Collection: Historical Fiction

*The Embroidered Book shortlisted for the Aurora Award for Best Novel*

From SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Kate Heartfield comes a glorious, lyrical retelling of one of Norse mythology's greatest epics

Brynhild is a Valkyrie: shieldmaiden of the Allfather, chooser of the slain. But now she too has fallen, flightless in her exile.

Gudrun is a princess of Burgundy, a daughter of the Rhine, a prize for an invading king - a king whose brother Attila has other plans, and a dragon to call upon.

And in the songs to be sung, there is another hero: Sigurd, a warrior with a sword sharper than the new moon.

As the legends tell, these names are destined to be lovers, fated as enemies. But here on Midgard, legends can be lies...

For not all heroes are heroic, nor all monsters monstrous. And a shieldmaiden may yet find that love is the greatest weapon of all.

Known as one of Virginia Woolf's greatest works, Mrs. Dalloway is a bright, picturesque look at the simple life of an upper-class woman in London. Clarissa Dalloway is busy planning a party when her old suitor, Peter Walsh, shows up at her hour. On the outside, Mrs. Dalloway is seen to be society's perfect image of a housewife-dutiful, loyal, and sensible. But as soon as her past lover makes his appearance, Mrs. Dalloway can't help but remember their passionate affairs. She is faced with her choices, all of which strike a fear of growing old within her. These characters and their stories, rich with emotions, the weight of decision-making, and the repercussions we all must face, bend and shape society's sense of what it means to live an ordinary life. With Woolf's empathetic writing and her understanding of how complex human relationships are, Mrs. Dalloway turns from a single day in the life of a proper housewife into a beautiful love story that will leave readers breathless.

It takes a remarkable writer to make an old story as fresh and compelling as the first time we heard it. With The Winter King, the first volume of his magnificent Warlord Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell finally turns to the story he was born to write: the mythic saga of King Arthur.

The tale begins in Dark Age Britain, a land where Arthur has been banished and Merlin has disappeared, where a child-king sits unprotected on the throne, where religion vies with magic for the souls of the people. It is to this desperate land that Arthur returns, a man at once utterly human and truly heroic: a man of honor, loyalty, and amazing valor; a man who loves Guinevere more passionately than he should; a man whose life is at once tragic and triumphant.

As Arthur fights to keep a flicker of civilization alive in a barbaric world, Bernard Cornwell makes a familiar tale into a legend all over again.

The mega-bestselling novel that made Jeffrey Archer a star, Kane and Abel, "a sprawling blockbuster!"--Publishers Weekly

TWO STRANGERS BORN WORLDS APART. ONE DESTINY THAT WOULD DEFINE THEM BOTH...

William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski, one the son of a Boston millionaire, the other a penniless Polish immigrant--born on the same day near the turn of the century on opposite sides of the world--are brought together by fate and the quest of a dream.

Two men--ambitious, powerful, ruthless--are locked in a relentless struggle to build an empire, fueled by their all-consuming hatred. Over sixty years and three generations, through war, marriage, fortune, and disaster, Kane and Abel battle for the success and triumph that only one man can have.

"Archer is a master entertainer."--Time

The adventure continues as Royce and Hadrian aid the struggling kingdom of Melengar as it alone stands in defiance against the newly formed empire. War approaches and a desperate gamble behind enemy lines is their only chance at forming an alliance with the Nationalists to the south.

But Royce has plans of his own as he uses this opportunity to discover if an ancient wizard is using Riyria as pawns in his own bid for power. To find the truth, Royce must unravel Hadrian's hidden past. What he discovers will lead them to the end of the known world, on a journey rife with treachery and intrigue.

When author Michael J. Sullivan self-published the first books of his Riyria Revelations, they rapidly became ebook bestsellers. Now, Orbit is pleased to present the complete series for the first time in bookstores everywhere.

