Best Historical Fiction

  Poland, 984. Duke Mieszko I unites the lands, thus giving the birth to the first ruling dynasty of Poland namely Piast. His oldest son and heir, Boleslaw, wishes to continue his father’s legacy as the first ruler of a united Poland. His daughters are to seal a peace and alliances through marriages as daughters are meant to. West of Poland. Sevn, the duke of Denmark is eager to take the rein of Denmark from his father as he sees his father unfit of ruling anymore. To prove his worth to his father, he needs to stand against the current ruler of Norway. And in doing so he needs help by new alliances. He asks Mieszko to marry Swietoslawa, but the pagan duke is refused. East of Poland. Olav, an exiled heir of Norway, is being kindly hosted in the lands of Prince Vladimir of Rus, who wants Mieszko burned. However, alliances shift all the time. If you don’t tread the waters carefully, you may undercut your own throat. As Olav makes his way back to Norway to reclaim the Norwegian thr...

  A seven-hundred-year-old stave church is being deconstructed in Norway. This is not just a wooden church, but an intricately built artefact with decoratively painted timber walls. Why would you risk the process of transporting this precious cargo to Germany?  Norway, 1880. In a secluded village of Butangen, young Astrid Henke dreams about a life beyond the valley and beyond conventional life. She already turned down two suitors, and now is viewed as restless, of sharp nature and impossible to discipline. The seven-hundred-year-old stave church in the village chimes with the bells donated by Astrid’s ancestors. The church has a new pastor, direct and unpatronizing, who wants to “stamp out all forms of superstition and folklore.” Christianity should lead to progress. By law, the church is too small and it’s dilapidated. He wants to build “a functional church, a warm church, with four wood burners,” with big and easy to clean windows, “not like those bumpy glass panes high up o...

  San Francisco, 1906. Sophie Hocking is questioned by the US Marshal. Her husband is missing, and she waited six weeks after the San Francisco earthquake to report him missing. Why? A year earlier. Sophie after emigrating from Ireland to NYC is now traveling to San Francisco. She is to marry a widower with a five-year-old daughter who placed an advertisement looking for a wife and mother to his child. He wanted someone from the East coast where he was from. Someone he didn’t need to cuddle and who could step into a role he needed her to play. As soon as she arrives in San Francisco, she notices his absence more than she anticipated, as he works for insurance company which frequently takes him on the road. He seems to be taking care of lots of details; details he doesn’t name. She gets “accustomed to knowing very little about his stints on the road or even about his occupation…” until someone appears at her doorstep. A young pregnant woman is looking for her missing husband. Now, t...

  This story brings the little-known chapters of Canadian history which happened right after the Great Depression as an effect of it and during WWII. Toronto, 1933. Molly, at fourteen had to drop out of school and contribute to the pot as their family and as other families have been struggling around the world due to the Crash. The Great Depression has affected everyone including children. Some, including Molly and her best friend Hannah, try to hold on to some normalcy while playing baseball. But anti-Semitism is on the rise. Signs against Jews keep appearing in the store windows. Molly’s brother after weeks of looking for a job suddenly finds one. But as it turns out it is possible because Jews are being fired. There is an emergence of the hateful Swastika Clubs. One night, a baseball game turns into a riot. The story alternates between Molly and Max, Hannah’s brother. Molly and Max have mutual feelings for each other. Her family is Irish Protestant and his is Jewish. And Molly’s...

  “Born Simone Jules, reinvented as Eleanor Dumont, and largely remembered as Madame Moustache.” It’s 1849. Simone Jules, at nineteen years old, arrives at the booming town of San Francisco to reinvent herself. While on a ship, she was eavesdropping for any ideas of reinvention. She is of good manners and couldn’t imagine encouraging men to play, drink and stay a while at saloon. But when she sees a deck of cards waiting to be dealt, she sees herself doing just that. She becomes a croupier of modern-day blackjack. When a tragedy strikes her again, she is off to another place and another chance at life. She learned how to be an independent woman. Now, she wants to be an independent businesswoman. She starts the first gambling house in the California town of Nevada. Moreover, her own gambling house. She indulges men in evenings of sophisticated gambling. Loved the grasping prose, the word choice, the speed of lyrical like sound carrying the story constantly forward. “I’d learned at P...