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Escape With New Historical Fiction

Written by alamancelibraries on . Posted in Book Reviews.

Caldwell, Lucy. These Days. New York : SJP Lit, a Zando imprint, 2025.

Originally published in United Kingdom in 2022, These Days has been re-released in the United States. Set in Belfast in 1941, it chronicles the destruction of Belfast by the Germans, and two sisters, Emma and Audrey, trying to live their lives amongst the rubble and societal expectations. This is literary fiction/historical fiction, so if you love your books to be well-written and erudite, These Days will fit the bill.

Cover of The Famine Orphans. Cover is illustration of the Australian Outback. There is a bushy foreground, a small house, mountains in the distance, and a beautiful pink and purple sky that dominates most of the cover.

Falvey, Patricia. The Famine Orphans. La Vergne : Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2025.

In 1848, 4,000 young women from Ireland were sent to Australia to build a new society. They were told they would be servants for families settled in Australia, but the secret reason that they were sent was to civilize the convicts sent there through marriage. Most of the women were orphans whose existence in workhouses was miserable. But will the unforgiving Australian outback be any better? This is a part of our world history that isn’t as well known and is fascinating!

Cover of The Cardinal. Depicts a cathedral with high ceilings and arches. Man in red cardinal's outfit is walking down the hall, back to you, and there's a woman further down in a dress. Stylized gold leaves are superimposed on the left bottom corner and the right top corner.

Weir, Alison. The Cardinal: a novel of love and power. New York : Ballantine Books, 2025.

Weir is known for her Tudor-era historical novels, and this time, she’s turned her attention to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey is stuck between his close friendship with King Henry VIII and his church’s teachings that divorce is wrong, as Henry falls in love with Anne Boleyn and wants to end his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. Weir also shares Wolsey’s personal life, including his mistress and their children. If you can’t get enough of Tudor England and church scandal, try The Cardinal.

Cover of Gabriele. Photo of woman on a bicycle, riding towards the reader, with a tree and path behind and around her. There is French writing superimposed on the road.

Berest, Anne. Gabriële. New York, NY : Europa Editions, 2025.

In 1908, Gabriële graduated from the most elite music school in Europe and became a part of the new art scene in Paris, marrying painter Francis Picabia. This novel highlights the sea change between classical art and the new Cubist movement, and the old mores and the new bohemian lifestyle of the early 1900s. Buffet, Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp’s love affair spurred great art and a new way of looking at the world. This book was written by Gabriële Buffet-Picabia’s great-grandaughters, Anne and Claire Berest.

Cover of Red Clay. Painting of a Black couple on a red and green background; you can see the side of a white woman on the far left.

Fancher, Charles B. Red Clay. Ashland, Oregon : Blackstone Publishing, 2025.

Felix H. Parker’s funeral was yesterday, and his family is shocked when an old white woman, Adelaide Parker, shows up on his front porch, telling them that her family once owned their family. Adelaide is looking for answers in their shared history, from the years before the war, through Reconstruction, and finally, during the unjust period of Jim Crow laws. Fancher used his own family’s history when writing this novel and explores one family’s journey during years and years of unrest, war, and societal change.

Mary Beth A. is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries.

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