Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

After the untimely death of his older brother, six-year-old Prince Amenhotep IV becomes the unlikely heir to the Egyptian throne, the most powerful kingship in the ancient world. By the time he becomes pharaoh over a decade later, the growing influence of the wealthy and corrupt Amun priesthood threatens to undermine his sovereignty. Desperate to maintain power, Amenhotep outlaws the Amun religion, renames himself Akenaten, and proclaims himself the living incarnation of a single, all-powerful deity - the Aten, or sun.

No one could have been more surprised than our Provincial Lady to receive an invitation from her American agent to travel transatlantic and embark upon a programme of lectures and signings. She was particularly amazed because, having received an overture sometime before and feeling that she would rather stay in the English countryside, she requested that they meet quite a few ‘requirements’ before she would agree to go. They met every stipulation. ‘

Amsterdam, 1640. Un homme est excommunié de la communauté juive portugaise pour avoir remis en question les Saintes Ecritures. Le jeune Bento de Espinosa assiste à la scène et l'épisode fait germer en lui un doute. Et si tout ce qui est écrit dans la Bible était faux ? Le soupçon va lancer Bento dans la plus grande quête intellectuelle qui soit. Qui a écrit les textes sacrés ? Qui est vraiment Dieu ? Qu'est-ce que la nature ? Toutes ces questions sont extrêmement dangereuses et le jeune Spinoza va bientôt en payer le prix. Juifs et chrétiens l'accusent d'hérésie et commencent à le persécuter.

Wife and mother to a dynasty of kings, crusader, prisoner and formidable political operator, Eleanor of Aquitaine is a thoroughly modern woman, despite living almost 900 years ago. Intelligent, witty and independent, she is tough enough to forge her own destiny—and subtle enough to shape the world to her will.

Once Upon a Raven's Nest is an account of an epoch of change; of the earth and of a human life. It is the story of a working class man, one Thomas Hedley of Exmoor, and of the planet during the period of its great acceleration towards the current climate emergency. Born in 1955 to a poor family...

Jackie: when her first marriage ends in tragedy, Jackie Kennedy fears she’ll never love again. But all that changes when she encounters...Ari: successful and charming, Ari Onassis is a man who promises her the world. Yet soon after they marry, Jackie learns that his heart also belongs to another. Maria: a beautiful, famed singer, Maria Callas is in love with Jackie’s new husband - and she isn’t going to give up.

With his characteristic raw and minimalist style, Charles Bukowski takes us on a walk through his side of town in Hot Water Music. He gives us little vignettes of depravity and lasciviousness, bite sized pieces of what is both beautiful and grotesque. The stories in Hot Water Music dash around...

1857. Three women—once strangers—come together in unpredictable Utah Territory. Hopeful, desperate, and willful, they’ll allow nothing on Earth or in Heaven to stand in their way. Following the call of their newfound Mormon faith, Tamar Loader and her family weather a brutal pilgrimage from England to Utah, where Tamar is united with her destined husband, Thomas Ricks. Clinging to a promise for the future, she abides an unexpected surprise: Thomas is already wedded to one woman—Tabitha, a local healer—and betrothed to still another.

Brought to you by Penguin. **SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021** **LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022** I WAS BORN TO BE A WANDERER From the night she is rescued as a baby out of the flames of a sinking ship; to the day she joins a pair of daredevil pilots looping and diving...

The National Book Award finalist and national bestseller exploring the life and legend of Marilyn Monroe Soon to be a Netflix Film starring Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale and Julianne Nicholson In one of her most ambitious works, Joyce Carol Oates boldly reimagines the inner, poetic...

The New York Times bestselling author of the The Paris Library returns with a powerful, moving new novel based on the extraordinary true story of Jessie Carson, the American librarian determined to bring books to the children of war-torn France. 'This is hands down my book of 2024. A rich...

Artist Hans Holbein is summoned to the house of Sir Thomas More to receive the commission of a lifetime. He will leave with a secret that could cost him his life. He will learn the truth about the life of King Richard III, the man that the Tudor dynasty has been at great pains to villify. From his return from exile with his brother, King Edward IV, to his rise to become the king's most loyal, most trusted, and most powerful subject. From his flourishing personal life to his seizure of the throne from his nephew.

Inspired by a true story, this is a moving reimagining of loss, legacy and the fragile truth between memory and myth… She was never meant to be a symbol, but the world made her one In 1912, fourteen-year-old Helen ‘Melville’ Smith loses her father, Captain Edward J. Smith of the Titanic...

Handsome, charismatic, and a champion jouster, Sir Charles Brandon is the epitome of a Tudor knight. A favorite of King Henry VIII, Brandon has a secret. He has fallen in love with Henry’s sister, Mary Tudor, the beautiful, widowed Queen of France, and risks everything to marry her without the King’s consent. Brandon becomes Duke of Suffolk, but his loyalty is tested fighting Henry’s wars in France. Mary’s public support for Queen Catherine of Aragon brings Brandon into dangerous conflict with the ambitious Boleyn family and the king’s new right-hand man, Thomas Cromwell.

The greatest moment in Roman history, from the perspective of the man who could have had it all.Julius Caesar is dead. Mark Antony, his second in command, is surely also in the sights of the assassins.But for Antony, where there is danger, there is opportunity. Can he seize the chance, and replace Caesar as Rome's undisputed ruler? The portents are good until a young man named Octavian appears, claiming to be Caesar's heir... The following months and years are a time of shifting alliances, betrayals and score-settling.

She was the mother of Henry VIII and wife of Henry VII, but who was Elizabeth of York? Raised as the precious eldest child of Edward IV, Elizabeth had every reason to expect a bright future until Edward died, and her life fell apart. When Elizabeth's uncle became Richard III, she was forced to choose sides. Should she trust her father's brother and most loyal supporter or honor the betrothal that her mother has made for her to her family's enemy, Henry Tudor? The choice was made for her on the field at Bosworth.

The politics of empire-building and the hypocrisies, back-stabbings, and corruptions of Rome's first family come to light. First published in 1934, the book retains a marvelously modern and often comic tone, and is written in the form of Claudius' autobiography. This is gripping stuff, read by one of our finest actors, who also starred as Claudius in the classic television series.

I would like to make myself the heroine of this story and my character to be noble - an innocent victim led astray. But alas, sir, I would be lying.... Tully Truegood: orphan. Magician's apprentice. Whore. In prison, accused of murder, Tully begins to write her life story. A story that takes her from a young daughter-skivvy in the back streets of 18th-century London to her stepmother Queenie's fairy house - a place where decadent excess is a must....

12th century, England: A penniless young knight with few prospects, William Marshal is plucked from obscurity when he saves the life of Henry II's formidable queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. In gratitude, she appoints him tutor to the heir to the throne, the volatile and fickle Prince Henry. But being a royal favorite brings its share of danger and jealousy as well as fame and reward.

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR! “A gripping narrative, don't miss this historical fiction about the woman who kicked off the Harlem Renaissance.”—People Magazine “A page turner and history lesson at once, Harlem Rhapsody reminds us that our stories are our generational wealth...