History Thru the Lens of Fiction: New Historical Novels for the Kindle (24 Aug 09)

Blending historical fact with fiction, a novel set in other times and places can transport you into the past more convincingly than a dry historical treatise - and entertain you in the bargain. What I look for in historical fiction are books by authors who, after reading the histories and doing the research, create stories based in the past that include characters I want to know better and a plot that keeps me turning pages - books like Peter Ackroyd's The Clerkenwell TalesBernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdomand Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.

Now you can spend less time searching and more time reading as I watch for new historical fiction in the Kindle Storeso you don't have to. New on historical fiction shelves:

The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory. Touchstone. TIME FRAME: 15th century England. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (13 reviews). Kindle edition $12.47. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Brother turns on brother to win the ultimate prize, the throne of England, in this dazzling account of the wars of the Plantagenets. They are the claimants and kings who ruled England before the Tudors, and now Philippa Gregory brings them to life through the dramatic and intimate stories of the secret players: the indomitable women, starting with Elizabeth Woodville, the White Queen. The White Queen tells the story of a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition who, catching the eye of the newly crowned boy king, marries him in secret and ascends to royalty. While Elizabeth rises to the demands of her exalted position and fights for the success of her family, her two sons become central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the missing princes in the Tower of London whose fate is still unknown. From her uniquely qualified perspective, Philippa Gregory explores this most famous unsolved mystery of English history, informed by impeccable research and framed by her inimitable storytelling skills." - Amazon.
Less expensive alternative: Figures in Silk, by Vanora Bennett.

The Virgin's Daughters, by Jeane Westin. NAL. TIME FRAME: 16th century England. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

For background on the writing of The Virgin's Daughters, don't miss this interview with author Westin, courtesy of the Word Wenches.
"The story of Elizabeth I, as it's never been told before - through the eyes of two ladies-in-waiting closest to her. In a court filled with repressed sexual longing, scandal, and intrigue, Lady Katherine Grey is Elizabeth's most faithful servant. When the young queen is smitten by the dashing Robert Dudley, Katherine must choose between duty and desire - as her secret passion for a handsome earl threatens to turn Elizabeth against her. Once the queen becomes a bitter and capricious monarch, another lady-in-waiting, Mistress Mary Rogers, offers the queen comfort. But even Mary cannot remain impervious to the court's sexual tension - and as Elizabeth gives her doomed heart to the mercurial Earl of Essex, Mary is drawn to the queen's rakish godson-" - Amazon.

Noble House, by James Clavell. Dell. TIME FRAME: Hong Kong in the 1960s. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (77 reviews). Kindle edition $7.19. Text-to-Speech: Disabled. First published in 1981.

"The setting is Hong Kong, 1963. The action spans scarcely more than a week, but these are days of high adventure: from kidnapping and murder to financial double-dealing and natural catastrophes–fire, flood, landslide. Yet they are days filled as well with all the mystery and romance of Hong Kong - the heart of Asia - rich in every trade...money, flesh, opium, power." - Amazon.

Four Freedoms, by John Crowley. HarperCollins. TIME FRAME: U.S. homefront during World War II. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (3 reviews). Kindle edition $13.72. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Although nominally about life at an American aircraft factory during World War II, Crowley’s complex and subtle novel is much grander. He explores the minds and hearts of people compelled by history to radically change their lives. Unaccountably optimistic Prosper Olander, orphaned as a child and crippled by a failed surgery, discovers that even he can find important work at a distant aircraft company in rural Oklahoma. Connie Wrobleski, frightened of nearly everything except her infant son, also travels to Oklahoma to reunite with her domineering husband, only to see him desert his family by enlisting. Prosper, Connie, and half a dozen other characters are developed in intricate detail and used as lenses on the massive relocation, dislocation, and societal change caused by the war." - Thomas Gaughan for Booklist.
Less expensive alternative: A Woman's Place, by Lynn Austin.

The Devil's Queen: A Novel of Catherine de Medici, by Jeanne Kalogridis. St. Martin's Press. TIME FRAME: 16th century France. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (32 reviews). Kindle edition $13.72. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Kalogridis puts a human face on one of the most reviled women in history. By portraying Catherine de Medici as a victim of circumstance who shrewdly did what was necessary to safeguard her birthright and the security of her family, she definitely provides a more sympathetic angle than usual. From her pampered Florentine childhood, to her imprisonment by rebel insurgents, to her arranged marriage to her beloved King Henri II of France, Catherine displays a cunning guile and a ruthless streak tempered by her great love for her husband and children. Interwoven into her life story and lending this fictional biography an almost mystical bent is her symbiotic relationship with Cosimio Ruggieri, a mysterious medieval psychic who plays an ever-expanding role in Catherine’s fortunes." Margaret Flanagan for Booklist.
Less expensive alternative: The Borgia Bride, the author's earlier historical novel set in 15th century Italy.

Woman from Shanghai, by Xianhui Yang. Publisher. TIME FRAME: China in the late 1950s. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Between 1957 and 1960, nearly three thousand Chinese citizens were labeled 'Rightists' by the Communist Part and banished to Jianiangou in China’s northwestern desert region of Gansu to undergo 'reeducation' through hard labor. These exiles men and women were subjected to horrific conditions, and by 1961 the camp was closed because of the stench of death: of the rougly three thousand inmates, only about five hundred survived. In 1997, Xianhui Yang traveled to Gansu and spent the next five years interviewing more than one hundred survivors of the camp. In Woman from Shanghai he presents thirteen of their stories, which have been crafted into fiction in order to evade Chinese censorship but which lose none of their fierce power. These are tales of ordinary people facing extraordinary tribulations, time and again securing their humanity against those who were intent on taking it away." - Amazon.