Historical Fiction French Women

In the mid-1920s, Bessie Elliott and her husband Fletcher take in their six-year-old nephew John. They are determined to give him a warm and secure home on Stone Mountain, a place where he will feel loved and know he is always welcome. Having a child brings many changes to their daily life and even more for John, but it isn't long before he feels completely at home with his aunt and uncle.

A bord du Titanic, deux sœurs Irlandaises rêvent comme beaucoup à une vie meilleure de l'autre côté de l'Atlantique. Nora fait le voyage pour devenir gouvernante auprès de la fille d'un riche veuf, tandis que Delia devra se contenter d'une place de domestique. Ni l'une ni l'autre n'auraient pu imaginer l'ampleur de la tragédie qui s'abat sur le Titanic. En plein naufrage, Delia voit sa sœur engloutie par les eaux. Sans réfléchir, elle décide de se faire passer pour Nora.

Lahore, 1838. D'origine irlandaise et hindoue, Morgan Preston vit sous le joug de son père, un mercenaire aussi cruel qu'ivrogne. Sa seule échappatoire : ses deux amies. Chali est une chasseuse nomade, et Maura, une Irlandaise venue avec sa mère rejoindre son géniteur, le colonel Edward Fleming, redoutable chef de la police. Mais un jour, c'est le drame. Tentant de s'interposer face à son père ivre, celui-ci tombe du balcon et se tue. Morgan est immédiatement accusé du meurtre par Fleming.

Left profoundly deaf after an accident, Émile is no stranger to isolation—or heartbreak. Now, as Nazi planes loom over Guernsey, he senses life is about to change forever. Trapped in a tense, fearful marriage, Isabelle doesn't know what has become of Émile and the future she hoped for. But when she glimpses him from the window of the French House, their lives collide once more. Lieutenant Schreiber is more comfortable wielding a paintbrush than a pistol. But he has little choice in the role he is forced to play in the occupying forces—or in his own forbidden desires.

"J'ai vécu puisque tu voulais que je vive. Mais vécu comme je l'ai appris là-bas, en prenant les jours les uns après les autres. Il y en eut de beaux tout de même. T'écrire m'a fait du bien. En te parlant, je ne me console pas. Je détends juste ce qui m'enserre le cœur. Je voudrais fuir l'histoire du monde, du siècle, revenir à la mienne, celle de Shloïme et sa chère petite fille." M.L.-I.

Newly married to Niccolo, a wealthy envoy to the French emperor, skilled herbalist Livia Valenti feels lost and alone. Her husband is a distant stranger, and their echoing Paris mansion is too far from her fragrant garden in Italy. But then Niccolo fills the shelves with her favourite books and prepares an apothecary room full of rows of shining glass jars. And a beautiful romance begins to blossom. With masked balls, luxurious dinner parties and a new life growing inside her, Livia believes her dreams of love and happiness may finally come true.

After Bessie and Fletcher Elliott lose all their money when their bank fails at the beginning of the Great Depression, Fletch is forced to seek employment elsewhere in order to sustain their struggling farm on Stone Mountain, North Carolina. Fletch’s brothers, Jim and Tom, working in a coal mine in Beacham, West Virginia, convince Fletch that there is money to be made as a miner, so he and Bessie move to Beacham in hopes of a temporary measure that will enable them to keep their farm.

À travers le récit d'une femme atypique qui a su défendre son indépendance, Monia Mazigh nous fait voir avec beaucoup de réalisme le modèle patriarcal qui conditionnait la société tunisienne au siècle dernier.

When her favourite beech tree is felled in a storm, Ann feels as if someone has died. But when long-hidden seed packets are found inside the trunk, Ann realizes there are more memories than her own lurking within the ancient tree. A century earlier, head gardener William Hatherwick and Hester Mordaunt, mistress of Beechgrave, share a love for the mighty estate - and an undeclared love for each other. But when war breaks out, William is sent to the battlefields of France, and as the conflict rages on, Hester grieves beneath the tree.

Eastern France. Winter. 1572. When Sidonie's guardian dies, she flees Paris rather than submit to a forced marriage, seeking sanctuary in the home of her estranged aunt in Dole. A town consumed by fear and superstition. Apolline left behind a violent and troubled past, hoping for a new life with...

Eve is a reluctant mother; Eve is a famous phenomenon; Eve is a quiet country teacher. Liam is a successful artist; Liam is a scheming husband; Liam is a gentle partner. Pari is a leading scientific researcher; Pari is a recognized model; Pari is a picture of declining mental states...

Sita has been sent to Valmiki 's ashram at Rama's command never to return. This extraordinary novel is her story, she who as much as Rama, is at the heart of the Ramayana, one of the greatest living epics. It is also the story of Lakshmana, crushed by guilt on Sita's abduction of Soorpanakka...

ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A sweeping debut novel that explores the intimate struggle for independence and success of a young descendant of Indian indentured laborers in Mauritius, a small multiracial island in the Indian Ocean. "The beauty of Busjeet's splendid, often...

From the best-selling author of Longbourn, a haunting new novel of spies and artists, passion and danger, hope in the face of despair Paris, 1939. The pavement rumbles with the footfall of Nazi soldiers marching along the Champs-Élysées. A young, unknown writer—Samuel Beckett—recently...

In Nazi-occupied Paris, a talented artisan must fight for her life by designing for her enemies. From New York Times bestselling author Juliet Blackwell comes an extraordinary story about holding on to hope when all seems lost. Capucine Benoit works alongside her father to produce fans of rare...

An extraordinary story of friendship and love across class lines, this rich, evocative novel traces the history of modern Italy, from 1975 to 2013, through the fate of one couple. Valerio and Olivia grow up together in the Morganti family’s opulent villa in Bologna, inseparable friends even...

1900, Exposition Universelle de Paris. Aileen Bowman, trente-cinq ans, journaliste, célibataire, est venue couvrir l'événement pour le New York Tribune. Née d'un baroudeur anglais et d'une française utopiste, élevée dans le décor sauvage des plaines du Nevada, Aileen est une femme affranchie de tout lien et de toute morale, mue par sa passion et ses idéaux humanistes. Au fil d'un récit qui nous immerge au cœur de la ville en chantier, du métropolitain naissant aux quartiers des bordels chers aux peintres, la personnalité singulière d'Aileen se confond avec la ville.

Shopping meets suspense in this enticing new cocktail of sassy-smart sleuthing featuring a spunky decorator who can hunt down furniture—and murder. As a tireless mom of three, the doting spouse of a surgeon, and a talented interior designer to the stars, Lacy Fields can always find the perfect...

In this lush, lyrical, and marvelously evocative novel, Catherine Texier takes a mystery from her family’s past and draws from it a portrait of a remarkable woman—her great-grandmother Victorine. A young schoolteacher in a quiet province in France, Victorine had married and had two children...

In her memoir, Breakup, Catherine Texier tells how her husband left her for another woman. In Victorine, Texier takes the memory of Victorine, her maternal great-grandmother, and transforms it, so that Victorine, in the throes of a grand passion, leaves her husband and children for another man...