Showing titles in Historical Fiction

It’s April 1913, and survivors of the RMS Titanic have gathered to remember those who didn’t make it onto the lifeboats. Debutante Elizabeth Farr, who had been in first class, lost her father. Steerage passenger Katie Hanrahan nearly lost her life. Still, neither of them wants to be at the remembrance service. All they really want to do is forget. A year after that awful night, Elizabeth still feels the chill of the frigid arctic air, and Katie can’t sleep because of nightmares of being trapped belowdecks, waiting for death.

On a hot summer afternoon in 1944, SS troops wiped out an entire French village. 644 men, women and children died that day. Just one child survived. This book tells the story of what happened in Oradour, and imagines what drove both the SS officer who ordered the massacre, and the seven-year-old boy who escaped it. Powerful, moving and almost unbearably tense, this book weaves the truth about what happened to the people in Oradour into a powerful fictional story centred on two characters: the plucky, inspirational seven-year-old Alfred Fournier, refugee and resident of Oradour, and the hot-headed, power-hungry SS commander who shattered his world and changed his life for ever, Major Gustav Dietrich. As their two worlds collide, we gain a fascinating insight into the extremes and contradictions of human behaviour and emotion. With a twist in the tale, this is a story which leaves the reader surprised, inspired and profoundly moved.

A tour de force historical mystery from Monica Hesse, the bestselling and award-winning author of Girl in the Blue Coat. Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has...

Brought to you by Penguin. For fans of The Gilded Ones, Children of Blood and Bone, and Circe, this is the breathtaking follow-up to SKIN OF THE SEA - an epic love story infused with West African mythology and a powerful new imagining of a devastating time in history, told through the eyes of a...

Born in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred, little six-year-old Peekay learns that small can beat big. Armed with this knowledge, he resolves to take on the injustices of his country, and sets his heart on becoming the welterweight champion of the world. Peekay starts to take boxing lessons, makes new friends, collects cacti, and plays the piano. Above all, he learns to think with his head and then with his heart. Peekay discovers that nothing can defeat the determination to be true to yourself: This is the power of one.

But when Libby vanishes into thin air, and no one else remembers her, Kit is faced with a new reality – one in which her sister never existed. Then she meets Story, a local boy who remembers Libby perfectly. Together they embark on a journey beyond their wildest imagination into a world steeped in ancient folklore.

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband, Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once believed him a monster, but his secrets revealed a man tormented by guilt and a powerful curse - one that might keep them apart forever. Reunited with her family, who have taken refuge with enemies of Khalid, and Tariq, her childhood sweetheart, she should be happy. But Tariq now commands forces set on destroying Khalid's empire. Shahrzad is almost a prisoner caught between loyalties to people she loves. But she refuses to be a pawn and devises a plan.

His home destroyed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Murph Turner stumbles into the exotic town of Broome, hoping for safe harbor. Instead, the troubled teen discovers a wild and lawless place brimming with espionage, treachery, and romance. An outsider in a bewildering land of red dust and paranoia, Murph is quickly taken under wing by Banjo, a cheeky aboriginal scamp with a passion for pyrotechnics, and Micki, a beautiful teenager on the run from authorities.

Rose Justice is a young pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. On her way back from a semi-secret flight in the waning days of the war, Rose is captured by the Germans and ends up in Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi women's concentration camp. There, she meets an unforgettable group of women. These damaged women must bond together to help each other survive.

Two young friends are united in their grief for their lost mothers and increasingly begin to struggle with their own feelings for each other. They plan an idyllic holiday at the family's ancentral home in Norfolk during the summer of 1914, but their inner emotional battles are thrown into further turmoil as the Balkan Crisis turns to war. One has to remain in England with his father, the other is to also return home with his father — a German navy officer. Now separated for the duration of the war, will peace bring a happy reunion?

This compelling story of adventure, romance, and intrigue, set in ancient Egypt, was written by the three-time Newbery Honor and Edgar Award winning author Eloise Jarvis McGraw. Mara is a proud and beautiful slave girl who yearns for freedom in ancient Egypt, under the rule of Queen Hatshepsut...

Czternastoletni Staś Tarkowski i ośmioletnia Nel Rawlison mieszkają w Port Saidzie. Ich ojcowie pracują w kompanii Kanału Sueskiego. Jako szanowani inżynierowie zostali zaproszeni przez władze prowincji El-Fajum, aby skontrolować prowadzone tam prace nad siecią kanałów. Wyprawa ma trwać około miesiąca, a dzieci mają do niej dołączyć z kilkudniowym opóźnieniem. Tymczasem w Sudanie trwa powstanie Mahdiego przeciw Egiptowi i Imperium Brytyjskiemu. Powstańcy rosną w siłę i Brytyjczycy są bliscy utracenia kontroli nad Chartumem.

Guy Fawkes’s son must join his father’s plot to kill the king in this magical retelling of the Gunpowder Plot that will sweep you back in time to a divided England where plagues turn victims to stone. In 17th-century London two forces rule the people: the color powers and the Stone Plague...

Barbara Henderson has woven a thrilling origin story around the enduring mystery of the Lewis Chessmen, their creation in Norway, and how they ended up buried in the Hebrides before being discovered on Lewis in 1831.

Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she's a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is an Eðian (shapeshifter) in a kingdom where Verities rule. Thrust onto the throne, Mary and Francis face a viper's nest of conspiracies, traps and treason. And if Mary's secret is revealed, heads are bound to roll.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the award-winning author of Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray comes a captivating historical thriller about a teenage girl desperate to escape the secrets of her past in 1950s New Orleans. “A satisfying novel, bringing to life the midcentury French...

When Cat overhears a conversation about a diamond hidden somewhere in the theatre, she's determined to find the treasure. Ably assisted by Pedro, a musician in the company orchestra, she is thrust into a world of drama and intrigue, where she encounters Covent Garden street gangs, boxing matches, theatre riots and spectacular stage productions. En route, she learns a lot about who she is, and who her real friends are.

In 1935, 10-year-old Alex Maki from Bainbridge Island, Washington, is disgusted when he’s forced to become pen pals with Charlie Lévy of Paris, France - a girl. He thought she was a boy. In spite of Alex’s reluctance, their letters continue to fly across the Atlantic - and along with them, the shared hopes and dreams of friendship. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the growing Nazi persecution of Jews force them to confront the darkest aspects of human nature.

Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone in town thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl.” But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion. Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school.

Rose, Ella, Marta and Carla. In another life we might all have been friends together. But this was Birchwood. As 14-year-old Ella begins her first day at work she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients. Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz. Every dress she makes could mean the difference between life and death.