Элизабет Фримантл0.0 A riveting novel based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi—the greatest female painter of the Renaissance—as she forges her own destiny in a world dominated by the will of men.
This is the ring that you gave me, and these are your promises.
A young woman is put on trial. She has accused her painting teacher of the darkest betrayal -- he accuses her of being an immoral liar. What really happened, and why will this trial scandalise seventeenth-century Rome?
Rome 1611. A jewel-bright place of change, with sumptuous new palaces and lavish wealth on constant display. A city where women are seen but not heard.
Artemisia Gentileschi dreams of becoming a great artist. Motherless, she grows up among a family of painters -- men and boys. She knows she is more talented than her brothers, but she cannot choose her own future. She belongs to her father and will belong to a husband.
As Artemisia patiently goes from lesson to lesson, perfecting her craft, a mysterious tutor enters her life. Tassi is a dashing figure, handsome and worldly, and for a moment he represents everything that a life of freedom might offer. But then the unthinkable happens. A violent act that threatens Artemisia's honour, and her virtue.
In the eyes of her family, Artemisia should accept her fate. In the eyes of the law, she is the villain.
But Artemisia is a survivor. And this is her story to tell.
А. К. Блэйкмор0.0 A subversive historical novel set during the French Revolution, inspired by a young peasant boy turned showman, said to have been tormented and driven to murder by an all-consuming appetite.
Carys Davies0.0 A stunning, exquisite novel from an award-winning writer about a minister dispatched to a remote island off of Scotland to “clear” the last remaining inhabitant, who has no intention of leaving—an unforgettable tale of resilience, change, and hope.
Альваро Энриге0.0 From a visionary Mexican author, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story that reimagines the fall of Tenochtitlan.
You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenochtitlan at its height, and reimagines its destiny. The incomparably original Alvaro Enrigue sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, a restitutive, fantastical counter-attack, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.
Киёко Мурата0.0 “Even though A Woman of Pleasure exposes the brutal life of sex workers, a dynamic optimism runs throughout the book. Only Kiyoko Murata can convey this world.” —Yoko Ogawa, author of The Memory Police ( Yomiuri Shimbun )
In 1903, a fifteen-year-old girl named Ichi Aoi is sold to the most exclusive brothel in Kumamoto, Japan. Despite her modest beginnings in a southern fishing village, she becomes the protégée of an oiran, the highest-ranking courtesan at the brothel. Through the teachings of her oiran, Shinonome, Ichi begins to understand the intertwined power of sex and money. And in her mandatory school lessons, her writing instructor, Tetsuko, encourages Ichi and the others to think clearly and express themselves.
Based on real-life events in Meiji-era Japan, award-winning and critically acclaimed veteran writer Kiyoko Murata re-creates in stunning detail the brutal yet vibrant lives of women in the red-light district at the turn of the twentieth century—the bond they share, the survival skills they pass down, and the power of owning one's language. By banding together, the women organize a strike and walk away from the brothel and into the possibility of new lives.
Фрэнсис Спаффорд0.0 From “one of the most original minds in contemporary literature” (Nick Hornby) the bestselling and award-winning author of Golden Hill delivers a noirish detective novel set in the 1920s that reimagines how American history would be different if, instead of being decimated, indigenous populations had thrived.
Henry Hemming0.0 'A truly page-turning, compulsive and also profoundly moving narrative. Superb.' JAMES HOLLAND
'Gripping, urgent, superbly reported and brilliantly written' DAN JONES
'A gripping and pacey book that reads like a thriller. I found it shocking in a world where I didn't think I could be shocked any more. Henry Hemming wears his extensive research very lightly and manages to shape a great narrative from a complex and dark episode from our recent history. An important and skilfully crafted book.' JOHN O'FARRELL
HOW THE DEATH OF A SPY IN THE IRA LED TO ONE OF THE BIGGEST MURDER INVESTIGATIONS IN BRITISH HISTORY.
On 26th May 1986, the body of an undercover British agent was found by the side of a muddy lane, with a rope
tied around its wrists and tape over each eye. Years later, it was reported that this murder might have been carried out by another undercover British agent, known as 'Stakeknife'. In 2016, a detective began to investigate this case, and would soon find himself running the largest murder investigation in British history.
In a compulsive blend of investigative journalism and true crime thriller, Henry Hemming exposes the parallel worlds of the IRA and British intelligence through the lives of those inextricably bound up in both. He reveals the bravery of those who were crucial in ending the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the bloodiest and longest-running conflict in recent British history, and the determination of one detective in his dogged search for justice and the truth.
'a compelling story' - The Times
'[a] gripping and consistently surprising true-life thriller' - Observer
Tobias Buck0.0 It is 17 October 2019, the opening day of a trial in Hamburg's imposing criminal justice building that is historic in more ways than one. Bruno Dey is accused of being an accessory to a crime that took place more than seven decades the murder of at least 5,230 inmates at Stutthof, a Nazi concentration camp in present-day Poland. He was seventeen at the time, and a member of the SS unit charged with administering and guarding the camps. Dey admits he served as a guard at Stutthof from August 1944 to April 1945, but he denies the accusation that he had any role in the murders, even as an accessory.