Acclaimed creator Kaoru Mori's tale of life on the nineteenth-century Silk Road takes on an air of celebration as, at long last, Laila and Leily's wedding day arrives! But the marriage ceremony may be even more taxing for the girls than their search for a pair of grooms. Sitting still and silent as their guests celebrate and eat is a trial that will push the girls' patience to its limit, not to mention that of Sami and Sarm! As the twins finally make their vows and commit themselves to their husbands, the gravity of the moment finally sets in. Though they have dreamed of marriage for years, only now do they realize that everything in their lives is about to change...

Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori's pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heart-warming, slice-of-life tale that is at once wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the characters she has created.

Hornblower finds himself fighting Napoleonic forces in Russia in this "extremely entertaining" (Christian Science Monitor) chapter in C. S. Forester's beloved naval adventure series.
The year is 1812. Hornblower has been ordered to do everything possible, diplomatically and militarily, to protect the Baltic trade and to stop the spread of Napoleon's empire into Sweden and Russia. Though he has set sail a hero, one misstep may ruin his chances of every becoming an admiral.
Hornblower must find his way through a maze of perils -- hostile armies, seductive Russian royalty, ice-bound waterways, assassins in the imperial palace -- before he can return home to his beloved new wife and son, as his instructions are to sacrifice every man and ship under his command rather than surrender ground to Napoleon.
"Hornblower is Hamlet in command of a battleship." --New York Times

This handsome boxed set of Homer's epics -- powerfully retold by Gillian Cross and strikingly illustrated by Neil Packer -- belongs on every reader's bookshelf.

Epic and thrilling, Homer's two age-old classics have been revisited countless times. Gillian Cross and Neil Packer's exquisite versions of The Iliad and The Odyssey make up an essential set for both Homer collectors and readers who have not yet made the acquaintance of Odysseus, Achilles, or Hector. Depicting their actions, and those of the gods they invoke, are vivid, stylistic illustrations reminiscent of Greek pottery, giving these large-format volumes an extra measure of authenticity and appeal. From the raging battles outside the walls of Troy to the strangely surreal ten years it takes Odysseus to journey home, these bold re-envisionings of Homer's stories are told with simplicity and style -- perfect for fans of graphic retellings and mythology enthusiasts alike.

Since being named "London's Lord to Land" by a popular ladies' magazine, Nicholas St. John has been relentlessly pursued by every matrimony-minded female in the ton. So when an opportunity to escape fashionable society presentsitself, he eagerly jumps--only to land in the path of the most determined, damnably delicious woman he's ever met!

The daughter of a titled wastrel, Lady Isabel Townsend has too many secrets and too little money. Though she is used to taking care of herself quite handily, her father's recent passing has left Isabel at sea and in need of outside help to protect her young brother's birthright. The sinfully handsome, eminently eligible Lord Nicholas could be the very salvation she seeks.

But the lady must be wary and not do anything reckless and foolish...like falling madly, passionately in love.

From Calabria to Connecticut: a sweeping family saga about sisterhood, secrets, Italian immigration, the American dream, and one woman's tenacious fight against her own fate

For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella's childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents--moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella's own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted.

In her rugged Italian village, Stella is considered an oddity--beautiful and smart, insolent and cold. Stella uses her peculiar toughness to protect her slower, plainer baby sister Tina from life's harshest realities. But she also provokes the ire of her father Antonio: a man who demands subservience from women and whose greatest gift to his family is his absence.

When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina must come of age side-by-side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them. Soon Stella learns that her survival is worthless without the one thing her family will deny her at any cost: her independence.

In present-day Connecticut, one family member tells this heartrending story, determined to understand the persisting rift between the now-elderly Stella and Tina. A richly told debut, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna is a tale of family transgressions as ancient and twisted as the olive branch that could heal them.

"Witty and deeply felt." --Entertainment Weekly (New and Notable)

"The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna achieves what no sweeping history lesson about American immigrants could: It brings to life a woman that time and history would have ignored." --Washington Post

This comical, fantastical, romantical, New York Times bestselling, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey is "an uproarious historical fantasy that's not to be missed" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind YA fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history--because sometimes history needs a little help.

