Historical / XXth century (<1945)

Cockney Orphan

by Carol Rivers

A compelling tale of ordinary East Enders caught up in extraordinary times, from the Sunday Times bestselling author

Previously published with the title Connie of Kettle Street

Amidst the death and destruction...

The Ashford Affair

by Lauren Willig

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig comes The Ashford Affair, a page-turning novel about two women in different eras, and on different continents, who are connected by one deeply buried secret....

Scumbler

by William Wharton

Know Scumbler in his poignant, hilarious life. Get mad at him and even cry with him. Here's Don Quixote, Santa Claus, and Faust rolled into one "thick shadow" of a man. A joyous sixty-year-old American street...

Pride

by William Wharton

During the Depression, a 10-year-old boy befriends a carnival stuntman and his lion cub and learns about the meaning of family, loyalty, love, and survival.

Above All Things

by Tanis Rideout

“Tell me the story of Everest,” she said, a fervent smile sweeping across her face, creasing the corners of her eyes. “Tell me about this mountain that’s stealing you away from me.” 

In 1924 George...

A Future Arrived

The Passing Bells #3

by Phillip Rock

The final installment of the saga of the Grevilles of Abingdon Pryory begins in the early 1930s, as the dizzy gaiety of the Jazz Age comes to a shattering end. What follows is a decade of change and uncertainty,...

Summerset Abbey

by T. J. Brown

1913: In a sprawling manor on the outskirts of London, three young women seek to fulfill their destinies and desires amidst the unspoken rules of society and the distant rumblings of war. . . .

Rowena Buxton...

Circles of Time

The Passing Bells #2

by Phillip Rock

The Acclaimed Trilogy That Has Been Called a Must-Read for Fans of Downton Abbey

A generation has been lost on the Western Front. The dead have been buried, a harsh peace forged, and the howl of shells replaced...

The Passing Bells

The Passing Bells #1

by Phillip Rock

The guns of August are rumbling throughout Europe in the summer of 1914, but war has not yet touched Abingdon Pryory. Here, at the grand home of the Greville family, the parties, dances, and romances play on....

War Brides: A Novel

by Lois Battle

A vibrant novel set in postwar America from the New York Times bestselling author of The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary and Sewing Circle

World War II is over, but for three young Australian women who meet on their...

The Leading Indicators

by Gregg Easterbrook

Tom Perrotta meets David Brooks in a powerful modern parable about one American family's fall from grace during the recession

Margo and Tom Helot have the perfect life.  He works in finance; she's an enterprising...

Starshine

by John Wilcox

1914. Outnumbered British forces are desperately trying to hold off the oncoming German soldiers in France. Star shells fly high into the night, illuminating the chaos, violence and death taking place in the...

Love in the Years of Lunacy: A Novel

by Mandy Sayer

From an award-winning novelist comes a wonderfully inspiring story about the ill-fated love affair between a white female jazz saxophonist and a black American GI, set against the backdrop of 1940s Sydney.

Sydney,...

The Handkerchief Tree

by Anne Douglas

A young woman faces life-changing decisions on the eve of World War Two in this warm romance from a much-loved storyteller. Bright, spirited Shona Murray from Edinburgh's Dean Village has found her niche in...

The Wreck

by Bruno Hare

Norway, 1945: On the run from invading Nazis, his family murdered, sixteen-year-old Erik decides to join the Milorg - Norway's Resistance movement. Spirited away into the mountains, he is groomed to become a...

Winter of the World

The Century Trilogy #2

by Ken Follett

Ken Follett follows up his #1 New York Times bestseller Fall of Giants with a brilliant, page-turning epic about the heroism and honor of World War II, and the dawn of the atomic age.

Ken Follett’s Fall of...

The Quest of the Silver Fleece: A Novel

by W.E.B. Dubois

Originally published in 1911, The Quest of the Silver Fleece was the first novel to come from world-famous sociologist and civil-rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois. A controversial title of its time, the novel chronicles...

Jack 1939

by Francine Mathews

Charming. Reckless. Brilliant. Deadly.

A young Jack Kennedy travels to Europe on a secret mission for Franklin Roosevelt as the world braces for war.

It’s the spring of 1939, and the prospect of war in Europe...

The Black Isle

by Sandi Tan

There are ghosts on the Black Isle.

Ghosts that no one can see.

No one...except Cassandra.

Uprooted from Shanghai with her father and twin brother, young Cassandra finds the Black Isle's bustling, immigrant-filled...

The Chaperone

by Laura Moriarty

The New York Times bestseller and the USA Today #1 Hot Fiction Pick for the summer, The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and...