Collection: Historical Fiction

A wildly over-the-top social satire reimagining the mad misadventures of the iconic royal cousins King Ludwig and Empress Sisi, from the incomparable Jac Jemc.

History knows them as King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Elizabeth of Austria, icons of the late nineteenth century who died young and left behind magnificent portraits and palaces. But to each other they were Ludwig and Sisi, cousins who shared a passion for beauty and a stubborn refusal to submit to the roles imposed upon them.

Ludwig, simultaneously spoiled and punished for his softness and "unmanly" interests, falls hard for the operas of Richard Wagner and neglects his state duties in the pursuit of art. Sisi, married at the age of sixteen to her beloved Franzl, bristles at the restrictions of her elevated position, the value placed on her beauty, and the simultaneous expectation that she ravage her body again and again in childbirth. Both absurdly vain, both traumatized by the demands of their roles, Sisi and Ludwig struggle against the ideals they are expected to embody, and resist through extravagance, petulance, performance, and frivolity.

A tragicomic tour de force, Jac Jemc's Empty Theatre immerses readers in Ludwig and Sisi's rarefied, ridiculous, restrictive world, and takes us on an unforgettable journey through two extraordinary parallel lives.

Featured in PBS's The Vietnam War series by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick.

The New York Times bestselling, "powerhouse" (TIME Magazine) debut from Vietnam War veteran, Karl Marlantes.

An incredible publishing story--written over the course of thirty years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, a New York Times best seller for sixteen weeks, a National Indie Next and a USA Today best seller--Matterhorn has been hailed as a "brilliant account of war" (New York Times Book Review). Now out in paperback, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever.

Matterhorn is a visceral and spellbinding novel about what it is like to be a young man at war. It is an unforgettable novel that transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful and universal story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice: a parable not only of the war in Vietnam but of all war, and a testament to the redemptive power of literature.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Matterhorn becomes for the Vietnam War what All Quiet on the Western Front was to World War I." -James Patterson

From the beloved author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven comes his most critically acclaimed novel yet--a stunningly original tale of love: love between a man and a woman, between an artist and his mentor, and between a musician and his God-given talent.

Narrated by the voice of Music itself, the story follows Frankie Presto, a war orphan born in a burning church, through his extraordinary journey around the world. Raised by a blind guitar teacher in Spain and gifted with a talent to change people's lives--using six mysterious blue strings--Frankie navigates the musical landscape of the twentieth century, from the 1950s jazz scene to the Grand Ole Opry to Elvis mania and Woodstock, all the while searching for his childhood love.

As he becomes a famous star, he loses his way, until tragedy steals his ability to play the guitar that had so defined him. Overwhelmed by his loss, Frankie disappears for decades, reemerging late in life for one spectacular yet mystifying farewell.

Part love story, part magical mystery, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto is Mitch Albom at his finest, a Forrest Gump-like epic about one man's journey to discover what truly matters and the power of talent to change our lives.

The Gardener is a 1997 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and a 1998 Caldecott Honor Book.

From the author-and-illustrator team of the bestselling The Library.

Lydia Grace Finch brings a suitcase full of seeds to the big gray city, where she goes to stay with her Uncle Jim, a cantankerous baker. There she initiates a gradual transformation, bit by bit brightening the shop and bringing smiles to customers' faces with the flowers she grows. But it is in a secret place that Lydia Grace works on her masterpiece -- an ambitious rooftop garden -- which she hopes will make even Uncle Jim smile. Sarah Stewart introduces readers to an engaging and determined young heroine, whose story is told through letters written home, while David Small's illustrations beautifully evoke the Depression-era setting.

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Fans of Shana Abé, Theresa Ann Fowler, and Fiona Davis will be captivated by the unforgettable spirit at the heart of the USA Today bestselling author's dazzling new historical novel based on the real life of Lady Hester Stanhope, a British aristocrat born into an illustrious family of swashbuckling war heroes and brilliant political leaders. Lady Hester was a Regency-era adventuress who lived on her own terms and defied all conventional strictures of what a woman could and couldn't do during the Regency era.

"What a life Lady Hester had!...Simply sparkles!" --Kate Quinn, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Diamond Eye

"Andrea Penrose's impeccable research and attention to detail brings this unique and fascinating historical figure to sparkling life." --Christine Wells, author of The Royal Windsor Secret

"A truly dazzling read!" --Eliza Knight, USA Today and international bestselling author of Starring Adele Astaire

Even with her privileged life, Lady Hester Stanhope knows that claiming the adventurous life she truly wants will not be easy, thanks to her eccentric father's stifling grip. With the help of her renowned statesman uncle William Pitt the Younger, she takes on the glittering, treacherous heights of London Society. Her formidable intelligence, outspoken opinions, and headstrong determination gain the favor of the beau monde's leading taste-maker Beau Brummell--and she quickly learns to bend the rules of the ton to her own advantage. And as her uncle's hostess, she astutely uses her skills to preside over--and give advice to--the most influential figures of her day, rising to a position unequaled in society . . .

