Historical Biographical Fiction

Comment vivre en étant la fille d’un bourreau nazi ? Comment construire une vie d’adulte fondée sur le mensonge ? John Boyne dresse un portrait de femme inoubliable, au crépuscule de sa vie, rongée par ses démons.

The Macedonian is based on the early life of Philip II, King of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great and perhaps the greatest military genius of the ancient world. Born a minor prince of the royal house, he survives the intrigues of a family in which treachery and murder are almost a tradition. A brilliant commander while still in his teens, he becomes king when his brother, King Perdikkas, and half the Macedonian army are massacred and his country is on the brink of ruin.

Elizabeth's parents warned her that Alexander Blackwell would not make a dependable husband, and only after eloping with him did she learn they may have been right... After their marriage, the couple finds lodgings in London. Alexander looks for work while Elizabeth learns engraving. Before long, though, Alexander is in the Marshalsea, the notorious debtors' prison, and she is left to fend for herself. Alone and penniless, she has a few things going for her: a skill, an idea, and an acquaintance.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989, Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education is a semi-autobiographical novel that tells the story of Billi, a girl growing up in Europe between the two World Wars. Upon the death of her German baron father, Billi moves from the family château to live with her vibrant and erratic English mother on the French Riviera. From there she is sent for schooling in England, where she lives an itinerant life, boarding among a bohemian crowd, attending galleries and public lectures, and reading some of the greatest books of the era.

On a Thursday morning in May 1961, a well-mannered twenty-one-year-old named Marlene enters the Fifth Avenue apartment of Lee Radziwill to interview for the position of housekeeper and cook. The stylish wife of London-based Prince Stanislaw Radziwill, Princess Lee is intelligent and creative, with ambitions beyond simply jet-setting. But to the public, she is always First Lady Jackie Kennedy's little sister. As Marlene becomes a trusted presence in the Radziwill household, she observes the dazzling array of famous figures who flit in and out of Lee’s intimate circle

The Paris Wife meets PBS’s Victoria in this enthralling novel of the life and loves of one of history’s most remarkable women: Winston Churchill’s scandalous American mother, Jennie Jerome. Wealthy, privileged, and fiercely independent New Yorker Jennie Jerome took Victorian England by...

One Ordinary Man is a vibrant, witty, and captivating story that is at once, both human and larger than life. A story that captures the times, adversity, and incredible accomplishments of a largely forgotten American hero whose abiding faith in America and its democracy drove him to overcome incredible odds and lift his country up from the darkest depths of its Great Depression to victory in World War II.

This is the story of Perry Barnes, a multi-talented man who made one bad teenage mistake in the weeks leading up to his high school graduation in 1942. On a lark he "borrowed" some jewelry that wasn't technically his. The local judge took it personally and gave Perry the choice of an assignment to a newly formed Army special operations unit at the start of World War II, or go to jail for 15 years. As a result, he winds up being trained by the United States government in the skills and arts of sabotage, killing, self-preservation, espionage, and ultimately how to be a first class jewel thief.

The real-life Harold Ober founded Harold Ober Associates, the oldest literary agency in the country, in 1929, and over the years the agency built an impressive client list. In J. D. West's new mystery, The Disappearance of Swenson's Secretary, we learn that Harold Ober is also an amateur detective, using the skills he's honed reading and editing manuscripts to solve baffling crimes. Along with his assistant, he delves into the question of what happened to the secretary who accompanied her boss, H. A. Swenson, a film agent from Hollywood on his visit to editors and agents in New York City.

Theodora: Actress, prostitute, mistress, feminist. And Byzantine Empress of the civilized world. Stephen: Handsome Syrian boy, wizard's apprentice, palace eunuch. And Secretary to the Empress. How does this unlikely pair become such allies that one day Empress Theodora asks Stephen to write her biography? From a very young age, Theodora, daughter of a circus bearkeeper in Constantinople, sets her sights well above her station in life. Her exquisite beauty sets her apart on stages and in the eyes of men.

