Biographical Fiction

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER Now a major motion picture starring ACADEMY AWARD winner Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, and Joe Alwyn, directed by Chloé Zhao. The acclaimed author of the Reese's Book Club pick The Marriage Portrait...

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...

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

No book ever written has more perfectly captured the spirit of the 1960s counterculture....

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen River, this thrilling novel about a daring socialite spy chronicles the true wartime exploits of a woman who deserves to be a household name. "Will fascinate readers of World War II history and thrill fans of fierce, brash, independent...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A sweeping, sensational novel of America’s first “It Girl,” whose dramatic journey to center stage echoes through the decades—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post “As stunning as the incomparable leading lady who...

This program is read by renowned English actor Ben Miles, best known for his narration of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy. “Ben Miles's English accent is perfect for the text of this recent, award-winning translation. He delivers narrative sections in a consistent tone, and his expression is...

New York Times bestselling author Shelley Noble wows with a gripping historical novel about the real-life “Tiffany Girls,” a fascinating and largely unknown group of women artists behind Tiffany’s most legendary glassworks. It’s 1899, and Manhattan is abuzz. Louis Comfort Tiffany, famous...

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....

Known for her “delightful blend of historical fiction and suspense” (People), New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict, returns with a sweeping tale of a young woman who unearths the truth about a forgotten Pharaoh—rewriting both of their legacies forever. "Bessie Carter and...

She took on titans, battled generals, and changed the world as we know it… “Inspiring and essential reading.” –New York Times New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating and dramatic novel about an American heroine Frances Perkins. Raised on tales of her...

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....

USA TODAY BESTSELLER "Tate blends fact and fiction with elegance...A captivating, emotionally resonant portrait of a singular woman who refused to be diminished." — LIBRARY JOURNAL "Tate has a rare gift for storytelling that strikes straight to the heart." — SADEQA JOHNSON, New York Times...

From the world’s #1 bestselling author, The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe is a true crime thriller about a woman who changed Hollywood history, and whose indelible image captures our imagination to this day. “Electrifying … A spellbinding new account of the star’s final days by the...

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR! “A gripping narrative, don't miss this historical fiction about the woman who kicked off the Harlem Renaissance.”—People Magazine “A page turner and history lesson at once, Harlem Rhapsody reminds us that our stories are our generational wealth...

In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, bestselling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph—a woman who kept the secrets...

Based on true events, this gripping historical novel set in Norway and Sweden in 1940, follows one of the first female US Ministers, Daisy Harriman, and her niece as the two are unexpectedly caught up in the German invasion of Norway. Cleo Jaffray was an American. A war in Europe had nothing to...

The Instant New York Times Bestseller! A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune—an unlikely friendship that changed the world, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the Good Morning America Book Club...

From New York Times bestselling author Shelley Noble comes a thrilling historical novel about the inception of the Colony Club, the first women’s club of its kind, set against the dazzling backdrop of Gilded Age New York. When young Gilded Age society matron Daisy Harriman is refused a room at...

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....

Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. Sayuri's story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into...

A 2026 Audie Awards finalist for Best Mystery! This program is read by actor Bessie Carter, best known for her role as Prudence Featherington on the Netflix series Bridgerton. "Narrator Bessie Carter...captures the personalities of the most famous women novelists of the golden age of detective...

This program is read by Ben Miles, who played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies “[Ben] Miles’ charming, yet dastardly narration makes Cromwell an anti-hero worth rooting for no matter how hard you try not to.”—TIME on Wolf...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of The Frozen River, this enthralling feat of historical suspense unravels the extraordinary twists and turns in Anna Anderson’s claim to be Anastasia Romanov. Is she the Russian Grand Duchess or the thief of another woman's legacy? "Tantalizing...

The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and by whom he has been touched. Inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival....

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...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A sweeping, sensational novel of America’s first “It Girl,” whose dramatic journey to center stage echoes through the decades—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post “As stunning as the incomparable leading lady who...

From bestselling author Shelley Noble comes a gripping and timely historical novel of books, banning, and the women who helped save New York’s famed Book Row. 1915: Manhattan’s Book Row, an eclectic jumble of forty bookshops along Fourth Avenue, is the mecca for rare book buyers from around...