But when it comes to holy matrimony, Hester will settle for no less than a passionate match of equals--a search marked by challenges and heartbreak. Her affair with a charismatic naval officer tempts her with forbidden pleasures--even as it threatens her reputation. Her love for a sophisticated, brilliant diplomat offers the marriage of her dreams . . . and unsuspected betrayal. And as England is plunged into war, Hester's world changes forever, causing her to find courage and strength amid loss, chart a completely unexpected future--and make a glorious legacy forever hers . . .

The French Revolution comes to vivid life in Charles Dickens's famous novel about the best of times and the worst of times...

The storming of the Bastille...the death carts with their doomed human cargo...the swift drop of the guillotine blade--this is the French Revolution that Charles Dickens vividly captures in his famous work A Tale of Two Cities. With dramatic eloquence, he brings to life a time of terror and treason, a starving people rising in frenzy and hate to overthrow a corrupt and decadent regime. With insight and compassion, Dickens casts his novel of unforgettable scenes with some memorable characters: the sinister Madame Defarge, knitting her patterns of death; the gentle Lucie Manette, unswerving in her devotion to her broken father; Charles Darnay, the lover with a secret past; and dissolute Sydney Carton, whose unlikely heroism gives his life meaning.

With an Introduction by Frederick Busch
and an Afterword by A. N. Wilson

A novel as wise as it is tender, a meditation on the miracle of friendship and the heartbreak of change, Followed by the Lark inhabits the life of Henry David Thoreau.

Composed in small scenes, Followed by the Lark is a novel of meditations--on loss, on change, on the danger and healing that come from communion with the natural world.

Henry David Thoreau's connection to nature was tied to his feelings of grief; before he was twenty-seven years old and went to live at Walden Pond, two of those closest to him had died--his older brother, John, and his friend Charles Wheeler. Nature provided solace for these losses, but the world was changing around him. The forests were being destroyed by the logging industry. Wildlife was increasingly slaughtered for profit and sport. The railroad clanged through his quiet hometown. And the catastrophes of the American Civil War were beginning to stir just as his own life was coming to an end. Haunting in its quiet spaces, in the way it imagines the missed connections in his relationships, Followed by the Lark is uncommon in its combination of scope and brevity, in its communion with its subject while still maintaining critical distance.

Thoreau's life in the early nineteenth century seems firmly in the past, but his time bears striking similarities to ours. As she explores these intersections in Followed by the Lark, Helen Humphreys elegantly, insistently illustrates how Thoreau's concerns are still, vitally, our own.

"[An] extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book." --Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Laura Purcell's THE SHAPE OF DARKNESS is now out from Penguin!

Some doors are locked for a reason.

When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. But pregnant and widowed just weeks after their wedding, with her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her late husband's awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure--a silent companion--that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. The residents of the estate are terrified of the figure, but Elsie tries to shrug this off as simple superstition--that is, until she notices the figure's eyes following her.

A Victorian ghost story that evokes a most unsettling kind of fear, The Silent Companions is a tale that creeps its way through the consciousness in ways you least expect--much like the companions themselves.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The million-copy bestseller Lilac Girls introduced the real-life heroine Caroline Ferriday. Now Lost Roses, set a generation earlier and also inspired by true events, features Caroline's mother, Eliza, and follows three equally indomitable women from St. Petersburg to Paris under the shadow of World War I.

"Not only a brilliant historical tale, but a love song to all the ways our friendships carry us through the worst of times."--Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours

It is 1914, and the world has been on the brink of war so often, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia: the church with the interior covered in jeweled mosaics, the Rembrandts at the tsar's Winter Palace, the famous ballet.

But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia's imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortune-teller's daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their household.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. But when Sofya's letters suddenly stop coming, she fears the worst for her best friend.

From the turbulent streets of St. Petersburg and aristocratic countryside estates to the avenues of Paris where a society of fallen Russian émigrés live to the mansions of Long Island, the lives of Eliza, Sofya, and Varinka will intersect in profound ways. In her newest powerful tale told through female-driven perspectives, Martha Hall Kelly celebrates the unbreakable bonds of women's friendship, especially during the darkest days of history.

Includes a song from Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Robbie Robertson (The Band)!
STARRED REVIEW *"A much-needed, authentic Native American voice to children's literature." --Booklist
STARRED REVIEW *"A beautifully retold version of this tale." --School Library Journal

Born of Mohawk and Cayuga descent, music legend Robbie Robertson learned the story of Hiawatha and his spiritual guide, the Peacemaker, as part of the Iroquois oral tradition. Now he shares the same gift of storytelling with parents and children in a beautifully illustrated picture book retelling the story.

The five Haudenosaunee (now more commonly referred to as the Iroquois) Nations are constantly warring with one another, fueled by the evil Chief Tadodaho. The Mohawk warrior Hiawatha, too, is consumed by grief and anger, but a Peacemaker appears and enlists him to assist in joining the tribes together under the Great Law. Hiawatha was a strong and articulate warrior and so was chosen to bring this new message of unity to the warring nations during the 14th century before Europeans arrived in North America. After traveling with the Peacemaker to the different tribes hoping for peace, Hiawatha finds forgiveness within himself.

