a masterly evocation of an unrequited passion so strong that it binds three people's lives together for more than fifty years. In the story of Florentino Ariza, who waits more than half a century to declare his undying love to the beautiful Fermina Daza, whom he lost to Dr. Juvenal Urbino so many years before, García Márquez has created a vividly absorbing fictional world, as lush and dazzling as a dream and as real and immediate as our own deepest longings. Now available for the first time in the Contemporary Classics series!

The thrilling Cold War masterwork by the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Gulag Archipelago, published in full for the first time.

"Solzhenitsyn's best novel. . . . A great and important book, whose qualities are finally fully available to English-speaking readers." --Washington Post

Moscow, Christmas Eve, 1949.The Soviet secret police intercept a call made to the American embassy by a Russian diplomat who promises to deliver secrets about the nascent Soviet Atomic Bomb program. On that same day, a brilliant mathematician is locked away inside a Moscow prison that houses the country's brightest minds. He and his fellow prisoners are charged with using their abilities to sleuth out the caller's identity, and they must choose whether to aid Joseph Stalin's repressive state--or refuse and accept transfer to the Siberian Gulag camps . . . and almost certain death.

First written between 1955 and 1958, In the First Circle is Solzhenitsyn's fiction masterpiece. In order to pass through Soviet censors, many essential scenes--including nine full chapters--were cut or altered before it was published in a hastily translated English edition in 1968. Now with the help of the author's most trusted translator, Harry T. Willetts, here for the first time is the complete, definitive English edition of Solzhenitsyn's powerful and magnificent classic.

Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro's writing blends research and fiction to summon voices silenced in archival records. The protagonists actively dissent from their condition as slaves and, more importantly, from their condition as negras--an identity constructed by and under Eurocentric epistemology. It doesn't matter whether the slave owners' initials inscribed on their flesh with blazing iron ever disappear; there won't be a way to identify them if they don't have a say. No wonder it's "the historians, for leaving us out," to whom Arroyo Pizarro dedicates Negras, aware that the stories of Wanwe, Ndizi, Tshanwe, and Petra burst into and fill historical lacunae that have been deliberately ignored. This bilingual edition also includes an anthology of Arroyo Pizarro's poetry.

When eight-year-old Nora arrives at the Park Ridge School for Girls in 1932, she is sure there's been some mistake. She can't imagine why she and her little sister, Patsy, were torn from their mother only to be subjected to the cruel whims of the house matron, Mrs. Morris. When their mother fails to rescue them week after week-and Mrs. Morris drops hints that their mother may be a "fallen woman"-Nora begins to doubt they will ever see her again.

Nine years prior, at seventeen, Gertie Gufftason runs off with Lorenzo, the barker for the traveling carnival passing through her small coal-mining town in Southern Iowa. Thinking she is embarking on a fantastic adventure, Gertie is bitterly disappointed by the life that follows and is thrown into despair when the State removes their two daughters.

Gertie eventually tracks down her girls at the Park Ridge, but, expecting a warm welcome, she is shocked by Nora's cool reception. Nora reluctantly returns home with Gertie and Patsy, determined to live a more perfect life than her mother. It is only when she discovers a secret Gertie has kept hidden all these years that Nora begins to fully understand-and forgive-her mother's tragic choices . . .

When Kai grows tired of her bookish mum not being adventurous enough for a Brownstone, she decides to seek out the mischievous and rebellious Monkey King - who she's always been told to stay away from. Will he bring her the adventure she craves, or will he cause her more trouble than he's worth?

Read the latest story from the mythical Brownstone's family vault where we venture to China and learn about the story of the Monkey King, meet magical gods, taste powerful peaches and see that maybe our heroes aren't always what they're cracked up to be.

Winner of the 2018 Waterstones Children's Book Prize, longlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, and most recently nominated for an Eisner for Arthur and the Golden Rope, Joe Todd-Stanton is a master at storytelling and illustration, and this time he takes his history loving adventurer deep into Chinese mythology.

Uno de los mejores libros en español del 2020 del New York Times

"Autobiografía del algodón dota de un nuevo y extraordinario significante al territorio de la frontera norte de México, que aquí se erige majestuoso sobre el movimiento nómada y la ruta de los recuerdos." - Yásnaya Elena Aguilar.

Indagar sobre el origen personal es abrir una puerta a muchas preguntas a silencios y respuestas impensadas que aveces terminan por ser un revés de la memoria. En autobiografía del algodón, Cristina Rivera Garza sigue con curiosidad y asombro los pasos de aquellos hombres y mujeres que habitan su pasado familiar, obreros, campesinos que trabajaron la tierra que ahora conforma la frontera entre Tamaulipas y Texas, una región que alcanzó un alto nivel económico, social y cultural gracias al sistema de siembra del algodón.

