Collection: Historical Fiction

Here, in a Library of America volume edited by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, is the fiction that established James Baldwin's reputation as a writer who fused unblinking realism and rare verbal eloquence. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), tells the story, rooted in Baldwin's own experience, of a preacher's son coming of age in 1930's Harlem. Ten years in the writing, its exploration of religious, sexual, and generational conflicts was described by Baldwin as "an attempt to exorcise something, to find out what happened to my father, what happened to all of us." Giovanni's Room (1956) is a searching, and in its day controversial, treatment of the tragic self-delusions of a young American expatriate at war with his own homosexuality. Another Country (1962), a wide-ranging exploration of America's racial and sexual boundaries, depicts the suicide of a gifted jazz musician and its ripple effect on those who knew him. Complex in structure and turbulent in mood, it is in many ways Baldwin's most ambitious novel. Going to Meet the Man (1965) collects Baldwin's short fiction, including the masterful "Sonny's Blues," the unforgettable portrait of a jazz musician struggling with drug addiction in which Baldwin came closest to defining his goal as a writer: "For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness."

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

"A captivating Cold War page-turner." -- Real Simple

The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives returns with a gripping and profoundly human story of Cold War espionage and family devotion.

In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family's sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the West's most vital secrets?

Four years later, Ruth Macallister receives a postcard from the twin sister she hasn't seen since their catastrophic parting in Rome in the summer of 1940, as war engulfed the continent and Iris fell desperately in love with an enigmatic United States Embassy official named Sasha Digby. Within days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of counterintelligence agent Sumner Fox in a precarious plot to extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain.

But the complex truth behind Iris's marriage defies Ruth's understanding, and as the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet KGB officer forces them to make a heartbreaking choice between two irreconcilable loyalties.

An irresistible love story, an unforgettable family. The New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage Portrait and Hamnet captures an extraordinary marriage with insight and laugh-out-loud humor in what Richard Russo calls "her breakout book."

Daniel Sullivan leads a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn, and his wife, Claudette, is a reclusive ex-film star given to pulling a gun on anyone who ventures up their driveway. Together, they have made an idyllic life in the country, but a secret from Daniel's past threatens to destroy their meticulously constructed and fiercely protected home. Shot through with humor and wisdom, This Must Be the Place is an irresistible love story that crisscrosses continents and time zones as it captures an extraordinary marriage, and an unforgettable family, with wit and deep affection.

Winner of the David J. Langum, Sr., Prize in American Historical Fiction

Named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post and "Required Reading" by the New York Post

Edward Rutherfurd celebrates America's greatest city in a rich, engrossing saga, weaving together tales of families rich and poor, native-born and immigrant--a cast of fictional and true characters whose fates rise and fall and rise again with the city's fortunes. From this intimate perspective we see New York's humble beginnings as a tiny Indian fishing village, the arrival of Dutch and British merchants, the Revolutionary War, the emergence of the city as a great trading and financial center, the convulsions of the Civil War, the excesses of the Gilded Age, the explosion of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the trials of World War II, the near demise of New York in the 1970s and its roaring rebirth in the 1990s, and the attack on the World Trade Center. A stirring mix of battle, romance, family struggles, and personal triumphs, New York: The Novel gloriously captures the search for freedom and opportunity at the heart of our nation's history.

The brand new historical novel from Erin Litteken, bestselling author of The Memory Keeper of Kyiv, based on her family's heart-wrenching escape from war-torn Europe.

A story of the strength of the human spirit, the personal cost of conflict and how love can be found even in the darkest times.

Summer 1941. War rages in Europe. The Germans march towards Ukraine. Halya, Liliya and Vika are no strangers to sorrow. They lost family during the Holodomor, loved ones in Stalin's purges, and war looms once more on the horizon.

Vika lives in fear for her children. She and her sister survived the terror famine by leaving their whole family behind. Now, years later, many believe the Germans will free them from the Soviets, but she's not so sure. Should they stay in Volhynia or flee the approaching Eastern front?

Liliya has lost too much in her 17 years. As those around her join the resistance, Liliya wonders how she can fight for her friends, family, and country. When the choice is made for her, can she find the will to survive and protect those still with her?

