Biographical Fiction

The New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the dramatic and poignant life of King Henry VIII’s daughter—infamously known as Bloody Mary—who ruled England for five violent years....

Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. . . . So begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all....

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world....

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He's a normal Italian teenager - obsessed with music, food, and girls....

It is 1936, and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris who has bluffed her way into a reporting job for Hearst newspaper when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca....

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary....

Her beauty saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee....

Inspired by a true story, two teens kidnapped by an African warlord find salvation through love in a powerful and healing historical novel from the #1 bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky and The Last Green Valley....

The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons—the impulsive and sensual Dmitri....

This is the story about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune—a forbidden friendship that changed the world....

In 1580s England, during the Black Plague, a young Latin tutor falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman in this “exceptional historical novel” (The New Yorker) and best-selling winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction....

Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph....

1867, Richmond, Virginia: Though she wears the same low-cut purple gown that is the uniform of all the girls who work at Worsham's gambling parlor, Arabella stands apart. It's not merely her statuesque beauty and practiced charm....

Sharp-eyed, stubborn, and passionate, Jindan was known for her beauty. When she caught the eye of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, she was elevated to royalty, becoming his youngest and last queen—and his favorite....

Under direct orders from Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik secret police force Anastasia Romanov, along with the entire imperial family, into a damp basement in Siberia....

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of 20 years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him....

Descended from Melusina, the river goddess, Jacquetta always has had the gift of second sight....

The Lioness of Boston is a portrait of what society expected a woman's life to be, shattered by a courageous soul who rebelled and was determined to live on her own terms....

From the New York Times best-selling authors of America's First Daughter comes the epic story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton - a revolutionary woman....

Anne Berest’s The Postcard is a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, an enthralling investigation into family secrets, and poignant tale of a Jewish family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling....

The Magician opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the 20th century, where the boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative father, bound by propriety, and a Brazilian mother, alluring and unpredictable....

Seven-year-old Chellamuthu's life - and his destiny - is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in Southern India and sold to the Lincoln Home for Homeless Children....

When Tiro, the confidential secretary (and slave) of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning....

This richly imagined novel tells the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the book that inspired the iconic film, through the eyes of author L. Frank Baum’s intrepid wife, Maud....

From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees, a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women....

Born from young King Henry’s first marriage, his elder daughter, Princess Mary, is raised to be queen once it becomes clear that her mother, Katherine of Aragon, will bear no more children. However, Henry’s passion for Anne Boleyn has a devastating influence on the young princess’s future when, determined to sire a male heir, he marries Anne, has his marriage to Katherine declared unlawful, brands Mary illegitimate, and banishes them both from the royal court.

Jacob's Room is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1922. It's considered one of her pioneering works in modernist literature. The novel follows the life of Jacob Flanders, from his childhood to his adulthood, primarily through the perspectives and memories of those who knew him. Woolf's experimental narrative style, characterized by stream-of-consciousness and shifting perspectives, creates a fragmented yet rich portrayal of Jacob's inner life and the world around him.

In 1892, running one of the Wests fanciest brothels is a rough game. In a town filled with brazen criminals, corrupt police, zealous politicians, and morality committees, Madam Mattie Silks makes her fortune catering to Colorados gold and silver millionaires. Notorious crime boss Soapy Smith is at the top of the Denver underworld. There are no rules for Smith's gang. They solve problems with bribes and bullets. Mattie's husband stumbles into Soapy's dealings, and she struggles to protect him.

Rain pummeled the window, mimicking the tumult in Arthur's heart. A worn photo, its edges whispering lost dreams, depicted a younger, ambitious Arthur with Sarah, her smile a forgotten warmth. Once inseparable, their future gleamed. But ambition, a cruel mistress, led Arthur astray.