At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren't for Jane to worry about. Jane gets to be Queen of England.

Like that could go wrong.

New York Times Bestseller * Publishers Weekly Best Young Adult Book of the Year * Bustle Best Young Adult Book of the Year * YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults

And don't miss the authors' next fun read, My Plain Jane!

From the highly celebrated and award-winning authors Jeff Noon and Steve Beard comes Gogmagog, the first book in adventurous duology, perfect for fans of Mervyn Peake.

Gogmagog tells the story of an epic journey through the sixty-mile long ghost of a dragon. We travel by boat, a rickety steam launch captained by Cady Meade, a veteran taxi pilot on the river Nysis. In her heyday she carried people and goods from the thriving seaports of the estuary into Ludwich, the capital city. But that was years ago. Now she's drunk, holed up in a rundown seaside resort, telling her bawdy tales for shots of rum. All that's about to change, when two strangers seek her out, asking for transport, one of whom - a young girl - is very ill, and in great danger. The other, an artificial being of singular character, has secrets hidden inside his crystal skull. And so begins the voyage of the Juniper.

The Nysis is unlike any other river. Mysteries unfold with each port of call. Not many can navigate these channels, not many know of its whirlpools and sandbanks, and of the ravenous creatures that lurk beneath the surface. Cady used to have the necessary knowledge, and the powers of spectral navigation. But her glory days are well behind her now.

This might well be her final journey.

File Under: Fantasy [ Peake Fantasy Secret Mythologies Take Me to the River Another London ]

A powerfully poignant tale of one of the most turbulent moments in Scotland's history: the North Berwick Witch Trials.

IT'S THE 4TH OF DECEMBER 1591.

On this, the last night of her life, in a prison cell several floors below Edinburgh's High Street, convicted witch Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor - Iris, who says she comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they are and what they believe.

As the hours pass and dawn approaches, Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture, confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace - and the tantalising prospect of escape.

Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a king's violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day.

'This series has already produced two works of note and distinction. It raises the question - if a country cannot re-tell its history, will it be stuck forever in aspic and condemned to be nothing more than a shortbread tin illustration? Hex and Rizzio are showing the way towards a reckoning, and about time too' - Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday

The classic autobiographical novel by Jack Kerouac featuring "one of the most true, comic, and grizzly journeys in American literature" (Time)--now in a new edition

Originally published in 1965, this autobiographical novel covers a key year in Jack Kerouac's life--the period that led up to the publication of On the Road in September of 1957. After spending two months in the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington, Kerouac's fictional self Jack Duluoz comes down from the isolated mountains to the wild excitement of the bars, jazz clubs, and parties of San Francisco, before traveling on to Mexico City, New York, Tangiers, Paris, and London. Duluoz attempts to extricate himself from the world but fails, for one must "live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry." Desolation Angels is quintessential Kerouac.

From the bestselling author of Where the Lost Wander and What the Wind Knows comes the evocative story of two people whose paths collide against the backdrop of mystery, murder, and the Great Depression.

Chicago, 1923: Ten-year-old Dani Flanagan returns home to find police swarming the house, her parents dead. Michael Malone, the young patrolman assigned to the case, discovers there's more to the situation--and to Dani Flanagan herself--than the authorities care to explore. Malone is told to shut his mouth, and Dani is sent away to live with her spinster aunts in Cleveland.

Fifteen years later, Michael Malone is summoned to Cleveland to investigate a series of murders that have everyone stumped, including his friend and famed Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, now Cleveland's director of safety. There, in a city caught in the grip of a serial killer, Dani and Malone cross paths once again.

Malone is drawn to Dani and her affinity for the dead and compassion for the destitute. It doesn't take long for him to realize that she could help him solve his case. As terror descends on the city and Malone and Dani confront the dark secrets that draw them together, it's a race to find the killer or risk becoming his next victims.