Twelve-year-old Halya is struggling to discover who she is. But as the war escalates, can her mother Katya's tactics keep her safe from the Nazi soldiers rounding up slave laborers? How can a child survive the horrors of war on her own?

These daughters of Ukraine will face devastation and loss as they fight to survive and protect the ones they love.

A gripping page-turner of love, loss and resilience for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Praise for Erin Litteken:

"A compelling and intimate story of love and survival. Harrowing and haunting . . . yet, at the same time, it is sensitive, beautiful and inspiring. Everybody should read this story, especially now. I cannot recommend it highly enough." Christy Lefteri, author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo

"A stunning portrait of Ukraine and its people, of strength, of endurance, of the fight for survival during the forced famine, the Holodomor, but also a tender story of Katya, a grandmother whose hidden history holds the power to guide her granddaughter through the darkness of loss and grief, toward life and a limitless future. A remarkable read not to be missed." Lisa Wingate, author of Before We Were Yours

"This beautifully written snapshot of Ukraine's history is both timely and heart-rending, sensitively bringing to life the culture of a nation devastated by an enemy invader. How shocking it is that it's a history that's being repeated today. And how important a reminder that where there's life, there's hope." Fiona Valpy, author of The Dressmaker's Gift

"Emotionally riveting and honest . . . simultaneously shines an unflinching light on historical atrocities while it celebrates the resilience of the human spirit. You won't soon forget this stunning debut." Paulette Kennedy, author of Parting the Veil

"The Memory Keeper of Kyiv is a meticulously researched novel . . . depicting a country whose people managed to dig deep enough to find the strength, determination and heart to survive." Deborah Carr, author of An Island at War

"Breathtaking. Devastating. Erin Litteken's The Memory Keeper of Kyiv chronicles a defining but forgotten moment of Ukrainian history." Amanda McCrina, author of The Silent Unseen

"In this terrific series opener, Afia evokes the women's lives in all their wayward and beautiful glory, especially the abruptness with which their dreams, hopes and fears cease to exist."--The New York Times

The start of an exciting new historical mystery series set during the Harlem Renaissance from debut author Nekesa Afia

Harlem, 1926. Young Black women like Louise Lloyd are ending up dead.

Following a harrowing kidnapping ordeal when she was in her teens, Louise is doing everything she can to maintain a normal life. She's succeeding, too. She spends her days working at Maggie's Café and her nights at the Zodiac, Harlem's hottest speakeasy. Louise's friends, especially her girlfriend, Rosa Maria Moreno, might say she's running from her past and the notoriety that still stalks her, but don't tell her that.

When a girl turns up dead in front of the café, Louise is forced to confront something she's been trying to ignore--two other local Black girls have been murdered in the past few weeks. After an altercation with a police officer gets her arrested, Louise is given an ultimatum: She can either help solve the case or wind up in a jail cell. Louise has no choice but to investigate and soon finds herself toe-to-toe with a murderous mastermind hell-bent on taking more lives, maybe even her own....

In this exclusive authorized edition from the Queen of Mystery, the expert detective delves into an unsolved crime from the past involving the strange death of a husband and wife.

Hercule Poirot stood on the clifftop. Here, many years earlier, there had been a fatal accident followed by the grisly discovery of two bodies--a husband and wife who had been shot dead.

But who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder? Poirot delves into the past and discovers that "old sins leave long shadows."

Set against the backdrop of the first all-female Mardi Gras krewe at the turn-of-the-century, the acclaimed author's mesmerizing historical novel tells of two strangers separated by background but bound by an unexpected secret--and of the strength and courage women draw from and inspire in each other.

"An undercurrent of New Orleans's dark side propels the story, heightening the tension and supplying McPhail with a wealth of evocative details." --Publishers Weekly

1900: Though the dawn of a new century promises social progress, there are few options for women like Alice Butterworth, pregnant and abandoned by her husband. In desperation, Alice leaves Chicago's bitter cold and travels to New Orleans, where she offers sewing lessons at an orphanage.

