Historical fiction genre books (1182)
1161.
Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta by Aglaja Veteranyi EN
RomaniaDescription:
A nomadic family of circus performers, refugees from Romania, travels through Europe and Africa by caravan. The mother's death-defying act causes constant anxiety for her two daughters, who voice their fears through a grisly communal fairy tale about a child being cooked alive in polenta--but their real life is no less of a dark fable, and one that seems just as unlikely to have a happy ending. An actor and performance artist as well as a poet and novelist, Veteranyi was acclaimed for her seemingly "artless" narrative voice, in which pain and hilarity always vie for the upper hand--a voice at ... continue
1162.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys EN
Country: North America / 
Dominica
Dominica
Description:
Antoinette Cosway is a Creole heiress - product of an inbred, decadent, expatriate community - a sensitive girl at once beguiled and repelled by the lush Jamaican landscape. Soon after her marriage to Rochester rumours of madness in the Cosway family poison Rochester's mind against her.
Spain
Jordan1165.
With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz EN
PolandDescription:
Set in the 17th century in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Khmelnytsky Uprising.
1166.
Woman in Battle Dress by Antonio Benitez-Rojo EN
Country: North America / 
Cuba
Cuba
Description:
Finalist for the 2016 PEN Center USA Award for Translation In 1809, at the age of eighteen, Henriette Faber enrolled herself in medical school in Paris—and since medicine was a profession prohibited to women, she changed her name to Henri in order to matriculate. She would spend the next fifteen years practicing medicine and living as a man. Drafted to serve as a surgeon in Napoleon's army, Faber endured the horrors of the 1812 retreat across Russia. She later embarked to the Caribbean and set up a medical practice in a remote Cuban village, where she married Juana de León, an impoverished loc... continue
1167.
Woman of the Ashes : A Novel by Mia Couto EN
Country: Africa / 
Mozambique
Mozambique
Description:
The first in a trilogy about the last emperor of southern Mozambique by one of Africa’s most important writers Southern Mozambique, 1894. Sergeant Germano de Melo is posted to the village of Nkokolani to oversee the Portuguese conquest of territory claimed by Ngungunyane, the last of the leaders of the state of Gaza, the second-largest empire led by an African. Ngungunyane has raised an army to resist colonial rule and with his warriors is slowly approaching the border village. Desperate for help, Germano enlists Imani, a fifteen-year-old girl, to act as his interpreter. She belongs to the VaC... continue
1168.
Women and Children by Tony Birch EN
AustraliaDescription:
It's 1965 and Joe Cluny is living in a working-class suburb with his mum, Marion, and sister, Ruby, spending his days trying to avoid trouble with the nuns at the local Catholic primary school. One evening his Aunty Oona appears on the doorstep, distressed and needing somewhere to stay. As his mum and aunty work out what to do, Joe comes to understand the secrets that the women in his family carry, including on their bodies. Yet their pleas for assistance are met with silence and complicity from all sides. Who will help Joe's family at their time of need? Women & Children is a novel about the ... continue
1169.
You Dreamed of Empires : A Novel by Álvaro Enrigue EN
Country: North America / 
Mexico
Mexico
Description:
“Short, strange, spiky and sublime… [Enrigue] is clearly a major talent.” – Dwight Garner, The New York Times From the visionary author of Sudden Death, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story. One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan – today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures. Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former ... continue
1170.
You Shall Leave Your Land by Renato Cisneros EN
Country: South America / 
Peru
Peru
Description:
Renato Cisneros's great-great-grandmother Nicolasa bore seven children by her priest, raising them alone in nineteenth century Peru. More than a century later, Renato struggles to wring information about his origins out of recalcitrant relatives, whose foibles match the adventures and dalliances of their ancestors. As buried secrets are brought into the light and is bound up with key moments in the development of the Republic of Peru since it won independence.