The trial of Bruno Dey comes at a poignant moment for modern Germany. After fifteen years of stable government, the Merkel era is coming to an end and support for the AFD is ever-growing. The last members of the war generation - victims and perpetrators alike - are disappearing, and with them all first-hand knowledge of how the Holocaust came to pass. Against that backdrop, what is the significance - and the legacy - of the trial? Yet Dey's trial raises questions that touch not just on German history, politics and memory culture, but also on Buck's own family history. During childhood visits to see his German grandparents, those dark years were never spoken of, but he remembers the old wedding photo on the mantelpiece in their bedroom, his grandfather in uniform with a swastika armband. He knows little else about his record during the war. Why did he never ask?
Through the prism of this gripping and complex courtroom drama Buck explores its wider significance, both political and personal. In Final Verdict he interrogates the is it right to punish Bruno Dey more than seven decades after he stood guard at Stutthof concentration camp? And what would I have done in his place?
Preeti Dhillon0.0 The UK is grappling with big questions about belonging, equality, and the legacies of Empire and Colonialism. We've been here before. Embracing a broader history that encompasses all British people, The Shoulders We Stand On is fundamental to a better understanding of the past and gives many more people who fought for our future a voice in the present.
Have you heard of the Indian Workers' Association? The Grunwick Strike? The Brixton Black Women's Group? The Battle of Brick Lane? If the answer is no, you're not alone. The Shoulders We Stand On tells the stories of ten remarkable movements, campaigns and organisations led by Black and Brown people across Britain from the sixties to the eighties that fought against racism and capitalism and impacted the way we live now.
Researcher and historian Preeti Dhillon wants us to reclaim the history that has been kept from us, and use these vital movements and inspirational moments to better understand the UK we live in today and how change happens.
There is a long and deep history of activism by Black and Brown people spanning the UK. Their stories can inspire all of us to make a difference, just as they did. The Shoulders We Stand On is a book of hope. Hope that together we can make a difference, that together we are powerful, and that we don't have to tackle society's challenges alone.
We're not alone, we've been here before and this is the book we all need now.
Filled with inspiring narratives, Preeti Dhillon uncovers crucial moments from our history. If you loved the books Natives and Brit(ish), the TV series Small Axe or the film Pride, don't miss The Shoulders We Stand On.
This is an immersive and revelatory history of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade, whose lives diverged and intersected in profound ways.
The Clotilda docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in July 1860 – more than half a century after the passage of a federal law banning the importation of captive Africans, and nine months before the beginning of the Civil War. The last of its survivors lived well into the twentieth century. They were the last witnesses to the final act of a terrible and significant period in world history.
In this epic work, Dr. Hannah Durkin tells the stories of the Clotilda’s 110 captives, drawing on her intensive archival, historical, and sociological research. Survivors follows their lives from their kidnappings in what is modern-day Nigeria through a terrifying 45-day journey across the Middle Passage; from the subsequent sale of the ship’s 103 surviving children and young people into slavery across Alabama to the dawn of the Civil Rights movement in Selma; from the foundation of an all-Black African Town (later Africatown) in Northern Mobile – an inspiration for writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Zora Neale Hurston – to the foundation of the quilting community of Gee’s Bend – a Black artistic circle whose cultural influence remains enormous.
An astonishing, deeply compelling tapestry of history, biography and social commentary, Survivors is a tour de force that deepens our knowledge and understanding of the Atlantic slave trade and its far-reaching influence on life today.
Майкл Ливингстон0.0 Agincourt is one of the most famous battles in English history, a defining part of the national myth. This groundbreaking study by Mike Livingston, author of Never Greater Slaughter, presents a new interpretation of Henry V's great victory.
'It's quite a feat to write an account of England's most famous battle that makes the reader feel like they're experiencing history that is fresh, new and exhilarating.' Dan Snow
King Henry V's victory over the French armies at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 is unquestionably one of the most famous battles in history. From Shakespeare's 'band of brothers' speech to its appearances in numerous films, Agincourt rightfully has a place among a handful of conflicts whose names are immediately recognized around the world.
The English invasion of France in 1415 saw them take the French port of Harfleur after a long siege, following which Henry was left with a sick and weakened army, which he chose to march across Normandy to the port of Calais against the wishes of his senior commanders. The French had assembled a superior force and shadowed the English Army before finally blocking its route. The battle that followed was an overwhelming victory for the English, with the French suffering horrific casualties. Agincourt opened the door for Henry V's further conquests in France.
Agincourt provides a new look at this famous battle. Mike Livingston goes back to the original sources, including the French battle plan that still survives today, to give a new interpretation, one that challenges the traditional site of the battlefield itself. It is a thrilling new history that not only rewrites the battle as we know it, but also provides fresh insights into the men who fought and died there.