Young widow Constance Halstead has thrown herself into charity work since her husband's death. Seeing Alice's skill, she offers lodging in exchange for help creating a gown for the Leap Year ball of Les Mysterieuses, the first all-female krewe of Mardi Gras. Leap Years offer women a rare opportunity--to turn the tables on men, upending convention. As the breathtaking gown takes shape piece by piece, it becomes a symbol of empowerment for them both.

But overshadowing all is the Black Hand--the vicious New Orleans gang to whom Constance's husband was deep in debt. His death hasn't satisfied them. And as Mardi Gras draws near, a secret emerges that will cement the bond between Alice and Constance, even as it threatens the new lives each is building . . .

'In the great tradition of Irish storytelling, taking her place beside Maeve Binchy and Frank McCourt, Jean Grainger's books will sweep you away to Ireland.'

Every week, Conor O'Shea collects a new group of American visitors from Shannon Airport, from where they embark on a high end tour of the Real Ireland.

But this particular tour, with its cast of unintentionally hilarious characters, presents even seasoned tour guide Conor with situations that test even his vast experience.

Among this eclectic group are Corlene, a gold digging multiple divorcee on the prowl; Patrick, a love starved Boston cop; Dylan, a goth uilleann piper; Dorothy a poisonous college professor who wouldn't spend Christmas and Elliot, a wall street shark who finally shows his true colours.

Then there's Ellen, back on Irish soil for the first time in eighty years, to discover a truth no-one could ever have guessed at, least of all herself.

And that's just a few of the colourful cast. The locals they meet on their journey, West Brits, passionate musicians, Ukrainian waitresses and Garda high flyers all help to make this a tour no-one will ever forget. And of course, there's Conor O'Shea in the thick of it all, solving problems and mending hearts, but what about his own?

The Tour is the first in the series.

Una novela juvenil en verso que cuenta la historia de una joven con grandes sueños.

Lula Viramonte anhela ser una persona a la que nadie pueda ignorar. Por eso quiere ser directora de en un circo ambulante mexicano. Perseguir sus sueños es difícil porque tiene que trabajar en la cosecha de uva en Delano, California; cuidar a su madre enferma, a sus hermanos y evitar que se desate el temperamento volátil de papá.

Entonces Lula conoce a Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong y a otros activistas por los derechos de los agricultores y entiende que ella y su familia deben sumarse a la huelga que está a punto de estallar. Luchar es, tal vez, la única forma de cambiar el futuro.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

A young girl with big dreams meets activist Dolores Huerta and joins the 1965 protest for migrant workers' rights in this tender-hearted middle grade novel in verse, perfect for fans of Rita Williams-Garcia and Pam Muñoz Ryan.

Lula Viramontes dreams of one day becoming someone whom no one can ignore: a daring ringleader in a Mexican traveling carpa, like the one she saw years ago while her family was working a harvest in Texas. But when the Teatro Campesino (the official theater company of the United Farm Workers) comes to their encampment in Delano, California, Lula meets activist Dolores Huerta and discovers an even more pressing reason to raise her voice: the upcoming farm workers' strike, an event that will determine her family's future--for better or worse.

It is the cusp of World War I. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ genetically fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.

Aleksandar Ferdinand, a Clanker, and Deryn Sharp, a Darwinist, are on opposite sides of the war. But their paths cross in the most unexpected way, taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure....One that will change both their lives forever.

WORLD WAR 3.1

The year is 1954. A decade has passed since Berlin and Tokyo were consumed by nuclear fire, but war claws its way back to a world forever altered. The ailing Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin, strikes NATO with a colossal orbital assault, propelling waves of tanks and over a million soldiers westward - all armed with 21st-century tech plundered from a future they never knew.

Admiral Kolhammer, Prince Harry, and Charlotte Francois are compelled to once again take arms. They're fighting not only to save the world but history itself. Yet, in this complex web of time and conflict, not everybody wants to be saved.

Brimming with the raw combat intensity and high-octane alternate history that fans adored in "Weapons of Choice," this fresh instalment revitalizes the groundbreaking Axis of Time series for both returning readers and newcomers.

Praise for the Axis of Time.

"Insanely clever alt-history mash-up of WWII and the twenty-first century war on terror isn't your typical time-travelling technothriller." - Wired magazine.

