Showing results for "Still" in Historical Fiction

And the Land Lay Still is the sweeping Scottish epic by James Robertson. And the Land Lay Still is nothing less than the story of a nation. James Robertson's breathtaking novel is a portrait of modern Scotland as seen through the eyes of natives and immigrants, journalists and politicians, drop-outs and spooks, all trying to make their way through a country in the throes of great and rapid change. It is a moving, sweeping story of family, friendship, struggle and hope - epic in every sense.

Living on the edge of the beautiful Norfolk Broads with her father, the only ripple in Tess Delamere's calm life is the disturbing dream about her dead mother which haunts her. She yearns to know more, but the arrival of a new stepmother heralds the end of Tess' hopes that her father might divulge the past. As she grows up, Tess slowly starts to put together the pieces herself. But the outbreak of war brings tragedy and upheaval, changing Tess' priorities....

When Will Hastie finally decides to retire from the military and return home to Scotland, he intends to settle down on his family estate and learn to become a farmer. But back home, the death of his best friend and neighbour, Rae, during World War II is still strongly felt. In particular, Rae's sister, Patty, has been brooding for the past 10 years over Rae's final letter home from France. When she decides to share the letter with Will, it sends him off to France to discover for himself the circumstances of Rae's death. His discovery there changes the lives of all those left behind.

1918, London. Twenty-year-old Emily Burdon has been training as a nurse at St. Marylebone Infirmary, learning on the job as she tends to patients from the crowded poorhouses that ring the hospital as well as wounded soldiers returning from the war. She pours her heart into her nursing while she waits for happier times - peace in Europe and the return of her childhood sweetheart, Lewis, from the Western Front. But when the deadly Spanish Flu arrives in London on the heels of the war, Emily’s faith and courage are put to the test.

English girl Sheila Matthews accepts an invitation to holiday in Poland, the country where her father died in mysterious circumstances. When German bombers begin pounding Warsaw, she decides against returning home and is recruited by the Polish underground. Playing a dangerous game as a double agent, Sheila must use all her skill to stay one step ahead of the Gestapo. But soon the Germans begin to suspect her and she flees to the forest, to be reunited with the enigmatic Captain Adam Wisniewski, now a wanted partisan.

In the aftermath of a personal decision, Shea O’Byrne has retreated to Melbourne, abandoning her career as a vet nurse to counsel women through pregnancy loss - a pain she understands all too well. When her father’s genealogical research uncovers a long-buried scandal involving the family’s forgotten ancestor, Samuel O’Byrne, Shea reluctantly agrees to help investigate.

After the tragic death of her little brother, Josephine travels to the Black Forest to heal. There she discovers a feeling of freedom astride a brand-new invention called the "velocipede". The very idea of a woman on a bicycle is beyond taboo - it is indecent and even illegal - but Josephine will not be deterred. She simply needs to find a way to ride without provoking a scandal. Back home, Josephine has the brilliant idea of riding under cover of night, while the world is still asleep.

Widowed after six months of marriage, an older Elizabeth is determined to leave her past behind and enjoy life to its fullest, on her own terms. Charming, witty, and engaging, she is widely admired by all. However, everything is not as it seems. She harbors a secret. The beautiful widow captivates a younger Mr. Darcy. He knows her better than she knows herself. He struggles to break through her protective barriers, the most daunting being her tightly held conviction that she will never marry again. Will Darcy persuade Elizabeth to change her mind?

A trilogy, telling a story of love and loyalty, passion and perversion, betrothal and betrayal, triumph and tragedy; biographical novels that chart one man's attempts to rise above the legacy of a traumatic childhood, going to the very brink of suicide and the effort to understand and come to terms with himself and his actions.

Some journeys aren't about finding your way back. They're about finding a way forward. Claire Morgan thought she knew what her future would look like—until the world she built shattered in a single moment. Carrying little more than grief and a quiet promise made to her best friend, Claire leaves behind everything familiar and boards a plane bound for Scotland. She isn't searching for a new life. She isn't searching for anything at all. She just needs to keep breathing.

