Historical fiction genre books (1697)


1661.

White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Germany flag Germany
Description:
For fans of Lisa Wingate’s Before We Were Yours and Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, a deeply moving novel that follows two Korean sisters separated by World War II. Korea, 1943. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. As a haenyeo, a female diver of the sea, she enjoys an independence that few other Koreans can still claim. Until the day Hana saves her younger sister from a Japanese soldier and is herself captured and transported to Manchuria. There she is forced to become a “comfort woman” in a Japanese military brothel. But haenyeo are women of power and strength. She will find her... continue

1662.

White Hunger by Aki Ollikainen EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Finland flag Finland
Description:
1867: The year of the great famine in Finland. Mirja, a farmer's wife from the north, and her two young children set off on foot through the snow. Their goal: St Petersburg - a place which, rumours suggest, enjoys bread in plenty. However others are also heading south - everyone equally desperate to survive.

1663.

White Shanghai: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties in China by Elvira Baryakina EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Russia flag Russia
Description:
Some call the city the 'Splendor of the East'; others the 'Whore of Asia'. A melting pot of different nations, fused by war and commerce, this is the Shanghai of the 1920s. The Great Powers are greedily exploiting China for its cheap labor and reaping the cruel rewards of the booming opium trade. When a flotilla of ships carries the remnants of the defeated White Army on entry to Shanghai, the fragile balance of this international marketplace comes under threat. Among the refugees is Klim Rogov, an emigre journalist whose life and marriage have been claimed by the Russian Revolution. All he ha... continue

1664.
Who's Saying what in Jamestown, Thomas Savage?

Who's Saying what in Jamestown, Thomas Savage? by Jean Fritz EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / China flag China
Description:
A biography of Thomas Savage, one of the early colonists of Jamestown, Virginia, who was sent to live among the Indians in order to learn their language and become an interpreter.

1665.

Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta by Aglaja Veteranyi EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Romania flag Romania
Description:
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

1666.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys EN

Rating: 4 (23 votes)
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.


1668.

Wild Ginger by Anchee Min EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / China flag China
Description:
Narrated by Maple, a less than passionate Maoist whose father is imprisoned for a minor crime, a powerful story of desire during the time of the Cultural Revolution follows Wild Ginger, who, due to tragic circumstances, embraces Maoism and soon becomes a national model for Maoism, which prohibits romantic love, forcing her to make a difficult decision when she falls in love with a young man. Reprint.


1670.

Wish Her Safe At Home by Stephen Benatar EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / England flag England
Description:
Rachel Waring is deliriously happy. Out of nowhere, a great-aunt leaves her a Georgian mansion in another city—and she sheds her old life without delay. Gone is her dull administrative job, her mousy wardrobe, her downer of a roommate. She will live as a woman of leisure, devoted to beauty, creativity, expression, and love. Once installed in her new quarters, Rachel plants a garden, takes up writing, and impresses everyone she meets with her extraordinary optimism. But as Rachel sings and jokes the days away, her new neighbors begin to wonder if she might be taking her transformation just a bi... continue