Best Historical Fiction

  A Long Petal of the Sea begins in 1930’s Spain and progresses from turbulent times of social conflicts in Spain to the ones in Chile, where the two main characters, Victor and Roser, after leaving their homeland of Spain try to make Chile their new home. Victor Dalmau’s decision of leaving his work as a doctor in the army hospital isn’t easy. His obligation is torn between his patients and to the responsibility he feels toward Roser. She is a gifted music student taken under the protective wings of Victor’s father, who is a music teacher in Barcelona, and in a way is adapted as a family member. As Franco’s Nationalist troops advance, there is an exodus of people trekking toward the French border. And when fascists take over the country, Victor feels responsibility toward Roser. Thus, they sail with about two thousand other Spaniards to Chile. A country, none of them knows anything about. And most of them coming from the concentration camps in France, where men and women with chil...

  Ella is unhappily married when she obtains a position as a reader for a literary agency. Her first assignment is to read and report on a manuscript titled Sweet Blasphemy by an amateur writer. It is about Rumi, a poet and a spiritual leader in the history of Islam, who is also an unconventional dervish full of scandals and surprises. As she reads about his transformation, it sets her on her own revolution. Turkey, 13th century. Following God’s guidance, Shams of Tabriz, a wandering dervish, embarks on an inner journey of Love by traveling to Baghdad to fulfill his destiny to pass on his knowledge to another person. His journey takes him farther to Konya where he meets a respected scholar named Rumi. Shams sees the suffering of ordinary people and questions if Rumi sees them or if he is one of those scholars who fail to see those suffering “while sitting in their ivory towers.” Shams puts Rumi through “trial and tests, states and stages, each of which make Rumi look more deranged ...