Six years before the American Civil War, a pair of 27-year-old Helena, Arkansas residents remained in the town to care for victims of an 1855 yellow fever epidemic when nearly everyone else evacuated to save their own skins. One, Pat Cleburne, was a Protestant Irish immigrant who had earlier served in the British Army. The other, Tom Hindman, was a a Mexican War veteran. He was also a well-educated second son of a Mississippi Planter family who sought his fortune in Helena where good cotton lands were cheaper than in Mississippi. The two became lawyers and best friends. Pat was Tom's best ...

A gifted raconteur, distinctive humorist, and irascible moralist, Mark Twain transcended the apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular public figure and one of America's best and most beloved writers.

Into this fevered forum, a child is born. His mother is Agrippina, granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. But their imperial blood is no protection. The closer you are to the heart of the empire, the closer you are to power, intrigue, and danger. She faces soldiers, senators, rivals, silver-tongued pretenders, each vying for position. One mistake risks exile, incarceration, execution. Or, worst of all, the loss of her infant son.

Sergei Yesenin is a young poet, formed by childhood abandonment, set on becoming the most famous poet in Russia in a time of war, revolution and terror. A sensitive soul in a senseless time, searching for meaning through poetry, fame and passionate affairs with both women and men – until a meeting with the beautiful actress Zinaida Raikh changes everything.

Following seventy thousand years of undisturbed slumber, the vessel of a planetary empire that had followed its own predetermined path to destruction eons earlier had finally reawakened, bringing with her the potential to change everything. Embodying all that was benevolent and beautiful from innumerable long-forgotten cultures, this lifeform in suspended animation also possessed the power necessary to prevent her gifts from being corrupted by those who will eternally thirst for dominion over others.

In England, the Middle Ages are a time for ambitious men to prosper. Before he becomes the father of William Marshal, John FitzGilbert is a man of honor and loyalty, sworn to royal service. When the old king dies, his successor rewards the handsome and ambitious John with castles and lands. But King Stephen has a tenuous hold on his reign over medieval England. In these unstable times, John's loyalty to the British king comes at great cost. So, when jealous rivals at court seek to destroy John, he takes matters into his own hands.

It's 1980 and Neil is a burned-out local musician whose band never made it. He has put his heart and soul into his music for a decade but now has little to show for it except a dozen of tapes of his original music that nobody has ever heard. He's getting ready to take a promotion at work and give up music forever when he gets a freak opportunity to go on tour.

Set against the backdrop of the antebellum South, this compelling work of historical fiction follows the harrowing journey of a young man, stolen from his family and thrust into the merciless world of slavery. The story unfolds with the abduction of IDI, a bright and resourceful young man who is cruelly torn from his family and homeland. His journey takes him to the American South, where he is subjected to the dehumanizing horrors of servitude. Driven by an unshakable determination to regain his freedom, David befriends a group of fellow slaves who share his longing for escape.

In the last days of World War I, Corporal Adolf Hitler was blinded by mustard gas, necessitating a month-long confinement in a military psychiatric hospital. Peculiarly, amid Germany's final days of World War I, the modest corporal was transported 700 kilometers from Ypres, Belgium, to northern German Pomerania, seeking the expertise of the nation's foremost neuropsychiatric physician.

A young boy from Shropshire named Will Somers has a special talent for entertaining. His gifts bring him all the way to the court of Henry VIII where he becomes a favoured servant and close companion of the king. In his role as the royal fool, he observes the life and times of Henry and his court. He witnesses the successive rise and fall of his queens, nobles and ministers. He is the only one whom Henry trusts with his true thoughts. “The Tudor Fool” tells the story of the unlikely relationship between a tyrannical king and his humble jester.

When Morrie moved in next door to Hilde in 1936 they became best friends. They are just five years old. But this is Nazi Germany and the law decrees they cannot remain friends because he is Jewish and she is the daughter of a Nazi policeman. For a short time music and culture opens up a new world for Hilde. But it cannot last. Her loving grandparents take in the children and gift them a pet budgerigar.