Best Historical Fiction

  Nora Barnacle was a wife of James Joyce, his muse and the model for Molly Bloom in Ulysses. This is her story, boldly reimagined. Ireland, 1904. Nora Barnacle comes from Galway to Dublin where she works as a maid at Finn’s Hotel. At twenty-years-old, she meets Dubliner James Joyce. When James secures a teaching post in Zurich, he asks Nora to leave with him. Despite his hesitation to marry, she follows him. As it turns out, the teaching is not for him. It’s too constricted. He is a free spirit, who craves to express his thoughts in writing. He struggles to find a publisher and it leads him to reach for spirits more and more. His money spent on drinking doesn’t help the constantly struggling family. Nora, with education ending at the age of twelve, now takes in laundry and ironing to make some money. Despite living in poverty throughout Europe, her support and believe for James’ gift is unwavering. And admittedly, she knows that they’re not good at managing money. The characters a...

  This story is “loosely inspired by historical figures,” including Mary Reibey who was transported to Australia as a convict, later becoming legendary as a successful businesswoman. “At one point she held 405 hectares of land and was one of the richest people in the colony.” Also “some parts of the plot share contours with historical events.” This story brings a time period when a few were born into privileged life; the rest lived and worked in deplorable conditions. When the poor feeling oppressed gathered peacefully at St Peter’s Field demanding the reform of parliamentary representation, it ended in the Peterloo Massacre. With no response from the government, some extremist attempted to murder all the British cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister. The Cato Street Conspiracy ended in some being hanged and some sent to the penal colony in Australia. While on the way to Australia, the Dunbar ship was pushed into the cliffs near the entrance to Sydney Harbor, resulting in the Wr...

  British Empire over the period of 80 years, 1788-1868, exiled more than 160,000 criminals to the penal colonies in Australia. The majority of convicts were transported for petty crimes. Approximately 1 in 7 convicts were women, which had an extremely tough life in Australia. “The guards who were volunteers seemed to be driven by exceptional sadism.” Flinders Island, Australia, 1840. Mathinna (true character), eight-years-old, despite being a daughter of the chieftain, has been growing up living with a white teacher, learning English and adhering to British customs. “Her people had been exiled” to the Island of Flinders. Now, orphaned, she is taken to the governor’s house and is supposed to be taken to England with them. London, 1840. Evangeline, governess, is accused of stealing a ring. Educated above her station, but not exposed to the world, which she learns the hard way. She is being sent to the penal colony in Australia to serve her sentence of fourteen years. On a ship bound...

  “Family saga centering on three generations of women in one Russian Jewish family” – each striving to be free from oppression and yearning for personal fulfillment. Odessa, USSR, 1931-1941. Daria, at seventeen years old, marries an accomplished pianist. Her mother is very proud of marring Daria to the right man. Under the Soviet control, where everyone is equal, you have to weigh your words very carefully or someone may show up at your doorstep to collect you. Daria and her family are arrested and forced into a labor camp in Siberia. At the labor camp, they are told that they’re not prisoners, but pioneers who will prove their worth through honest work by building homes and schools, raising children and educating them. Not prisoners, but pioneers, and yet people feel terrorized. Well-depicted terror inflicted by despotic rule, along with beautifully crafted story of a woman who is willing to take any measure to protect her family. She is a strong, passionate woman. But others’ pa...

 Captain Sir John Franklin was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer of the Arctic. His last expedition known as Franklin’s lost expedition (1845-1846) was followed by many searches. One of them (fictional) gives ground for this story. Boston, 1854. Virginia Reeve is accused of “one count of kidnapping and one count of murder” of Caprice Collins, fellow explorer. A year and a half earlier, Virginia arrives at Tremond House in Boston where she meets with Lady Jane Franklin. Lady Jane wants her missing husband back and she is forming an expedition composed of women only. Why? “Women can do far more than the narrow lens of society deems fitting.” Lady Jane believes that Virginia, once a guide in California, has the skill and strength for this kind of expedition and to be its leader of twelve women. The proceedings at the court are intertwined with the process of choosing the women for the expedition and what value they bring, and how the expedition progresses. The characters are i...