Boston, 1868: The dawn of the Gilded Age, an era of burgeoning commerce and invention, of unimaginable new fortunes and lavish excess—for some. Born into dismal poverty, young Nell Sweeney scratches by on her wits and little else until fortune blesses her with a position as nursery governess to the fabulously wealthy Hewitts. But she soon learns that ugly secrets lurk beneath the surface of their gold-plated world.

Roger eventually rises to power, founding the sprawling Acadian Culture Centre in rural western PEI. Here he becomes an impresario of Acadian kitsch and a catalyst of cultural change not without getting his heart broken and making a few enemies. When Roger dies suddenly at age 47, the death notice in the local newspaper unexpectedly lists a “special friend,” a married woman and talented fiddler, setting off conflict and soul-searching in the “Up West” community.

Mark Sternum, whom listeners first met in Perfect Agreement, is a veteran teacher. Twenty years older, separated for six months from his lover, and desperate to duck the overtures of double-dealing deans above him and disgruntled adjunct faculty below him, Mark has one ambition every day he is on campus - to close the classroom door and leave the world behind. His escape, however, is complicated by his contentious, complicated wrestling match of a relationship with the Professor, the tenured faculty member with whom Mark has co-taught this creative-writing workshop for ten years.

For Conrad Burrell — husband, father, and successful attorney in the autumn of his life — the world has come apart. Having long ago lost his first wife, the mother of his grown daughter and a widow herself, to youth and pride, he’s now lost his second to a violent accident. “You think you’re finished, that you have no more stories in you,” his ex-wife warns, and he fears she’s right. After a lifetime of meeting the expectations of others, none are left but his own, and he must discover whether love survives death as well as divorce.

The title Still Busy Steering just popped into my head when I was writing Changing My Perspective. And this is what each of the characters in these stories are doing. They are each “steering” God’s power in a certain direction—to accomplish their own goals in life.

On the surface, all appears serene as the third generation of Kades in pioneer Utah grow up to take their parents’ place in the vast, rugged regions of the West. But fate - or is it divine providence? - suddenly steps in. Jessica Scott of Illinois finds herself waylaid among the Latter-day Saints in 1870s Utah while on a railroad trip to California. Alone and seeking assistance from her relatives, whose religious beliefs she scorns, 19-year-old Jessica meets her cousin of the same age, Ethan Kade, who is home for a few days from the cattle ranch where he is employed.

Fighting for success in 17th century Amsterdam, a female artist must risk everything - and make enemies along the way. Defying convention, gifted artist Clara becomes a pupil to the renowned painter Osias Beerts. But when the highly prized patronage won from the powerful Burgomeister Fabritius turns to hostility, Clara has to make sacrifices and risk everything to pursue her craft. Together with her fellow pupil, Nico, she finds herself surrounded by dangerous secrets and powerful enemies. But in the face of so much past pain, can something as fragile as love survive?

Recent graduate Cora Anne Halloway has a history degree and a plan - avoid her own past. Then her beloved grandmother requests one last summer at Still Waters, the family cottage on Edisto Beach. Despite difficult memories lingering among the oak canopies and gentle tides, Edisto tempts her with forgiveness - especially since Nan hires Tennessee Watson to oversee cottage repairs.

Coming to terms with advancing dementia, Mary has no choice other than to move into her daughter’s home. Her daughter, Kayla, caught between her cognitively impaired mother and her belligerent teenage son, soon finds caregiving is more challenging than she imagined. Sage, the family’s golden retriever, offers comfort and unconditional love, but she has her own problems, especially when it comes to dealing with Mary’s cat.

Violet Channing, orphaned at a young age, is tossed about by life’s turbulent waters when the aunt who raised her dies. She wants nothing more than to be a schoolteacher. So, while living in a Boston tenement in 1915, barely able to survive, she accepts a job as a live-in teacher for a sick child in the harsh Yukon Territory.