Best Historical Fiction

 Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was a French stage actress and the world’s first modern actress and international celebrity. She did what she set out to do. She made a name for herself. After sold-out performances, she emerges as “a passionate revelation.” This story vividly explores her character. A ferocious woman with unparalleled determination. She is the epitome of what freedom means. She goes through her lows and highs, but she always remembers what fits her spirited character the most – freedom from any constrictions, freedom to be able to express her artistry the way she feels it. In 1853, Sarah’s mother is forced to bring her daughter back to Paris. She is a high-class courtesan. She is cold and has no interest in raising her daughter. Thus, her younger sister, aunt Rosine assumes charge of Sarah. Her education continues at convent, where to her surprise she finds unconditional love and befriends a girl of “uncertain provenance,” like her. There, at eleven yea...

 Helen Joy Davidman (1915-1960) was an American poet and writer. This book brings a vivid portrayal of “a woman diverse, courageous, and complicated, and a woman whom C.S. Lewis loved with all of his being.” They seemed to be ill-matched, but at the end they offered a glimpse at what love truly means. New York, 1946. At thirty-one years old, Joy is a writer, mother, and a wife, who also has to deal with her husband’s infidelity. She realizes that the life she pushed for outside the city is not the life that resonates with her. She misses “the hustle and bustle of the city, the publishing parties and literary gossip.” She dives into “history and philosophy books, with religious texts and pamphlets,” it changes her religious view or rather non-religious. When she comes across a newspaper reporting on in-depth study on another writer and a converted atheist, a man named C.S. Lewis, she dives into his written work, and his works hidden wisdom. Out of hundreds letters, he responds...

 Gwendolen ‘Len’ Howard (1894-1973) was a woman of two great passions, birds and music. Her observations of birds were published in various periodicals and two books. In 1938, Len Howard moves from London to a little house in Sussex, which she later calls Bird Cottage. There, she observes birds and gains their trust, thus creating a special bond. The story shifts between present time to when she was a child and later an adult. It is also intertwined with stories about birds, which “have their origin in Howard’s own anecdotes in Birds as Individuals and Living with Birds.” Wales, 1900. Len’s father brings home a small bird that has fallen from the nest. And this is the beginning of Len’s journey with the birds. Throughout the years, she collects more birds and goes bird-watching with her father. The story gives a glimpse of her rich family, mother who is occupied with organizing the soirees and managing everyone. At her parties Len also plays her talents on violin. It seem...

 “The Wars of Religion in France was a sequence of civil wars which began” in 1562 and ended in 1598. “The Eighty Years War in the Low Countries” (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg) “was no less complicated. Beginning in 1568, it was a revolt (…) against the violent occupation of Hapsburg Spain.” “The Story of French Protestantism and the beginning of the Dutch Republic are both part of the larger European story of the Reformation.” The story is set against the background of those religious wars, which also led to lucrative trade in religious relics and its falsification. Amsterdam, 1572. A French cardinal, a powerful man, requests information about certain boy and his mother from Mariken Hassels. But she fears it would warrant boy’s death. Therefore, she tries to warn him. The boy, now would be a grown man. Languedoc, southern France. Minou and Piet Reydon live happily at the “green valley set in the foothills of the mighty Pyrenees.” They “brought their children up in the...

 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 cl...

 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 unl...

  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 l...