Historical fiction books from Ireland
Recommended historical fiction books (10)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical fiction here are some historical fiction books from Ireland for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
2.
Airman by Eoin Colfer EN
Description:
Conor Broekhart was born to fly. Or more accurately, he was born flying. Little wonder he became what he became. In an age of discovery and invention, many dreamed of flying, but for Conor flight was more than just a dream, it was his destiny. In one dark night on the island of Great Saltee, a cruel and cunning betrayal destroyed his life and stole his future. Now Conor must win the race for flight, to save his family and right a terrible wrong...
3.
All the Broken Places by John Boyne EN
Description:
From the author of the globally bestselling, multi-million-copy classic, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, comes its astonishing and powerful sequel. 'When is a monster's child culpable? Guilt and complicity are multifaceted. John Boyne is a maestro of historical fiction. You can't prepare yourself for the magnitude and emotional impact of this powerful novel' John Irving 'An incredible feat of storytelling. All the Broken Places is a stark confrontation of evil, an examination of guilt and deflection, and an old-fashioned page-turner. John treads the finest of narrative lines with skill and gra... continue
4.
Atlas: the Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley, Harry Whittaker EN
Description:
The final novel in the Seven Sisters series is here. Spanning a lifetime of love and loss, crossing borders and oceans, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, co-authored by her son Harry Whittaker, draws Lucinda Riley's saga to its stunning, unforgettable conclusion.
1928, Paris. A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family. Gentle, precocious, talented, he flourishes in his new home, and the family show him a life he hadn’t dreamed possible. But he refuses to speak a word about who he really is.
As he grows into a young man, falling in love and taking classes at... continue
5.
Description:
In a small town in the south-east of Ireland in the 1950s, Eilis Lacey is among many of her generation who cannot find work at home. So when she is offered a job in America, she leaves her family to start a new life in Brooklyn, New York.
6.
Juno Loves Legs : A Novel by Karl Geary EN
Description:
For fans of Shuggie Bain and A Little Life, Juno Loves Legs is the epic and heartbreaking story of a young friendship set in working-class Dublin in the 1980s Juno Loves Legs is the story of two teens labeled as delinquents. Juno and "Legs" grow up on the same housing estate in Dublin, where spirited, intelligent Juno is ostracized for her poverty and Legs is persecuted for his sexuality; they find safety only in each other. Set against the backdrop of Dublin in the 1980s, a place of political, social and religious change, the friends yearn for an unbound life and together they begin to fight ... continue
7.
Lies of Silence by Brian Moore EN
Description:
When the IRA orders Dillon to park his car at a Belfast hotel, he knows he's planting a bomb that will kill and maim dozens. He also knows his wife will be killed if he disobeys.The choice is complicated by the fact that the action takes place on the day Dillon plans to tell his wife he is leaving her to go to London to live with his girlfriend, Andrea, a researcher with the BBC. His decision has far reaching implications that play themselves out over the course of the novel, culminating in a horrific ending.
8.
Nora : A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce by Nuala O'Connor EN
Description:
Acclaimed Irish novelist Nuala O'Connor's bold reimagining of the life of James Joyce's wife, muse, and the model for Molly Bloom in Ulysses is a "lively and loving paean to the indomitable Nora Barnacle" (Edna O'Brien). Dublin, 1904. Nora Joseph Barnacle is a twenty-year-old from Galway who left school at twelve, is a chambermaid at Finn's Hotel, and has all but given up on a happy ending. But on June 16--Bloomsday--her life is changed when she meets James Joyce, a fateful encounter that turns into a lifelong love. Despite his hesitation to marry, Nora follows him in pursuit of a life beyond ... continue
9.
She was a Queen by Maurice Collis EN
Description:
She was indeed a Queen. Born a peasant in thirteenth-century Burma, Queen Saw--young, beautiful, and extremely intelligent--reigned beside two kings. Everything luxuriantly cruel or voluptuously lovely swirled around the royal White Umbrella: mandarins, oracle-eating tigers, murdersome intrigue, egg-sized emeralds, concubines, fearsome magic, Tartars, and groveling courtiers (with elbows calloused as thickly as the soles of their feet). Queen Saw happily survived all--her two husbands as well as the Mongol invasion. Wonderful in its details and historical lore, the chief enchantment of She Was... continue
10.
Sing, Wild Bird, Sing : A Novel by Jacqueline O EN
Description:
A courageous woman journeys from nineteenth-century Ireland to the American West in a powerful novel about the indomitable will to survive--and to flourish--against nearly impossible odds. It's 1849 on the west coast of Ireland. Resilient Honora O'Donoghue is accustomed to fending for herself and to reading the language of the natural world. It was always said she'd been marked for something different, but it's not until she suffers devastating losses in a country gripped by the Famine that Honora begins to understand how that difference will save her. With the hope of a better life in America... continue