Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey

$35.00 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

Moving away from Munich isn't nearly as wrenching an experience for Frau Greta Hahn as she had feared. Their new home is even lovelier than the one they left behind, and best of all - right on their doorstep - are some of the finest craftsmen from all over Europe, prepared to make for her and the other officers' wives living in this small community anything they could possibly desire: new curtains from the finest silks, furniture designed to the most exacting specifications, execute a fresco or a mural even. The looming presence of the nearby prison camp - lying just beyond a patch of forest - is the only blot to mar what is otherwise an idyllic life in Buchenwald. Frau Hahn's husband, SS Sturmbannfuhrer Dietrich Hahn, has taken up a powerful new position as camp administrator. The job is all consuming as he wrestles with corruption that is rife at every level, inadequate supplies, and a sewerage system under ever-growing strain as the prison population continues to rise. Frau Hahn's obliviousness is challenged when she is forced into an unlikely alliance with one of Buchenwald's prisoners, Dr Lenard Weber. A decade earlier he invented a machine - the Sympathetic Vitaliser - that at the time he believed could cure cancer. Does the machine work? Whether it does or not, it might yet save a life. ...Show more

The Dressmaker's Secret by Rosalie Ham

$34.99 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

Rosalie Ham's dressmaker returns in the sequel to the beloved #1 bestseller and the box office sensation, The Dressmaker. It is 1953 and Melbourne society is looking forward to coronation season, the grand balls and celebrations for the young queen-to-be. Tilly Dunnage is, however, working for a pittanc e in a second-rate Collins Street salon. Her talents go unappreciated, and the madame is a bully and a cheat, but Tilly has a past she is desperate to escape and good reason to prefer anonymity. Meanwhile, Sergeant Farrat and the McSwiney clan have been searching for their resident dressmaker ever since she left Dungatar in flames. And they aren't the only ones. The inhabitants of the town are still out for revenge (or at least someone to foot the bill for the new high street). So when Tilly's name starts to feature in the fashion pages, the jig is up. Along with Tilly's hopes of keeping her secrets hidden... ...Show more

The Evening and the Morning (The Pillars of the Earth Prequel) by Ken Follett

$49.99 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, a thrilling and addictive new novel--a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth--set in England at the dawn of a new era: the Middle Ages It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Th ose in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns. In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined. A young boatbuilder's life is turned upside down when the only home he's ever known is raided by Vikings, forcing him and his family to move and start their lives anew in a small hamlet where he does not fit in. . . . A Norman noblewoman marries for love, following her husband across the sea to a new land, but the customs of her husband's homeland are shockingly different, and as she begins to realize that everyone around her is engaged in a constant, brutal battle for power, it becomes clear that a single misstep could be catastrophic. . . . A monk dreams of transforming his humble abbey into a center of learning that will be admired throughout Europe. And each in turn comes into dangerous conflict with a clever and ruthless bishop who will do anything to increase his wealth and power. Thirty years ago, Ken Follett published his most popular novel, The Pillars of the Earth. Now, Follett's masterful new prequel The Evening and the Morning takes us on an epic journey into a historical past rich with ambition and rivalry, death and birth, love and hate, that will end where The Pillars of the Earth begins.   ...Show more

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

$37.99 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

A stunning new departure for Maggie O'Farrell's fiction, Hamnet is the heart-stopping story behind Shakespeare's most famous play. TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART. On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week. HAMNET is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written. ...Show more

A Girl Made of Air by Nydia Hetherington

$34.99 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction | Series: Planet Omar Ser.

 'A captivating tale of love and loss and finding connection in the most unexpected places' Nikki Marmery, author of On Wilder Seas A lyrical and atmospheric homage to the strange and extraordinary, perfect for fans of Angela Carter and Erin Morgenstern. This is the story of The Greatest Funambulist Who Ever Lived... Born into a post-war circus family, our nameless star was unwanted and forgotten, abandoned in the shadows of the big top. Until the bright light of Serendipity Wilson threw her into focus. Now an adult, haunted by an incident in which a child was lost from the circus, our narrator, a tightrope artiste, weaves together her spellbinding tales of circus legends, earthy magic and folklore, all in the hope of finding the child... But will her story be enough to bring the pair together again? Beautiful and intoxicating, A GIRL MADE OF AIR brings the circus to life in all of its grime and glory; Marina, Manu, Serendipity Wilson, Fausto, Big Gen and Mouse will live long in the hearts of readers. As will this story of loss and reconciliation, of storytelling and truth. ...Show more

Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain

$37.00 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

She was 'The Angel of the Baths', the one woman whose touch everybody yearned for. Yet she would do more. She was certain of that. In the city of Bath, in the year 1865, an extraordinary young woman renowned for her nursing skills is convinced that some other destiny will one day show itself to her. Bu t when she finds herself torn between a dangerous affair with a female lover and the promise of a conventional marriage to an apparently respectable doctor, her desires begin to lead her towards a future she had never imagined. Meanwhile, on the wild island of Borneo, an eccentric British 'rajah', Sir Ralph Savage, overflowing with philanthropy but compromised by his passions, sees his schemes relentlessly undermined by his own fragility, by man's innate greed and by the invasive power of the forest itself. Jane's quest for an altered life and Sir Ralph's endeavours become locked together as the story journeys across the globe - from the confines of an English tearoom to the rainforests of a tropical island via the slums of Dublin and the transgressive fancy-dress boutiques of Paris. Islands of Mercy is a novel that ignites the senses, and is a bold exploration of the human urge to seek places of sanctuary in a pitiless world. ...Show more

