Best Historical Fiction

 Set during a time period of WWII. Two years earlier Edward, briefly King Edward VIII, abdicates his throne for his American mistress. His younger brother Bertie, King George VI, takes over the throne. His wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon vows to make her husband’s reign a success and to keep the former king and his brazen bride away from Buckingham Palace. This is her story; her triumphs and her struggles, including some secrets which she protects at first and then tries to bring them to light. June 1939, the international situation is deteriorating and war fever is in the air. Hopeless negotiations are over. “Life soon turned into nightmare (…), when Hitler’s forces invaded Poland on 1 September 1939.” Elizabeth is appointed commandant-in-chief of the women’s services. Now, just the beginning of the war, the exhaustion is already touching her from all the public visits, inspecting preparedness for war. She is supportive in her husband’s political decisions and is one of his closes

 This story of the brideship women is relatively unknown chapter of Canadian history. The idea was to give the women of different backgrounds including impoverished gentlewomen and serving class a chance to marry or live independently in the colony of British Columbia. Where there were supposedly more opportunities, which later turned out not necessarily true. England, 1862. Charlotte, impoverished gentlewoman, at the age of twenty-one is not ready to get married and a position of a governess entails the exhausting boredom. She craves something more exciting. She inherits her father’s adventurous and independent spirit. She is told about the Columbia Emigration Society, which sends ships of unmarried women to the colonies. “The idea is to give the women a chance to marry or live independently in the colony of British Columbia, where there are more opportunities.” Even with her adventures spirit, she is hesitant at first as she doesn’t want to share the unknown land with unlawfu

  How was it possible for Hitler to lure masses of people to follow his extreme views? After WWI, the Treaty of Versailles forced Germans to pay war reparations, which had crushing effects on economy and humiliating effects on patriotic Germans. Hitler, a mesmerizing public speaker, blamed all bad things on Jews and communist minorities, claiming they were trying to take over the world. With worldwide economic depression and high unemployment, he put blame on the ineffectiveness of democratic government, thus calling for a New Order, promising to restore prosperity for all with no class divisions. Most of this story is set within the two years preceding WWII, giving a glimpse into how humans in dire situation can be manipulated and pushed into doing atrocities. The story is set in Leipzig and begins in 1933, quickly moving to 1937, giving a glimpse at what is happening in Germany during those years. Hetty’s family has just moved to a new big house, where previous tenants left

 Raphael Santi of Urbino (1483-1520) rises from a small town to the mightiest ceilings of the Vatican, becoming the master painter at the Vatican and to be known for capturing “a man’s soul with the flick of a brush.” Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, they become the great masters of the High Renaissance. Raphael inherits his talent from his father. He is orphaned at the age of eleven and at his father’s deathbed, he promises to become the greatest artist in history. This only makes him being obsessed with perfection. Florence, 1504. Michelangelo is commissioned for a painting, which puts painters of Florence into a rage. How such a “lowly stonecutter” can be commissioned for such “an important painting?” As the story unravels, through the voice of Raphael we learn his thoughts and how obsessed he is with perfection. He looks at Masaccio’s fresco of Holy Trinity and admits that not one painter has achieved the way to perfection as Masaccio did. At least not yet.