Historical Biographical Fiction

Eighteen-year-old James Douglas can only watch, helpless, as the Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace is hanged, drawn, and quartered. Even under the heel of a brutal English conqueror, James' blood-drenched homeland may still have one hope for freedom, the rightful king of the Scots, Robert the Bruce. James swears fealty to the man he believes can lead the fight against English tyranny. The Bruce is soon a fugitive, king in name and nothing more. Scotland is occupied, the Scottish resistance crushed. Yet James believes their cause is not lost.

Europe, 1939. Hanne is an adolescent boy, born into a wealthy family from Belgrade. Realizing the Nazi threat is advancing toward the Balkans with giant strides, his parents are prepared to do anything to save their son’s life. The road to survival, however, is not easy. Just as Europe’s gates are about to shut down, Hanne and 1,100 other youths sail away on the Danube River. On board the ship, under appalling living conditions, Hanne falls in love with Inge, a young German Jewish girl.

Jane Lambert, the quick-witted and alluring daughter of a silk merchant, is twenty-two and still unmarried. When Jane’s father finally finds her a match, she’s married off to the dull, older silk merchant William Shore. Marriage doesn’t stop Jane from flirtation, however, and when the king’s chamberlain, Will Hastings, comes to her husband’s shop, Will knows King Edward will find her irresistible.

Chicago, 1920s: Movie starlet Silver Dollar Tabor's glittering life shatters after a brutal attack awakens a hidden self. Plunging into the city's dangerous underworld of burlesque speakeasies, she blurs the lines between ambition and destruction, testing her love for screenwriter Carl. This Jazz Age, Prohibition-era tale explores the dark side of fame and the fragility of identity.

Guernsey, 2010. After a stroke, an elderly woman shocks her family by speaking perfect French—a language they never knew she possessed. As her granddaughter unravels seventy years of silence, a hidden wartime story emerges... Paris, 1941. After her brother is declared missing in action at Dunkirk, eighteen-year-old Lenny Gallienne vanishes into Churchill’s secret army. In a bookshop on Rue de la Pompe, she poses as a shop girl while encoding intelligence from Nazi headquarters into knitting patterns. Each sweater smuggled to prisoners contains flight paths. Each scarf holds radio frequencies.

For fans of Philippa Gregory and Allison Pataki, Butterfly Games is Kelly Scarborough’s debut biographical historical fiction novel about a young Swedish countess whose youthful love affair with the heir to her country’s throne has profound personal and political repercussions. In some games, winning means losing everything that matters. In the opulent world of the Swedish royal court, Jacquette Gyldenstolpe walks a dangerous tightrope between romance and political intrigue.

Librarian Heather Brown discovers the fascinating life of Alice Bailey - a long forgotten occultist. Back in 1931, Alice is preparing to give a speech at a Swiss summer school. But how can she stave the tide of hatred and greed set to bring the world to its knees? Soon after, Alice is put on Hitler's blacklist. What she doesn't realize is the enormity of her influence to the world, and the real enemies who are much closer than she thinks. A dynamic and complex figure, Alice Bailey’s reach was huge.

This Splash Read collection includes eight historical fiction short stories about S.T.E.M. pioneers. The stories are "Mary Jackson Builds a Wind Tunnel", "Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Crushes Smallpox", "Caroline and William Herschel Explore the Stars", "George Dantzig and the Unsolvable Problem", "Albert Einstein Teaches Himself Math", "Neil Armstrong and Popsicle Sticks", "Arthur Fry Invents Post-It Notes", and "Notch Learns to Code".

New York, 1991. Rosa Kusstatscher ha costruito un impero della moda sul suo gusto squisito e la capacità di indovinare l'abito perfetto per ogni occasione. Ma stasera, mentre si prepara per l'incontro più importante della sua vita, l'usuale sicurezza vacilla. Si sforza di trovare il vestito adatto e scegliere la giusta tonalità di rossetto e, nel farlo, inizia a raccontare la sua vicenda straordinaria. La storia di una povera ragazza di montagna, originaria di un piccolo villaggio del Sud Tirolo. Dell'occupazione nazista e della fuga dall'Italia di notte.

Eine Frau, für ein paar Tage frei von Pflichten, Mann und Kindern, fährt im Januar 1969 von Den Haag über Amsterdam nach Frankfurt. Drei Liebesgeschichten aus den Zeiten der Kriege und Niederlagen gehen ihr durch den Kopf.

This fascinating story will capture any young listener with a thirst for adventure. Like MacColl's Prisoners in the Palace, Promise the Night propels the listener into an evocative story with an unforgettable protagonist, while bringing the setting and time period to life. Immediately compelling and action-packed, this work of historical fiction explores the life of Beryl Markham, the fist person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west from England to North America.

During the fur-trapping era of the early 1800's, Marie Dorion refuses to be left behind in St. Louis when her husband heads west. Faced with hostile landscapes, an untried expedition leader, and her volatile husband, Marie finds that the daring act she hoped would bring her family together may, in the end, tear them apart.

Eva Reich never felt she had to choose between the worlds of her Jewish father and Christian mother. History chose for her. Poland, 1941. From the moment she stepped off the freight train that brought her family to Auschwitz, Eva Reich fought for her survival. From growing up surrounded by her Christian relatives in Berlin, she is thrown into the Jewish work camps of Nazi-occupied Poland. There, she experiences cruelty, intimidation, and hatred. But also kindness, fearlessness, and bravery--from the people she least expected.

David and Sara Kirke live in a time of upheaval under the reign of King Charles I, who gives, then takes. He gives David the nod of approval to range up and down the French Canadian shores, burning colonies and pillaging ships that are loaded with goods meant for the French. When Louis XIII of France shouts his outrage, King Charles reneges. He takes David’s prizes and returns them to the French, putting David and his family in dire straits. Undeterred, David and Sara will not be denied. After years, the king relents.

En esta obra, de corte histórico, que se sitúa a mediados del siglo XVI. El parecido físico permite a Tom Canty, un niño pobre y soñador, suplantar al príncipe Eduardo, que se aburre en palacio. De este modo, el príncipe, mezclado con el pueblo, conoce las injusticias cometidas por su gobierno. Pero ¿qué ocurrirá cuando quiera recuperar su identidad y reparar sus errores?