This message not only succeeded in uniting the tribes but also forever changed how the Iroquois governed themselves--a blueprint for democracy that would later inspire the authors of the US Constitution.

Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator David Shannon brings the journey of Hiawatha and the Peacemaker to life with beautiful full-color oil paintings. Together, Robertson and Shannon have crafted a new children's classic that will both educate and inspire readers of all ages.

Includes a CD featuring an original song written and performed by Robbie Robertson.

When young Iqbal is sold into slavery at a carpet factory, his arrival changes everything for the other overworked and abused chidren there. It is Iqbal who explains to them that despite their master's promises, he plans on keeping them as his slaves indefinetely. But it is also Iqbal who inspires the other children to look to a future free from toil...and is brave enough to show them how to get there.
This moving fictionalized account of the real Iqbal Masih is told through the voice of Fatima, a young Pakistani girl whose life is changed by Iqbal's courage.

A heartrending novel based on a true story of love, loyalty, and the limits we confront when our deepest values are tested, by award-winning writer Buzzy Jackson

How far would you go to protect the people and country you love?

It's 1940 and Hannie Schaft is a shy nineteen-year-old law student living in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands with ambitious goals for her future. But dreams die in wartime, and Hannie's closest friends are no longer safe as fascism insidiously rises in her country. Hiding them is not enough. Hannie may be young but she can't stand aside as the menace of Nazi evil tightens its grip. Driven by love and moral outrage, Hannie soon becomes an armed member of the Dutch Resistance movement.

Hannie discovers her own untapped ferocity--wearing lipstick and heels to lure powerful Nazis close and assassinate them at point-blank range, and bombing munitions factories. As humanity collapses around her, Hannie finds a chosen family of friends within the Resistance and falls in love with a dashing fellow resister at a tremendous cost. Her greatest weapon is her determination to "stay human" (blijf menselijk) . . . a promise increasingly difficult to keep.

As Hannie is drawn deeper into a web of plots, disguises and assassinations, whispers spread like wildfire among enemy and friend alike. They all know of her, if not her name: she's "the Girl with Red Hair." A match for any Nazi soldier. A true threat. And a target.

To Die Beautiful is a timely look at how fascism flourishes and what good people do to fight back. Based on real events, To Die Beautiful is told with the drama and emotional resonance of meticulously researched history.

NYT best-selling author of Peak, Roland Smith, reimagines the famous Lewis and Clark expedition in this historical fiction novel told through the compassionate eyes of a remarkable dog.

"Dogs know humans better than they will ever know us." Captain Lewis's Newfoundland pup, Seaman, accompanies Lewis and Clark on a path that will make history. With his adventurous and curious spirit, Seaman proves himself to be a loyal companion at every turn. But can this astonishing dog pick his captain up when he needs it most? This exhilarating tale, part history and part science, including actual text from Lewis's journals, celebrates one of America's greatest journeys of discovery.

Includes an author's note and a reader's guide.

THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER!

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!

She built the Brooklyn Bridge, so why don't you know her name?

Emily Roebling built a monument for all time. Then she was lost in its shadow. Discover the fascinating woman who helped design and construct the Brooklyn Bridge. Perfect for book clubs and fans of Marie Benedict.

Emily refuses to live conventionally--she knows who she is and what she wants, and she's determined to make change. But then her husband asks the unthinkable: give up her dreams to make his possible.

Emily's fight for women's suffrage is put on hold, and her life transformed when her husband Washington Roebling, the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, is injured on the job. Untrained for the task, but under his guidance, she assumes his role, despite stern resistance and overwhelming obstacles. But as the project takes shape under Emily's direction, she wonders whose legacy she is building--hers, or her husband's. As the monument rises, Emily's marriage, principles, and identity threaten to collapse. When the bridge finally stands finished, will she recognize the woman who built it?

Based on the true story of an American icon, The Engineer's Wife delivers an emotional portrait of a woman transformed by a project of unfathomable scale, which takes her into the bowels of the East River, suffragette riots, the halls of Manhattan's elite, and the heady, freewheeling temptations of P.T. Barnum. The biography of a husband and wife determined to build something that lasts--even at the risk of losing each other.

"Historical fiction at its finest."--Andrea Bobotis, author of The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt

Other Bestselling Historical Fiction from Sourcebooks Landmark:

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

The #1 bestselling chapter book series of all time celebrates 25 years with new covers and a new, easy-to-use numbering system!

The magic tree house leads Jack and Annie to a tiny deserted island in the middle of the ocean. The brother and sister team are soon rescued by a ship of explorers and scientists who are looking for...a sea monster!

Formerly numbered as Magic Tree House #39, the title of this book is now Magic Tree House Merlin Mission #11: Dark Day in the Deep Sea.

Did you know that there's a Magic Tree House book for every kid?

Magic Tree House: Adventures with Jack and Annie, perfect for readers who are just beginning chapter books
Merlin Missions: More challenging adventures for the experienced reader
Super Edition: A longer and more dangerous adventure
Fact Trackers: Nonfiction companions to your favorite Magic Tree House adventures