England, 1873. Clara Blackstone has just been released after one year in a private asylum for the insane. Clara has two goals: to reunite with her husband, Henry, and to never - ever - return to the asylum. As she enters Durham, Clara finds her carriage surrounded by a mob gathered to witness the imprisonment of Mary Ann Cotton - England’s first female serial killer - accused of poisoning nearly 20 people, including her husbands and children.

Salisbury 1226. When a child of village outcasts disappears from Salisbury, the odious new sheriff doesn’t seem to care. Ela Longespée is determined to help the girl’s desperate parents and her investigation leads her into the thick of a human-trafficking ring in London. There, she vows to find the lost child, arrest the perpetrators, and convince the king to make her high sheriff of Wiltshire.

The year is 1143. Hildegard, already a well-known physician, has expanded her work to writing not just about medicine but on theological matters as well. Once again, the monks of St. Disibod are there to stop her, citing the biblical passages that admonish against "women teachers". Also, Abbot Kuno is aging, and it is only a matter of time before he is succeeded in the post by Prior Helenger, who wants nothing more than to see Hildegard permanently relegated to the convent's enclosure.

A shocking ancient secret. The origins of western civilization discovered. The Renaissance - our most fundamental age of technological and artistic advance, was built upon a secret passed down to a banking family in Florence - the Medici. 500 years ago that secret was buried. Florence, Italy, present day. A trove of letters belonging to the Medici family is discovered underground. Archaeologist Kat Cullen comes across a map that leads her to the Swiss Alps where her partner is murdered and she is left for dead.

Few wars have been fought by each side with greater intensity of conviction in the rightness of its cause or with more abundant personal heroism than the War Between the States. The story begins with a great responsibility falling on Vincent Wingfield, the teenage son of a widowed Virginia plantation owner. Vincent must decide what course of action he should take when a problem arises on the plantation.

A Montevideo, Leonid Sednev, âgé de 91 ans, décide avant de mourir de révéler le secret de sa vie. Embauché en 1912 comme ramoneur au palais impérial de Russie grâce à sa tante Nina, ancienne femme de chambre de la tsarine, le petit Leonid sera jusqu'en 1918 le "témoin invisible" de l'intimité des Romanov et le seul survivant de l'épouvantable massacre d'Ekaterinbourg. Rien n'échappe à son regard tantôt ironique et curieux, tantôt amoureux et tendre, et plus d'une fois épouvanté.

John Knox, the Thundering Scott, lives a life of adventure and danger in turbulent, corrupt 16th-century Scotland. Finding himself a wanted man, Knox is besieged in a castle by French soldiers, seized, and made a galley slave. Yet he is unflinching in his stand for the gospel, even in the face of assassins and death, and even when his fiery preaching makes him an enemy of Mary, Queen of Scots. Told from the perspective of a young student resolved to protect Knox at any cost, Douglas Bond's thrilling biographical novel provides a look at the harrowing life story of a giant of the faith.

"May Steven Saylor's Roman empire never fall. A modern master of historical fiction, Saylor convincingly transports us into the ancient world...enthralling!" —USA Today on Roma Continuing the saga begun in his New York Times bestselling novel Roma, Steven Saylor charts the destinies of the...

It’s October 1931. When Winnie Ruth Judd arrives at the Los Angeles train station from Phoenix, her shipping trunks catch the attention of a suspicious porter. By the time they’re pried open, revealing the dismembered bodies of two women inside, Ruth has disappeared into the crowd. The search for, and eventual apprehension of, the Trunk Murderess quickly becomes a headline-making sensation. Even the Phoenix murder house is a sideshow attraction.

L’enfance de Marie-Ange dans le Sud Algérien des années 50 est un joyau fait de couleurs, de lumières, de rires et de tendresse. Tandis que l’auditeur-lecteur voyage avec délice dans l’univers de cette histoire vraie, racontée dans une langue fine, vivifiante, riche de précisions et d’anecdotes, il découvre en même temps les blessures silencieuses d’une enfant à la recherche de la vérité sur sa naissance. Le Mektoub, ce destin qui déchirerait quelques années plus tard la douceur éphémère d’une entente entre deux peuples était celui qui emporterait l’enchantement naïf de l’enfance.