Es así que esta novela es, además de íntima, un reencuentro con el territorio. O un desencuentro, debido a la migración, deportación, expulsión y repatriación de aquellos campesinos algodoneros, que tras el fracaso del sistema, dejaron libre su espacio, antes símbolo de progreso, hoy ocupado por la llamada guerra contra el narco.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

One of the best Spanish Books of 2020 by The New York Times

The Autobiography of Cotton provides a new and extraordinary signifier to the territory of the northern border of Mexico, that here raises up majestically upon the nomadic movement and the route of memories." - Yásnaya Elena Aguilar.

To look into personal origins is to open the door to many questions of silence and unthinkable answers that sometimes end up being a mishap of memory. In The Autobiography of Cotton, Cristina Rivera Garza follows, with curiosity and amazement, the steps of those men and women who dwell in her family's past, laborers, peasants who worked the land that now makes up the border between Tamaulipas and Texas, a region that achieved economic, social, and cultural prosperity thanks to the cultivation of cotton. Thus, this novel is, in addition to being intimate, a reunion with the land. Or, a disunion, due to the migration, deportation, expulsion, and repatriation of those cotton workers, who after the system failed, left their area unoccupied, before a symbol of progress, today taken over by the so-called war on drugs,

Storms and pirates are nothing compared to the evil within men's hearts.

After a lifetime of abuse at the hands of superstitious townsfolk, Ophelia Young, a bastard child of the notorious pirate queen, is tired of paying for the sins of her mother. Despite playing by the rules her whole life, she's earned nothing but spite and suspicion. So when a naval officer saves her from the jeering crowd at her mother's hanging, Ophelia hatches a new hope of enlisting in the navy to escape her mother's legacy and redeem her own reputation for good. But Ophelia soon discovers that a life at sea isn't as honorable as she hoped.

Betsy Young is as different as she could be from her half-sister Ophelia. She's a nervous homebody who wants to keep her family safe and longs to be in love. So naturally, she's devastated when the son of their family's business partner rejects her hand in marriage and her sister joins the navy. But when her father contracts a life-threatening illness as well, Betsy has to bring Ophelia home to save the family business.

Unfortunately for the Young sisters, Betsy trying to get Ophelia recalled reveals that Ophelia enlisted fraudulently under Betsy's name, a secret which Ophelia struggles to keep from crewmates who would kill her if they knew she was the pirate queen's daughter. To save Ophelia from the naval authorities, Betsy will have to board a ship during hurricane season and brave all the dangers of the sea to get them both home safe.

An island's history holds clues to a modern murder.

Solitude at last! Museum curator Chloe Ellefson jumps at the chance to spend time on Wisconsin's Rock Island, a state park with no electricity or roads. Hired as a consultant for a project to restore the island's historic 1857 lighthouse, her research turns up fascinating tough-as-nails women from the past.

Chloe's tranquility is spoiled when a dead woman washes ashore. Is it an accidental drowning? Or has tension over tighter fishing regulations reached a dangerous boiling point? When a second body is found, Chloe finds herself trapped on remote Rock Island with a killer.

This book contains a map of Rock Island, a cast of characters, and an author's note with links to additional resources.

A sensible duke wants a dutiful duchess. A rakish duke wants no bride at all. But a truly wise man knows the pleasure of finding a wife who's his match in every way . . .

Bold and adventurous, Prudence Thorne is not the kind of woman to stand by meekly when someone she loves has been wronged. And she's quite certain that Jasper Vincent, Duke of Montford, somehow duped her father into racking up enormous gambling debts. When fate offers her a chance to blackmail Jasper into forgiving her father's losses, she seizes it . . . only to have her scheme backfire.

Jasper enjoys London's illicit delights too much to wed. Too bad his grandfather has decided that a woman with the nerve to blackmail might be exactly the sort of wife to tame him. Pressed into a marriage neither wanted--and fighting a desire neither expected--Prue and Jasper torment and tempt each other beyond reason.

Surely a proper duchess should be subdued, obedient, and dignified? Yet just as he begins to get his wish, Jasper realizes how much he wants his unconventional wife--and only her--if it's not too late to win her . . .

A Wall Street Journal Top Ten Fiction Book of 2017 * A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of the Year * A Seattle Times Favorite Book of 2017 * An NPR Best Book of 2017 * A Kirkus Reviews Best Historical Fiction Book of the Year * A Library Journal Top Historical Fiction Book of the Year * Winner of the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and the Desmond Elliott Prize * Winner of the New York City Book Award

"Gorgeously crafted...Spufford's sprawling recreation here is pitch perfect." --Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

"A fast-paced romp that keeps its eyes on the moral conundrums of America." --The New Yorker

"Delirious storytelling backfilled with this much intelligence is a rare and happy sight." --The New York Times

"Golden Hill possesses a fluency and immediacy, a feast of the senses...I love this book." --The Washington Post

The spectacular first novel from acclaimed nonfiction author Francis Spufford follows the adventures of a mysterious young man in mid-eighteenth century Manhattan, thirty years before the American Revolution.

