Historical Fiction World Literature

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger - these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence.

As Hitler’s troops sweep into Vienna, Austrian Max Dornbach promises to help his Jewish friends hide their most valuable possessions from the Nazis, smuggling them to his family’s summer estate near the picturesque village of Hallstatt. He enlists the help of Annika Knopf, his childhood friend and the caretaker’s daughter. Eighty years later, Callie Randall is mostly content with her quiet life, running a bookstore with her sister and reaching out into the world through her blog. Then she finds a cryptic list in an old edition of Bambi that connects her to Annika’s story.

Perry’s kaleidoscopic new novel illuminates an entire world, from the hell of the trenches to the London nightclub where a beautiful Irish spy plies her trade; from the sequestered laboratory where a weapon that can end the war is being perfected to the matchless glory of the English countryside in spring. Steeped in history and radiant with truth, Angels in the Gloom is a masterpiece that warms the heart even as it chills the blood.

In this illuminating biographical novel, Sherry Jones spans Josephine Baker's early years in servitude and poverty in America to her rise to fame as a showgirl in her famous banana skirt to her activism against discrimination, and her many loves and losses. From 1920s Paris to 1960s Washington to her final, triumphant performance, one of the most extraordinary lives of the 20th century comes to stunning life on the page. With intimate prose and comprehensive research, Sherry Jones brings Josephine Baker into focus for the first time in a joyous celebration of a life lived in technicolor.

The last Viking left in the New World finds fresh challenges when his growing family is forced to leave their home on the Patawomke River to sail north and find a new home amongst tribes who may be hostile. As his clan grows, Erik learns to adapt to this new world and all its wonders.

In a magnificent, war-torn world cut by soaring red canyons, an evil ruler launches a search for a mystical artifact that he hopes will bring him ultimate power - an ancient witch’s pot that reputedly contains the trapped soul of the most powerful witch ever to have lived. The aged healer Tocho has to stop him, but to do it he must ally himself with the bitter and broken witch hunter, Maicoh, whose only goal is achieving one last great kill.

A religious miracle: The Cahokians believed that the divine hero Morning Star had been resurrected in the flesh. But not all is fine and stable in glorious Cahokia. To the astonishment of the ruling clan, an attempt is made on the living god's life. Now it is up to Morning Star's aunt Matron Blue Heron to keep it quiet until she can uncover the plot and bring the culprits to justice. If she fails, Cahokia will be torn asunder in warfare, rage, and blood as civil war consumes them all.

It's 1941, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Across the stormy North Atlantic rages a battle between wolfpacks of U-boats and escort ships fighting to protect the Allies’ vital convoys. Meanwhile, teams of codebreakers at Bletchley Park struggle to penetrate the German Navy’s Top-Secret Dolphin code to unlock the flow of vital intelligence that will swing the battle in the Allies' favor.

Eighty centuries ago, in the frozen land that is now Alaska, a clubfooted male child had been left to die, when a woman named K’os rescued him. Twenty years later and no longer a child, Chakliux occupies the revered role as his tribe’s storyteller. In the neighboring village of the Near River people, where Chakliux will attempt to make peace by wedding the shaman’s daughter, a double murder occurs that sends him on a harsh, enthralling journey in search of the truth about the tragic losses his people have suffered, and into the arms of a woman he was never meant to love.

When the Nazis invade Paris, Antoinette Valette’s world shatters overnight. In an instant, she goes from being a celebrated violinist, to fearing for the life of her Jewish husband and son. With nowhere to flee, hiding in plain sight is her family’s only choice.

1234 A.D. - For as long as she can remember, the Lady Adalind de Aston has loved Sir Maddoc du Bois. Being sent away to foster did nothing to cure her of her unending love for Maddoc, a sentiment he did not return. Years later, Adalind returns from fostering as a cultured and beautiful woman. So beautiful, in fact, that tales of her beauty are legendary and a string of hopeful suitors follow her home. Maddoc, now faced with this exquisite and refined creature, is tasked, as the captain of the army, with chasing the suitors away.

When the World's End Investigation Bureau receives an anxious visit from a trio of elderly siblings, Lily Raynor and Felix Wilbraham realise that the Fetterplaces are keeping back the heart of the matter. Ancient bones have been uncovered in their garden, and they believe they know whose they are. Felix returns by night. . .and discovers that the Fetterplace siblings have good reason for their fear. Unconscious and gravely injured, Felix is brought back to Lily's door by concerned strangers.

1943. Reclus dans son quartier général en Prusse orientale, terrorisé à l'idée que l'on attente à sa vie, Hitler a fait recruter des goûteuses. Parmi elles, Rosa. Quand les S.S. lui ordonnent de porter une cuillerée à sa bouche, Rosa s'exécute, la peur au ventre : chaque bouchée est peut-être la dernière. Mais elle doit affronter une autre guerre entre les murs de ce réfectoire : considérée comme "l'étrangère", Rosa, qui vient de Berlin, est en butte à l'hostilité de ses compagnes, dont Elfriede, personnalité aussi charismatique qu'autoritaire.

En el Chile del siglo XIX, Aurora del Valle sufre un trauma brutal que borra de su mente los primeros cinco años de su vida. Criada por su ambiciosa abuela, Paulina del Valle, crece en un ambiente privilegiado, libre de muchas de las limitaciones que oprimen a las mujeres de su época pero atormentada por horribles pesadillas. Cuando debe afrontar la traición del hombre al que ama y la soledad, Aurora decide explorar el misterio de su pasado.

Would you risk your life to save just one person? An incredible story of love, hope, and friendship; and a testament to humanity and courage in history’s darkest days. 1941, Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Professor Josef Held has never recovered from the loss of his beloved wife - and has no intention of ever letting anyone new into his quiet, safe world. But then the Nazis come for the Jews - and Mrs Epstein is killed. And Josef, in an impulsive act of courage, offers his student Michael Blum a place to hide.

Summer 1941. War rages in Europe. The Germans march towards Ukraine. Halya, Liliya and Vika are no strangers to sorrow. They lost family during the Holodomor, loved ones in Stalin's purges, and war looms once more on the horizon. These daughters of Ukraine will face devastation and loss as they fight to survive and protect the ones they love.

A heartbreaking novel of love, betrayal, and a secret passed down through a family. Inspired by an incredible true story. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, We Were the Lucky Ones, and The Alice Network.

Allemagne, 1947. Les tribunaux de dénazification ont commencé à traiter les premiers procès. Un dossier particulier retient l'attention du Dr Hoffman, un psychiatre américain actuellement en poste en Allemagne. Un ancien gardien d'Auschwitz, Franz Dahler, doit comparaître devant le tribunal, et a demandé à faire témoigner un témoin inattendu pour sa défense : l'une de ses anciennes détenues et épouse actuelle, Helena. Silencieuse et dépendante de son mari, Helena semble être une victime classique d'abus.

Kasia grew up in a poor Jewish home with more siblings than luxuries. But when a chance encounter forces her to the palace of Xerxes, she becomes a concubine to the richest man in the world. She alone, of all Xerxes's wives, loves the man beneath the crown. She alone, of all his wives, holds the heart of the king of kings. Traveling with Xerxes through Europe as he mounts a war against Greece, Kasia knows enemies surround her, but they're not the Spartans or Athenians. The threat lies with those close to the king who hate her people.

When her father and sister are killed, a distant relative invites Salome Alexandra and her mother to live with his family in Jerusalem. Quickly betrothed to a pagan prince half her age, Salome questions God's plan. But when she suddenly finds herself being crowned queen of Judea, she learns that a woman committed to God can change the world.