Book reviews on historical fiction.
Washington Black is a book of many things, except for the expected. Its outward appearance is that of a great adventure and a few quests, following the footsteps of a tenderly young escaped slave. But Esi Edugyan weaves a tale that goes much deeper to depict the basic underlying egotism and human desires that drive…
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on a true story, a story told from the Tattooist to the author. While much is real and true and even corroborated, fiction has been mingled. Therefore, while your heart is set on pure and perfect truth, you must, as a reader, be aware that this is still historical…
Multiple award nominee and New York Times bestseller, A Gentleman in Moscow is a literary feast for hearty appetites. There is something about the winter months that makes us want to curl up with the thickest tomes under a pile of blankets, tucked away in the recliner beside a roaring fire. (Isn’t this something Count Rostov contemplated?)…
For the most part, Manhattan Beach focuses on New York City life during World War II: separated families, economic strain, and a new status for women as the hardworking breadwinner. But as the story stretches out from the central view of a struggling family, two other stories emerge that are so massive, their sheer gravity…
Cry, The Beloved Country is a literary criticism of South African apartheid using a handful of South African characters, both black and white, to vividly display the injustice to those who normally wouldn’t see it because of the figurative partition walls. There isn’t much left to be said about a book published in 1948, translated…
Garden of her Heart is an exceptional historical romance that goes far beyond the typical affairs and courtship central to most romance plots, delving into a difficult subject matter in American history: the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Garden of her Heart is the first in Shanna Hatfield’s Hearts of the War…
The Song of Achilles is a retelling of Homer’s Iliad with an emphasis on Achilles. Unlike the Brad Pitt movie Troy (with Achilles played by Pitt), The Song of Achilles stays much closer to the Iliad with its plethora of gods and goddesses, length of the war, and character placements. An issue long debated in the Iliad…
Although Sarah’s Key is over a decade old, it seems fairly new – as if I first heard about it the other day. It’s been on my to-read list for years but try as I might, I can’t possibly dent that continually growing pile without major life changes, a lottery win, a nanny, and limitless…
First published in Spain in 2001 by award-winning Carlos Ruiz Zafón, his first adult novel became an instant success and has been translated into several languages. The English edition, translated by Lucia Graves and published a few years later, is still a bestselling book. With almost 300,000 ratings on GoodReads and an average rating of 4.24 out…
Based on true events, The Last Days of Night is the fictionalized account of what went down between Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla in the legal battle of the century for the rights to the light bulb patent. Whoever won the case would be the one to light up America, receiving all of the accolades and all of…