Pathways to Taranaki

$40.00 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

The Ninth Child by Sally Magnusson

$24.99 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

'WONDERFUL. ONE NEVER MESSES WITH THE FAERIES' Melanie Reid, The Times 'AN ABSOLUTE TRIUMPH' Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus'EXTRAORDINARILY VIVD' Michelle Gallen, author of Big Girl Small Town A spellbinding novel combining Scottish folklore with hidden history, by the Sunday Times bestselling aut hor Sally Magnusson. Loch Katrine waterworks, 1856. A Highland wilderness fast becoming an industrial wasteland. No place for a lady. Isabel Aird is aghast when her husband is appointed doctor to an extraordinary waterworks being built miles from the city. But Isabel, denied the motherhood role that is expected of her by a succession of miscarriages, finds unexpected consolations in a place where she can feel the presence of her unborn children and begin to work out what her life in Victorian society is for. The hills echo with the gunpowder blasts of hundreds of navvies tunnelling day and night to bring clean water to diseased Glasgow thirty miles away - digging so deep that there are those who worry they are disturbing the land of faery itself. Here, just inside the Highland line, the membrane between the modern world and the ancient unseen places is very thin. With new life quickening within her again, Isabel can only wait. But a darker presence has also emerged from the gunpowder smoke. And he is waiting too. Inspired by the mysterious death of the seventeenth-century minister Robert Kirke and set in a pivotal era two centuries later when engineering innovation flourished but women did not, The Ninth Child blends folklore with historical realism in a spellbinding narrative. *PRAISE FOR THE SEALWOMAN'S GIFT* 'I enjoyed and admired it in equal measure' Sarah Perry 'An extraordinarily immersive read' Guardian 'Richly imagined and energetically told' Sunday Times 'An epic journey' Zoe Ball Book Club ...Show more

The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea

$26.00 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

'Crackles with tension. Moving and atmospheric, I couldn't put it down' Laura Purcell, author of The Silent Companions and The Corset   A rich and captivating tale of superstition and salvation, love and fear, for fans of The Binding, The Miniaturist and The Silent Companions. 1686, Iceland. An iso lated, windswept land haunted by witch trials and steeped in the ancient sagas . . . ____________   Betrothed unexpectedly to J n Eir ksson, R sa is sent to join her new husband in the remote village of Stykkish lmur. Here, the villagers are wary of outsiders. But R sa harbours her own suspicions. Her husband buried his first wife alone in the dead of night. He will not speak of it. The villagers mistrust them both. Dark threats are whispered. There is an evil here - R sa can feel it. Is it her husband, the villagers - or the land itself? Alone and far from home, R sa sees the darkness coming. She fears she will be its next victim . . .____________ LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS ASSOCIATION DEBUT CROWN AWARD 'A fantastic, atmospheric debut' The Times 'An enthralling tale of the Icelandic witch trials' Stacey Halls, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars 'Gripped me in a cold fist. Beautiful' Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton 'Evocative, compelling, with a brilliant twist' Daily Express 'Memorable and compelling. A novel about what haunts us - and what should' Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall 'Intensely written and atmospheric, with an unusual setting, this is a stark evocation of a community where fear of the outsider is rife and unsettling' Daily Mail ...Show more

Liberation - Inspired by the Incredible True Story of World War II's Greatest Heroine Nancy Wake by Imogen Kealey

$27.99 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

Inspired by the incredible true story of the most decorated servicewoman of the second world war. Nancy Wake was an Australian girl who, aged, 16 ran away from her abusive mother to the other side of the world. Nancy Wake was a wife who, when her husband was snatched by the Gestapo, fought to be train ed by SOE and returned to France to take her revenge. Nancy Wake was a soldier who led a battalion of 7,000 French Resistance fighters who called her Field Marshall. Who had a 5-million Franc bounty on her head. Who killed a Nazi with her bare hands. Who defeated 22,000 Germans with the loss of only 100 men. Who sold her medals because, "I'll probably go to hell and they'd melt anyway." Discover the roots of her legend in a thriller about one woman's incredible quest to turn the tide of the war, save the man she loves and take revenge on those who have wronged her. ...Show more

News of the World Movie Tie-In - A Novel by Paulette Jiles

$25.00 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture starring Tom Hanks It is 1870 and Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his roo tless, solitary existence. In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna's parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows. Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act "civilized." Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forging a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land. Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember--strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become--in the eyes of the law--a kidnapper himself. Exquisitely rendered and morally complex, News of the World is a brilliant work of historical fiction that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust. ...Show more

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

$24.99 NZD

Category: Historical Fiction

In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words f or the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme's place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word bondmaid flutter to the floor unclaimed. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others - that words and meanings relating to women's experiences often go unrecorded. She begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.Set when the women's suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men.   ...Show more