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE The intimate, sweeping tale of one Palestinian man’s restless search for home the world over, as the pendulum of fate swings between loss and life, grief and euphoria, regret and hope "Generations are captured here, loss and pain and miraculous attempt at...

In turn of the century England, the Jolivet family lives a charmed existence. Daughters of a wealthy vineyard owner and a French pianist, aspiring actress Marguerite, the eldest of three, and her sister Inez, a virtuosa violinist, move to London. Soon the two are being celebrated in the highest social circles. Marguerite takes the stage name Rita, and quickly draws the attention of legendary theater producer Charles Frohman. While filming in Italy, she's courted by a charismatic aristocrat, while Inez has already found love and travels the world with her husband.

India, 1947. Una familia de tres hermanas vive en una aldea rural de Bengala. Priya, inteligente e idealista, sueña con seguir los pasos de su padre y convertirse en médica, desafiando las normas que impone la sociedad. Deepa, la belleza de la familia, aspira a un matrimonio que eleve el estatus familiar. Jamini, devota y perspicaz, es una prodigiosa artesana de colchas, pero sus anhelos más profundos permanecen ocultos. La paz y el amor que comparten en su hogar son un refugio contra los violentos acontecimientos que se viven en la India.

It’s the turn of the twentieth century and Pamela ‘Pixie’ Colman Smith is a young woman of stark contradictions: plucky yet naïve, artistically gifted despite lacking classical training, fascinated by the esoteric but sceptical of the world around her. After the deaths of her beloved mother and her troubled but well-intentioned father, Pixie finds herself in the complex, political world of fin-de-siècle art, trying to get her stunning work seen and to forge a name and a path for herself in life.

Es ist die Geschichte von Rossella Casini, einer zwanzigjährigen Frau aus Florenz, die sich Hals über Kopf in Francesco, einen Studenten aus Kalabrien, verliebt. Was sie nicht weiß: Er stammt aus einer mächtigen Familie der 'Ndrangheta. Als sie in sein Heimatdorf reist, bricht eine gewaltsame Familienfehde aus. Rossella flieht nicht, sie will kraft ihrer Liebe Francesco dort herausziehen. Doch auf einmal verschwindet sie spurlos.

From the author of Confessions of the Fox comes a novel in which a yenta on her deathbed gives an unrepentant account of all her failures—including her child. “A rant of comedic genius . . . [Jordy Rosenberg] writes with an enchanting command of language and satire.”—Melissa Broder, The...

In 1877, the Paris art scene is very competitive for men but nearly impossible for thirty-three-year-old Mary Cassatt, an American woman. Bored by traditional methods of painting, she admires the work of avant-garde painters, especially Edgar Degas. So, when Edgar visits Mary's studio to view her paintings, she is exhilarated by his invitation to join him, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and other Impressionists in the collective.

1721, Spanish Town, Jamaica. Captured, convicted, and pregnant, 23-year-old Anne Bonny faces the gallows. When writer Captain Charles Johnson enters the garrison, she strikes a deal: she’ll tell this opportunistic fool her story if he sends a doctor to her friend, Mary Read, who’s battling prison fever. Prior to their arrest, life at sea had offered Anne and Mary freedom that few women knew. Anne, born into scandal in Ireland, seeks home and elusive safety in South Carolina. Discovering the opposite, she makes a bitter bargain for emergency passage to the Bahamas.

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.

In the waning years of the eighteenth century, young William Culpepper leaves behind his quiet family home and steps into the ruthless world of the British Army. Appointed an ensign in the King’s 33rd Regiment of Foot, he soon learns that courage, intellect, and moral conviction are tested in the forge of the battlefield.

One of the foremost writers of her generation explores the strength and pain of being young As winter approaches in Norway and the daylight dwindles, a chance encounter prompts a novelist to reexamine her past. The seismic events following her sixteenth birthday return with haunting vividness...

