Historical / XXth century (<1945)

The Visitors

by Sally Beauman

Based on a true story of discovery, The Visitors is New York Times bestselling author Sally Beauman’s brilliant recreation of the hunt for Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings—a dazzling...

Midnight in Europe

by Alan Furst

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Paris, 1938. As the shadow of war darkens Europe, democratic forces on the Continent struggle against fascism and communism, while in Spain the war has already begun. Alan Furst, whom...

China Dolls

by Lisa See

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and Shanghai Girls has garnered international acclaim for her great skill at rendering the intricate relationships of women...

One Night in Winter

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

The acclaimed novelist and prizewinning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore explores the consequences of forbidden love in this heartbreaking epic, inspired by a true story that unfolds in Stalin's Russia during...

Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932

by Francine Prose

A richly imagined and stunningly inventive literary masterpiece of love, art, and betrayal, exploring the genesis of evil, the unforeseen consequences of love, and the ultimate unreliability of storytelling...

Patsy Of Paradise Place

by Rosie Harris

A GRIPPING AND MOVING SAGA SET IN 1920S MERSEYSIDE.

She saved the business, but can she save herself?

After years of neglect by her mother, when her father comes home from sea and sets up as a carrier at the...

The Lie

by Helen Dunmore

From award-winning novelist, Helen Dunmore, comes The Lie; a spellbinding tale of love, remembrance, and deception, set against the backdrop of World War I.

Cornwall, 1920. Infantry officer Daniel Branwell has...

Vintage

by Susan Gloss

At Hourglass Vintage in Madison, Wisconsin, every item in the boutique has a story to tell . . . and so do the women whose lives the store touches.

Yellow Samsonite suitcase with ivory, quilted lining, 1950s

A...

Roosevelt's Beast

by Louis Bayard

A reimagining of Teddy and Kermit Roosevelt’s ill-fated 1914 Amazon expedition—a psychological twist on the smart historical thriller that first put Louis Bayard on the map

1914. Brazil’s Rio da Dúvida...

A Mother's Love

by Maggie Lord & Maggie Ford

Can she escape the hardships of her past?

Growing up in London's tough East End, young Sara Porter has had to learn to take care of herself. Her mother resents her maternal responsibilities and has never shown...

The Sound of the Trees

by Robert Payne Gatewood

An extraordinary debut that brings together a hypnotic quest, a thrilling Western, and an unforgettable love story.

Set in the 1930s, The Sound of the Tree tells the story of Trude Mason, who, seeking to escape...

Three Souls

by Janie Chang

An absorbing novel of romance and revolution, loyalty and family, sacrifice and undying love

We have three souls, or so I'd been told. But only in death could I confirm this....

So begins the haunting and captivating...

Wake: A Novel

by Anna Hope

Anna Hope’s brilliant debut unfolds over the course of five days, as three women must deal with the aftershocks of World War I and its impact on the men in their lives.

Wake: 1) Emerge or cause to emerge...

I Always Loved You: A Novel

by Robin Oliveira

A novel of Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas's great romance from the New York Times bestselling author of My Name Is Mary Sutter

The young Mary Cassatt never thought moving to Paris after the Civil War to be an...

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress: A Novel

by Ariel Lawhon

“Inspired by a real-life unsolved mystery, this mesmerizing novel features characters that make a lasting impression.”--PEOPLE MAGAZINE

"More meticulously choreographed than a chorus line. It all pays off."--THE...

A Star for Mrs. Blake: A novel

by April Smith

The United States Congress in 1929 passed legislation to fund travel for mothers of the fallen soldiers of World War I to visit their sons’ graves in France. Over the next three years, 6,693 Gold Star Mothers...

The Last Train to Paris

by Michele Zackheim

1935. Rose Manon, an American daughter of the mountains of Nevada, working as a journalist in New York, is awarded her dream job, foreign correspondent. Posted to Paris, she is soon entangled in romance, an...

The Memory of Lost Senses

by Judith Kinghorn

Within weeks letters would be burned, pages torn. Promises would be broken and hearts betrayed. But for now the countryside languished, golden and fading...

Cecily Chadwick is idling away the long, hot summer...

The Housemaid's Daughter

by Barbara Mutch

Barbara Mutch's stunning first novel tells a story of love and duty colliding on the arid plains of Apartheid-era South Africa

When Cathleen Harrington leaves her home in Ireland in 1919 to travel to South...

Islands of Silence

by Martin Booth

Islands of Silence is the story of the young Alec Marquand, who in the summer of 1914 has just graduated from college with a degree in archaeology. He has been hired by the lord of a remote country estate in...