Best New Historical Fiction - November 2023
A True Account by Katherine Howe
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Release Date: November 21, 2023
Synopsis:
In Boston, as the Golden Age of Piracy comes to a bloody close, Hannah Masury – bound out to service at a waterfront inn since childhood – is ready to take her life into her own hands. When a man is hanged for piracy in the town square and whispers of a treasure in the Caribbean spread, Hannah is forced to flee for her life, disguising herself as a cabin boy in the pitiless crew of the notorious pirate Edward "Ned" Low. To earn the freedom to choose a path for herself, Hannah must hunt down the treasure and change the tides.
Meanwhile, professor Marian Beresford pieces Hannah’s story together in 1930, seeing her own lack of freedom reflected back at her as she watches Hannah's transformation. At the center of Hannah Masury’s account, however, lies a centuries-old mystery that Marian is determined to solve, just as Hannah may have been determined to take it to her grave.
A True Account tells the unforgettable story of two women in different worlds, both shattering the rules of their own society and daring to risk everything to go out on their own account.
Why We Recommend It!
A riveting adventure, A True Account by Katherine Howe keeps readers on the edge of their seats as they root for two daring women living centuries apart but together striving for the treasure they deserve.
The Little Liar by Mitch Albom
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: November 14, 2023
Synopsis:
Beloved bestselling author Mitch Albom returns with a powerful novel that moves from a coastal Greek city during the Holocaust, to America, where the intertwined lives of three survivors are forever changed by the perils of deception and the grace of redemption. Eleven-year-old Nico Krispis never told a lie. When the Nazi’s invade his home in Salonika, Greece, the trustworthy boy is discovered by a German officer, who offers him a chance to save his family. All Nico has to do is convince his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading to “new homes” where they are promised jobs and safety. Unaware that this is all a cruel ruse, the innocent boy goes to the station platform every day and reassures the passengers that the journey is safe. But when the final train is at the station, Nico sees his family being loaded into a large boxcar crowded with other neighbors. Only after it is too late does Nico discover that he helped send the people he loved—and all the others—to their doom at Auschwitz. Nico never tells the truth again.
In The Little Liar, his first novel set during the Holocaust, Mitch Albom interweaves the stories of Nico, his brother Sebastian, and their schoolmate Fanni, who miraculously survive the death camps and spend years searching for Nico, who has become a pathological liar, and the Nazi officer who radically changed their lives. As the decades pass, Albom reveals the consequences of what they said, did, and endured. A moving parable that explores honesty, survival, revenge and devotion, The Little Liar is Mitch Albom at his very best.
Narrated by the voice of Truth itself, it is a timeless story about the harm we inflict with our deceits, and the power of love to ultimately redeem us.
Why We Recommend It!
A tragic but deeply human story, The Little Liar by Mitch Albom is a revealing Holocaust story that is both utterly heartbreaking and powerfully redeeming.
Above the Salt by Katherine Vaz
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release Date: November 7, 2023
Synopsis:
An irresistible and sweeping love story that follows two Portuguese refugees who flee religious violence and reignite their budding romance in Civil-War America.
John Alves, son of a famous Presbyterian martyr on the Portuguese island of Madeira, spends his childhood in jail and in poverty. When he meets Mary Freitas—though the adopted daughter of a master botanist, her true lineage is the subject of dangerous rumor—a spark kindles a lasting bond. But soon their families must confront the rising blood tide of warfare between Catholics and Protestants. Fleeing with only what they can carry, John and Mary are separated and arrive at different times and places in a rapidly growing and changing mid-nineteenth-century Illinois.
Years later, John settles into his life as an educator at Jacksonville’s nationally renowned school for the deaf, and Mary is a gardener in Springfield for handsome, wealthy Edward Moore. After John and Mary reconnect, the home of rising politician Abraham Lincoln provides a prime setting for their courtship. But conflict looms on the horizon, and John is torn. Should he join the Union army to prove his loyalty to his new country, or should he stay to fight for the chance to make a life with the one he loves?