"Birmingham is exemplary. The descriptions of combat - both from an executive remove and a close - are terrifyingly gruesome and detailed... Birmingham succeeds in restaging World War II in a manner as gripping as, say, Herman Wouk's The Winds of War and War and Remembrance." - Sci-fi Weekly.

"Weapons-grade military techno-thriller... It's like a Clive Cussler novel fell into a transporter beam with a Stephen Ambrose hisotry and they came out all fused together." Time magazine.

"Birmingham's enthralling battleground mixes provocative historical fiction with socially, conscious futurism." Entertainment Weekly.

Born the bastard son of a Welsh princess, Myridden Emrys -- or as he would later be known, Merlin -- leads a perilous childhood, haunted by portents and visions. But destiny has great plans for this no-man's-son, taking him from prophesying before the High King Vortigern to the crowning of Uther Pendragon . . . and the conception of Arthur -- king for once and always.

It is the winter of 1944. In Nazi-occupied Europe, a Jewish couple realize their fate is sealed and make a heart-rending decision so that their infant daughter might live. Ruth Vander Zee's elegant narration and Roberto Innocenti's searing and beautiful illustrations combine to capture the fear, love, and sadness of a Holocaust survivor's story.

A red squirrel stows away on a canoe to fulfill his dream of joining a group of voyageurs--men who paddle canoes filled with goods to a trading post thousands of miles away.

A Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award

It is 1792 and unbeknownst to a group of voyageurs traveling from Montreal to Grand Portage, an intrepid squirrel, Jean Pierre Petit Le Rouge, sneaks onto their canoe. Le Rouge is soon discovered because he can't contain his excitement--mon dieu he is so enthusiastic. The smells! The vistas! The comradery!

The voyageurs are not particularly happy to have him, especially because Le Rouge rides, but he does not paddle. He eats, but he does not cook. He doesn't even carry anything on portages--sometimes it is he who has to be carried. He also has a terrible singing voice. What kind of voyageur is that?

When they finally arrive at the trading post Le Rouge is in for a terrible shock--the voyageurs have traveled all those miles to collect beaver pelts. With the help of Monique, a smart and sweet flying squirrel, Le Rouge organizes his fur-bearing friends of the forest to ambush the men and try and convince them to quit being voyageurs.

Written by a Newbery honor author, the book has over 20 black-and-white illustrations.

"Thoroughly charming."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Original."--Booklist (starred review)

"A story about selflessness, friendship and the importance of seeking unity through difference."--Shelf Awareness (starred review)

Two unlikely friends--Federico, in sixteenth-century Rome, and Bee, in present-day New Jersey--are linked through an amiable cat, Leonardo Da Vinci's mysterious wardrobe, and an eerily perfect sketch of Bee. Newbery Honor author Catherine Gilbert Murdock's Da Vinci's Cat is a thrilling, time-slip fantasy about rewriting history to save the present. This inventive novel will engross anyone who loved When You Reach Me and A Wrinkle in Time.

Federico doesn't mind being a political hostage in the Pope's palace, especially now that he has a cat as a friend. But he must admit that a kitten walking into a wardrobe and returning full-grown a moment later is quite odd. Even stranger is Herbert, apparently an art collector from the future, who emerges from the wardrobe the next night. Herbert barters with Federico to get a sketch signed by the famous painter Raphael, but his plans take a dangerous turn when he hurries back to his era, desperate to save a dying girl.

Bee never wanted to move to New Jersey. When a neighbor shows Bee a sketch that perfectly resembles her, Bee, freaked out, solidifies her resolve to keep to herself. But then she meets a friendly cat and discovers a mysterious cabinet in her neighbor's attic--a cabinet that leads her to Renaissance Rome. Bee, who has learned about Raphael and Michelangelo in school, never expected she'd get to meet them and see them paint their masterpieces.

This compelling time-slip adventure by Newbery Honor author Catherine Gilbert Murdock is full of action, mystery, history, art, and friendship--and features one unforgettable cat.

Includes black-and-white spot art throughout of Da Vinci's cat by Caldecott Medalist Paul O. Zelinsky, as well as an author's note about the art, artists, and history that inspired the novel .