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan island, 1746. One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat arrives at a countinghouse door on Golden Hill Street: this is Mr. Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion shimmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge sum, and he won't explain why, or where he comes from, or what he is planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money. Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him; maybe even kill him?

Rich in language and historical perception, yet compulsively readable, Golden Hill is "a remarkable achievement--remarkable, especially, in its intelligent re-creation of the early years of what was to become America's greatest city" (The Wall Street Journal). Spufford paints an irresistible picture of a New York provokingly different from its later metropolitan self, but already entirely a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love--and find a world of trouble. Golden Hill is "immensely pleasurable...Read it for Spufford's brilliant storytelling, pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, and gift for re-creating a vanished time" (New York Newsday).

Winner of the Anskohk Aboriginal Children's Book of the Year Award. Finalist for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and the Ruth Schwartz Award

In just four days young Shi-shi-etko will have to leave her family and all that she knows to attend residential school.

She spends her last days at home treasuring the beauty of her world -- the dancing sunlight, the tall grass, each shiny rock, the tadpoles in the creek, her grandfather's paddle song. Her mother, father and grandmother, each in turn, share valuable teachings that they want her to remember. And so Shi-shi-etko carefully gathers her memories for safekeeping.

Richly hued illustrations complement this gently moving and poetic account of a child who finds solace all around her, even though she is on the verge of great loss -- a loss that Indigenous Peoples have endured for generations because of the residential schools system.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5
Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

Arriving in the town of Lenos, Lawrence and Holo take a respite from their travels north - but a true businessman never rests! It isn't long before an opportunity for profit presents itself to Lawrence, one that could fulfill his dreams of owning his own establishment. But as always, the promise of great reward carries great risk - and risk is never greater than when one plans to use a wisewolf as collateral! As Lawrence and Holo feel the ties binding them stretched thin, has the time come for the pair to go their separate ways?

"Ken Follett has done it once more . . . goes down with the ease and impact of a well-prepared martini." --New York Times Book Review

His name was Feliks. He came to London to commit a murder that would change history. A master manipulator, he had many weapons at his command, but against him were ranged the whole of the English police, a brilliant and powerful lord, and the young Winston Churchill himself. These odds would have stopped any man in the world--except the man from St. Petersburg.

The first novel in USA Today Bestselling Author Beverly Jenkins's compelling new series follows a Northern woman south in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War . . .

Valinda Lacy's mission in the steamy heart of New Orleans is to help the newly emancipated community survive and flourish. But soon she discovers that here, freedom can also mean danger. When thugs destroy the school she has set up and then target her, Valinda runs for her life--and straight into the arms of Captain Drake LeVeq.

As an architect from an old New Orleans family, Drake has a deeply personal interest in rebuilding the city. Raised by strong women, he recognizes Valinda's determination. And he can't stop admiring--or wanting--her. But when Valinda's father demands she return home to marry a man she doesn't love, her daring rebellion draws Drake into an irresistible intrigue.

One of BookBub's best historical novels of the year and Oprah magazine's buzziest books of the month.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, an enthralling historical saga that recreates the danger, romance, and sacrifice of an era and brings to life one courageous, passionate American--Mildred Fish Harnack--and her circle of women friends who waged a clandestine battle against Hitler in Nazi Berlin.

After Wisconsin graduate student Mildred Fish marries brilliant German economist Arvid Harnack, she accompanies him to his German homeland, where a promising future awaits. In the thriving intellectual culture of 1930s Berlin, the newlyweds create a rich new life filled with love, friendships, and rewarding work--but the rise of a malevolent new political faction inexorably changes their fate.

As Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party wield violence and lies to seize power, Mildred, Arvid, and their friends resolve to resist. Mildred gathers intelligence for her American contacts, including Martha Dodd, the vivacious and very modern daughter of the US ambassador. Her German friends, aspiring author Greta Kuckoff and literature student Sara Weitz, risk their lives to collect information from journalists, military officers, and officials within the highest levels of the Nazi regime.

For years, Mildred's network stealthily fights to bring down the Third Reich from within. But when Nazi radio operatives detect an errant Russian signal, the Harnack resistance cell is exposed, with fatal consequences.

Inspired by actual events, Resistance Women is an enthralling, unforgettable story of ordinary people determined to resist the rise of evil, sacrificing their own lives and liberty to fight injustice and defend the oppressed.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - "Flavia is incisive, cutting and hilarious . . . one of the most remarkable creations in recent literature."--USA Today

Flavia de Luce, a dangerously smart eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders, thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop's Lacey are over--until beloved puppeteer Rupert Porson has his own strings sizzled in an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. But who'd do such a thing, and why? Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she's letting on? What about Porson's charming but erratic assistant? All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can't solve--without Flavia's help. But in getting so close to who's secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in way over her head?

BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Alan Bradley's A Red Herring Without Mustard, discussion questions, and an essay by the author.