Dall'Ungheria a Londra e ritorno, dal crollo della Cortina di ferro alla pandemia, passando per la seconda guerra del Golfo e l'ingresso nell'Unione Europea dei Paesi dell'ex blocco sovietico, la vita di István è la parabola di un uomo in balìa di forze che non è in grado di controllare. Tutto – i traumi e i lutti, i traguardi raggiunti e le potenziali soddisfazioni – lo lascia ugualmente impassibile, pronto a fronteggiare ogni accadimento, dal più fortunato al più tragico, con l'arma del suo laconico: «Okay».

Para The New York Daily Mirror era «tan bonita como una cruz gamada», y para Goebbels, «la artista que mejor nos entiende». En mayo de 1945, tras la derrota de la Alemania nazi, Leni Riefenstahl quema documentos, cartas y material fotográfico en el jardín de su casa ante la inminente llegada de los americanos.

I was eager to learn more about my great-grandmother and the location where she was laid to rest. Figured I could get my hands on the guitar she played. Turns out the marker where she was buried had withered away, and nobody knew exactly where she was.

Juan Antonio Rascón llega a París en 1878 para ver unos cuadros de Goya que resultan ser las pinturas negras de la quinta madrileña del artista. Al examinarlas, vuelve a él la memoria de Rosario Weiss, de quien estuvo enamorado en su juventud. La joven creció junto a Goya y aprendió de él, pero por encima de todo, fue la hija que lo acompañó hasta sus últimos días; sin embargo, tras la muerte del pintor, quedó relegada durante décadas, borrada tanto por su condición de mujer como por la voluntad colectiva de conservar intacto el mito goyesco.

In the early 17th century, the relentless machine of the Portuguese Empire is devouring the African interior, fueled by the brutal demands of the slave trade and a messianic certainty of its own superiority. But on the shores of Ndongo, one woman stands in the doorway of what the colonizers call the "Gate of Hell," and she refuses to let them pass.

¿Qué ocurre cuando una mujer decide dejar de cargar sola lo que heredó? Mariana creció dentro de una genealogía femenina marcada por el deber, el silencio y el amor contenido. Aprendió a sostener, a resistir, a no preguntar demasiado. Durante años creyó que eso era fortaleza. Hasta que su matrimonio se fractura. La traición no solo rompe una relación: abre una herida más antigua. La herida de las mujeres que la precedieron. La herida de amar sin ser plenamente vistas. Entre México y Estados Unidos, entre la enfermedad de su madre, la manipulación de su exesposo, la distancia ...

A CBC and Globe and Mail Spring Book Pick In this debut novel, a young woman in the Rocky Mountains, separated from the ancestral rhythms of her home in Scotland, turns to ancient rituals to find solace and connection. With shades of Olga Tokarczuk, Ali Smith, and Rachel Cusk, Hovel is a book...

How can a smile be so misunderstood? For Nell, it's a sign of friendship. To her male colleagues, it's so much more. With two men intent on securing her affections, and little chance of escape, life for Nell is challenging. Until she finds an unexpected guardian. Her savior is charming and chivalrous, but when he unwittingly causes more problems than he solves, she finally snaps.

From the author of the acclaimed New World Saga comes the dramatic origin story of the war that shaped the birth of the United States. Virginia, 1738. Lawrence Washington has never been content with a quiet life. In a colony where status is everything, he is determined to rise — whatever the cost. When war with Spain erupts, the colonies send their men. Lawrence seizes his chance to secure his young bride. Serving under Admiral Edward Vernon, he is swept into one of the boldest campaigns of Britain’s colonial wars.From the grog shops of Jamaica to the walls of Cartagena, from triumph to...

June 1940. France is falling. Thirty thousand refugees are trapped in Bordeaux with nowhere to run—and one Portuguese diplomat has been ordered to let them die.

She longed for love and an unconventional life… but never dreamed what it would cost her. After a year in Paris, Jacqueline Bouvier returns home to her family in Mclean, Virginia. Changes and new opportunities abound, including a dinner invite from good friends, anxious to introduce her to Congressman John F. Kennedy. Though she’s curious, Jackie is certain she couldn’t be a match for a boring politician—until she meets him. Chemistry sparks between them, but both Jackie and Jack, as he is known, are slow to develop the relationship. Months lapse before they see each other again.