Historical Fiction on Overdrive
Looking for a historical fiction novel, but can't figure out what to read next? Here are a few that you can check out on Overdrive!
Third Daughter by Talia Carner (2019)
In the Third Daughter, Talia Carner ably illuminates a little-known piece of history: the sex trafficking of young women from Russia to South America in the late 19th century. Thoroughly researched and vividly rendered, this is an important and unforgettable story of exploitation and empowerment that will leave you both shaken and inspired.
E-book - https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/4455303
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (2020)
In the late 1930s, civil war gripped Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/4857373
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff (2009)
It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet, and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of her family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how both she and her mother became plural wives.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/155266
The Secrets We kept by Lara Prescott (2019)
At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR, where no one dare publish it, and help Pasternak's magnum opus make its way into print around the world.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/4629226
Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict (2020)
In 1909, Clementine steps off a train with her new husband, Winston. An angry woman emerges from the crowd to attack, shoving him in the direction of an oncoming train. Just before he stumbles, Clementine grabs him by his suit jacket. This will not be the last time Clementine Churchill will save her husband.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/5008324
All the ways we said Goodbye: A novel of the Ritz Paris by Beatriz Williams (2020)
France, 1914. Aurelie becomes trapped on the wrong side of the front with her father, Comte Sigismund de Courcelles. When the Germans move into their family's ancestral estate, Aurelie discovers she knows the German Major's aide de camp, Maximilian Von Sternberg. Betrayal will shatter them both. France, 1942. Raised by her American grandmother in the Hotel Ritz.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/4703987
Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019)
The Nickel Boys is a 2019 novel by American novelist Colson Whitehead. It was based on the real story of the Dozier School, a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and had its history exposed by a university's investigation. It was named one of TIME'S best books of the decade.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/4538801
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (2019)
In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota's Gilead River, the Lincoln Indian Training School is a pitiless place where Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie O'Banion, a lively orphan boy whose exploits constantly earn him the superintendent's wrath. Odie and his brother, Albert, are the only white faces among the hundreds of Native American children at the school.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/2260683
The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester (2019)
A "rich and riveting" New York Times bestseller based on the true story of a female journalist who defied all the rules while covering World War II. New York City/Paris, 1942: When American model Jessica May arrives in Europe to cover the war as a photojournalist for Vogue, most of the soldiers are determined to make her life as difficult as possible. But three friendships change that. Journalist Martha Gellhorn encourages Jess to bend the rules.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/4618099
Africaville by Jeffrey Colvin (2019)
A ferociously talented writer makes his stunning debut with this richly woven tapestry, set in a small Nova Scotia town settled by former slaves, that depicts several generations of one family bound together and torn apart by blood, faith, time, and fate.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/4617740
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah (2018)
Sweet bitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turning novel about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy and unexpectedly uncovers a lost diary, an unknown relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since World War II. To become one of only a few hundred certified wine experts in the world, Kate must pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine examination.
E-book: https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/3535861
Red Sky Over Hawaii by Sara Ackerman (2020)
Inspired by real places and events of WWII, Sara Ackerman immerses the reader in a time of American history full of suspicion and peril in this lush and poignant novel about the indisputable power of doing the right thing against the odds.