Lauren Groff brings readers back to the Middle Ages in her new novel, Matrix, a fiction loosely created around the life of the twelfth century nun and poet, Marie de France. In Groff’s novel, Marie is an 17 year old orphan, deemed unfit for marriage because she is a “great clumsy lunk” with a “giant… Continue reading Matrix by Lauren Groff
Tag: historicalfiction
Daughter of Black Lake by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Cathy Marie Buchanan brings first century Britannia to life in her latest novel, Daughter of Black Lake, which follows the twin narrative arcs of a mother and daughter coming-of-age during troubled times as villagers of the remote tribe living on Black Lake. Thirteen year old Hobble (she gets her name from her affliction with a… Continue reading Daughter of Black Lake by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Purchase a copy for yourself here! “Every life has its kernel, its hub, its epicentre, from which everything flows out, to which everything returns. This moment is the absent mother’s: the boy, the empty house, the deserted yard, the unheard cry … It will lie at her very core, for the rest of her life”,… Continue reading Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Purchase a copy for yourself here! “Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.” — Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation by George Washington Rules of Civility, the debut novel from investment banker turned novelist Amor Towles, takes its name from this code of… Continue reading Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
Purchase a copy for yourself here! A Long Petal of the Sea is the twenty-third novel from Isabel Allende, whose prolific career has spanned across decades and continents. The same can be said of her most recent novel, which begins with the Spanish Civil War, and follows the mass exodus of Spanish citizens fleeing from… Continue reading A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
Purchase a copy for yourself here! The story of war has always been a masculine story, but this was not true for Ethiopia and it has never been that way in any form of struggle. This is a line from the Author’s Note of Maaza Mengiste’s second novel, The Shadow King. The novel is a… Continue reading The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
Inland by Téa Obreht
Purchase a copy for yourself here! Inland is Téa Obreht’s follow up to her 2011 award-winning debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife. The novel is a historical epic that unfolds in the American West during frontier times, told from two perspectives. It switches between the voices of Herzegovinian immigrant and roaming outlaw, Lurie Mattie, and Nora,… Continue reading Inland by Téa Obreht
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Purchase a copy for yourself here! Ta-Nehisi Coates’ hotly anticipated debut novel The Water Dancer is a lyrical creation from one of America’s foremost cultural critics. Coates is a widely read essayist and former national correspondent for The Atlantic, the author of such nonfiction bestsellers as Between the World and Me and We Were Eight… Continue reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates