Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

Lorena Hickok meets Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on Franklin Roosevelt's first presidential campaign. Having grown up worse than poor in South Dakota and reinvented herself as the most prominent woman reporter in America, "Hick", as she's known to her friends and admirers, is not quite instantly charmed by the idealistic, patrician Eleanor. But then, as her connection with the future first lady deepens into intimacy, what begins as a powerful passion matures into a lasting love, and a life that Hick never expected to have. 

Alex Ehren is a poet, a prisoner and a teacher in block 31 in Auschwitz-Birkenau, the children’s block. He spends his days trying to survive while illegally giving lessons to his young charges while shielding them as best he can from the impossible horrors of the camp. But trying to teach the children is not the only illicit activity that Alex is involved in. Alex is keeping a diary.... 

Wang Er, a twenty-one-year-old ox herder, is shamed by the local authorities and forced to write a confession of his crimes, but he instead takes it upon himself to write a modernist literary tract. Later, as a lecturer at a chaotic, newly built university, Wang Er navigates the bureaucratic maze of 1980’s China, boldly writing about the Cultural Revolution’s impact on his life and those around him. Finally, alone and humbled, Wang Er must come to terms with the banality of his own existence.

Brought to you by Penguin. Discover Michael Ondaatje's debut novel, 'a beautifully detailed story, perhaps the finest jazz novel ever written' Sunday Times Based on the life of cornet player Buddy Bolden, one of the legendary jazz pioneers of turn-of-the-twentieth-century New Orleans, Coming...

March, 1366. Amid the chaos of a war-torn Spain, Geoffrey Chaucer—page to King Edward III and the son of a wine merchant—finds himself thrust into the heart of a boiling conflict between two brothers: King Pedro the Cruel of Castile and his half-brother, Enrique Trastámara. But Chaucer’s task is far from simple. Sent as a reluctant spy by the king, he must locate the elusive mercenary Sir Hugh Calveley and persuade him to change sides in a war that could alter the fate of kingdoms.

"Sido" et "Les Vrilles de la vigne" sont deux textes distincts de l’œuvre de Colette, tous deux d’inspiration autobiographique. Dans "Sido" (1930), Colette évoque le souvenir de sa mère tant aimée, puis son père, l’amour qui unissait ses parents et raconte son enfance heureuse au sein d’une campagne bourguignonne idyllique. Cette éducation harmonieuse a profondément marqué sa manière de vivre. Sous le personnage de l’écrivaine parisienne affleure la jeune fille qui apprit à vivre au rythme des saisons et à goûter la sensualité de la vie.

When beautiful cloth merchant's daughter Elizabeth Williams is widowed at the age of 22, she is determined to succeed in the business she has learned from her father. But many are opposed to a woman making her own way in the world, and Elizabeth could have powerful enemies - enemies who know the truth about her late husband. Then Elizabeth meets kindly, ambitious merchant turned lawyer Thomas Cromwell.

When Robert Baratheon died suddenly after a boar hunt, all hell broke loose. When Edward IV, King of England, died suddenly after a fishing trip in April 1483, another phase of the Wars of the Roses ensued, the Yorks (Starks) battling the Lancasters (Lannisters). Thwarted Queen is told mainly in the voice of Lady Cecylee Neville (1415-1495), the thwarted queen, but other voices are important to this tale, not least those of the Londoners, who forged their own political destiny by engaging in public debate with the powerful aristocrats of the time

In the year 1526 King Henry VIII is facing a great personal crisis. He has been married to Queen Catherine of Aragon for seventeen years. But he has no son and the kingdom is without an heir. He has fallen in love with a maid of honor named Anne Boleyn. But she refuses to become his mistress and insists on being recognized as his lawful wife. The tragedy of “The King’s Great Matter” begins to unfold with terrible consequences for all concerned.

In turn of the century England, the Jolivet family leads a charmed existence. Daughter of a wealthy vineyard owner and a French pianist, vivacious Marguerite, the eldest of three, loves spinning stories and entertaining her family's well-connected friends. Marguerite, taking the stage name Rita, quickly draws the attention of legendary theatre producer Charles Frohman. From the West End to Broadway, and then in the new medium of silent film, her star burns brighter with every role. But soon, war is raging across Europe. Rita receives word from Inez that their brother is about to enlist.

Valentino Achak Deng is just a boy when conflict separates him from his family and forces him to leave his small Sudanese village, joining thousands of other orphans on their long, long walk to Ethiopia, where they find safety for a time. Along the way Valentino encounters enemy soldiers, liberation rebels and deadly militias, hyenas and lions, disease and starvation. But there are experiences ahead that will test his spirit in even greater ways than these....

A fifteenth-century Eat, Pray, Love, Revelations illuminates the intersecting lives of two female mystics who changed history—Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. Bishop’s Lynn, England, 1413. At the age of forty, Margery Kempe has nearly died giving birth to her fourteenth child. Fearing...

After winning his freedom in Rise of the Wolf, Robin - with his faithful lieutenant John Little at his side - now spends his days travelling around northern England dispensing King Edward II's justice. When a new band of outlaws appears in Barnsdale, Sheriff Henry de Faucumberg sends Robin and John to deal with them.

Il reverendo John Ames sta morendo. Sa che non potrà veder crescere il figlio di soli sette anni, né offrirgli testimonianza di ciò che è stato e ha imparato. Sceglie allora di affidarsi a una lettera-diario, per mostrargli quanto di sé, e del mondo, è importante sapere.

A parody for fans of Harry Potter and The Crown, Harry Windzor and the Magic of Monarchy is an irreverent, satirical twist on the life of Prince Harry and the House of Windsor. There are spats between heirs and spares, dodgy deals between the Palace and the press, and so many scandals swept under the rug that even the corgis are suspicious. Maybe this isn’t a satire after all...

Dans ce récit littéraire d'une infinie beauté, Arundhati Roy revient sur son passé : une enfance chaotique dans le sud de l'Inde, son émancipation précoce, le goût de l'écriture, la fulgurance du succès international avec le Booker Prize en 1997, puis la découverte que sa plume peut devenir une arme pour déjouer les injustices et la violence du gouvernement indien. Au fil des chapitres, c'est aussi le portrait de sa mère, Mary Roy, qui prend forme.

Rising singer-songwriters Jane Quinn and Jesse Reid looked untouchable. Captivating crowds in festival meadows, lighting up turntables, intoxicating fans from coast to coast. It was a connection that inspired the greatest love songs. But nothing lasts forever. Beneath the hits that made them, a dark secret threatened to break them. Now it’s time to hear the whole story, finally revealed in Jane’s iconic album, Songs in Ursa Major....

This is A Madman's Diary, and Other Stories by Lu Xun, a renowned writer of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun was a novelist, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, and poet who wrote both in Vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese. He became the titular head of the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai in the 1930s.

Virginia, 1749. Rosanna Waters is more comfortable catching grasshoppers for fishing bait than helping her Mama with the washing. After one defiance too many ends in terrible tragedy, Rosanna learns that her rebellious nature carries a price too steep to pay. She must tame the fire within—for her family’s sake, if not her own.

Cleopatra tells her own story in this evocative and sensuous historical epic from the bestselling and award-winning author of Faebound and The Final Strife. “Enchanting, smart, and subversive—this is El-Arifi’s masterpiece”—RF Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Katabasis...