And should Mary accept Edward’s marriage proposal since he is a partner in her business of selling the miracle-berry fruit she transported from Madeira, or should she choose her passion for John? Social jealousies and betrayals compound the obstacles unleashed by the Civil War.
In poignant and lyrical prose, Katherine Vaz’s Above the Salt is a captivating and beautiful tribute to the power of true love and the sacrifices we make to harness it.
Why We Recommend It!
Called a “hallucinogenic saga of love and loss and love regained,” Above the Salt by Katherine Vaz uses brilliant prose to share a unique immigrant story set amidst the chaos of mid-nineteenth century Portugal and America.
The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook
Publisher: Little, Brown, & Company
Release Date: November 7, 2023
Synopsis:
With echoes of Lonesome Dove and News of the World, the riveting story of a pregnant young mother, her child, and the frontier tradesman who helps them flee across Texas from outlaws bent on revenge, even as an unlikely love blossoms.
Texas hill country, 1868. As nineteen-year-old Benjamin Shreve tends to business in his workshop, he witnesses a stagecoach strand a passenger. When the man, a treasure hunter, persuades Benjamin to help track down the vanished coach—and a mysterious fortune left aboard—Benjamin is drawn into a drama whose scope he could never have imagined, for they discover on reaching the coach that its passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing Nell’s brutal husband and his murderous brothers.
Having told the Freedmen’s Bureau the whereabouts of her husband’s gang—a sadistic group wanted for countless acts of harassment and violence against Black citizens—Nell is in grave danger. If her husband catches her, he will kill her and take their son. Learning of their plight, Benjamin offers to deliver Nell and Tot to a distant port on the Gulf of Mexico, where they can board a ship to safety. He is joined in this chivalrous act by two other companions: the treasure hunter whose stranding began this endeavor and a restless Black Seminole who is a veteran of wars on both sides of the Rio Grande and who has an escape plan of his own.
Fraught with jeopardy from the outset, the trek across Texas becomes still more dangerous as buried secrets, including a cursed necklace, emerge. And even as Benjamin falls in love with Nell and imagines a life as Tot’s father, vengeful pursuers are never far behind. With its vivid characters and expansive canvas, The Madstone calls to mind Lonesome Dove, yet Elizabeth Crook’s new novel is a singular achievement. Told in Benjamin’s resolute and unforgettable voice, it is full of eccentric action, unrelenting peril, and droll humor—a thrilling and beautifully rendered story of three people sharing a hazardous and defining journey that will forever bind them together.
Why We Recommend It!
An action-packed adventure, The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook uses well-drawn characters and a rich, expansive setting to take readers on a journey of beauty and peril.
Street Corner Dreams by Florence Reiss Kraut
Publisher: She Writes Press
Release Date: November 14, 2023
Synopsis:
A suspenseful family saga, love story, and gangster tale, wrapped into one great book club read . . .
Just before WWI, Golda comes to America yearning for independence, but she tosses aside her dreams of freedom and marries her widowed brother-in-law after her sister dies giving birth to their son, Morty.
In the crowded streets of Brooklyn where Jewish and Italian gangs demand protection money from local storekeepers and entice youngsters with the promise of wealth, Golda, Ben, and Morty thrive as a family. But in the Depression, Ben, faced with financial ruin, makes a dangerous, life-altering choice. Morty tries to save his father by getting help from a gangster friend but the situation only worsens. Forced to desert his family and the woman he loves in order to survive, Morty is desperate to go home. Will he ever find a safe way back? Or has his involvement with the gang sealed his fate?
Another stunning work of historical fiction by Florence Reiss Kraut, Street Corner Dreams is an exploration of a timeless how much do we owe the families that have sacrificed for and shaped us—and does that debt outweigh what we owe ourselves and our own hopes and dreams for a better life?
Why We Recommend It!
A Depression-era novel set in Brooklyn, Sweet Corner Dreams by Florence Reiss Kraut is a realistic, heartfelt tale of a family of Jewish immigrants trying everything to stay together despite countless obstacles keeping them from the American dream.