Matthew Longo0.0 A dramatic reconstruction of the greatest border breach in Cold War history and its tumultuous aftermath. 'A pivotal – and exhilarating – moment in late 20th-century history . . . gripping' Observer'This little gem of a book . . . intensely moving' Sunday Times* A GUARDIAN BIGGEST FICTION AND NON-FICTION FOR 2024 * A WATERSTONES ‘BOOK YOU NEED TO READ IN 2024’ * A FOYLES TOP TEN READ FOR JANUARY 2024 *In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did the they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain - and held a picnic.Word had spread of what was going to happen. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German 'holiday-makers' had made their way to the border between Hungary and Austria, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The stage was set for the greatest border breach in Cold War that day hundreds would cross from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union - the so-called end of history - all would flow from those dramatic hours.Drawing on dozens of original interviews with those involved - activists and border guards, escapees and secret police, as well as the last Communist prime minister of Hungary - Matthew Longo reconstructs this world-shaping event and its tumultuous aftermath. Freedom had been won but parents had been abandoned and families divided. Love affairs faltered and new lives had to be built from scratch.The Picnic is the story of a moment when the tide of history turned. It shows how freedom can be both dream and disillusionment, and how all we take for granted can vanish in an instant.'Evoke[s] the dramatic events in vivid colour . . . fascinating' Telegraph‘Captivating . . . a vivid, fast-paced narrative’ New York Times
Bridget Walsh0.0 The first in a sharp, witty series of Victorian mystery novels, The Tumbling Girl sees an unlikely duo team up to solve a grisly spate of murders.
1876, Victorian London. Minnie Ward, the feisty scriptwriter for the Variety Palace Music Hall, is devastated when her best friend is found brutally murdered. She enlists the help of private detective Albert Easterbrook, who already has his hands full trying to catch the notorious Hairpin Killer. But Minnie can't help getting involved in the investigation, and as the bodies begin to pile up, Albert's burgeoning feelings for his amateur partner start to interfere...
A dazzling debut for fans of Sarah Waters and Elizabeth Macneal, and shows like Miss Scarlet and the Duke.
Kate Foster3.0 Inspired by a real-life case and winner of the Bloody Scotland Pitch Perfect Award, Kate Foster's The Maiden is a remarkable story with a feminist revisionist twist, giving a voice to women otherwise silenced by history.
"In the end, it did not matter what I said at my trial. No one believed me."
Edinburgh, October 1679. Lady Christian Nimmo is arrested and charged with the murder of her lover, James Forrester. News of her imprisonment and subsequent trial is splashed across the broadsides, with headlines that leave little room for doubt: Adulteress. Whore. Murderess.
Only a year before, Christian was leading a life of privilege and respectability. So, what led her to risk everything for an affair? And does that make her guilty of murder? She wasn't the only woman in Forrester's life, and certainly not the only one who might have had cause to wish him dead . . .
Emily Howes0.0 A story of love, madness, sisterly devotion, and control, about the two beloved daughters of renowned 1700s English painter Thomas Gainsborough, who struggle to live up to the perfect image the world so admired in their portraits.
Peggy and Molly Gainsborough—the daughters of one of England’s most famous portrait artists of the 1700s and the frequent subject of his work—are best friends. They spy on their father as he paints, rankle their mother as she manages the household, and run barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are from a young age, Molly periodically experiences bouts of mental confusion, even forgetting who she is, and Peggy instinctively knows she must help cover up her sister’s condition.
When the family moves to Bath, it’s not so easy to hide Molly’s slip-ups. There, the sisters are thrown into the whirlwind of polite society, where the codes of behavior are crystal clear. Molly dreams of a normal life but slides deeper and more publicly into her delusions. By now, Peggy knows the shadow of an asylum looms for women like Molly, and she goes to greater lengths to protect her sister’s secret.
But when Peggy unexpectedly falls in love with her father’s friend, the charming composer Johann Fischer, the sisters’ precarious situation is thrown catastrophically off course. Her burgeoning love for Johann sparks the bitterest of betrayals, forcing Peggy to question all she has done for Molly, and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another.
A tense and tender examination of the blurred lines between protection and control, The Painter’s Daughters is a searing portrait of the real girls behind the canvas. Emily Howes’s debut is a stunning exploration of devotion, control, and individuality; it is a love song to sisterhood, to the many hues of life, and to being looked at but never really seen.
Стейси Томас2.8 Англия, 1645 год. Меня зовут Николас Пирс. Я бастард и начинающий драматург. Внезапно отец приказывает мне вернуться в отчий дом и стать помощником судьи Уильяма Персиваля, бывшего охотника на ведьм. Только тогда он обещает раскрыть имя моей матери.
Но, как известно, бывших ловцов не бывает, поэтому я должен соблюдать осторожность. Ведь с мертвыми у меня больше общего, чем с живыми. Возможно, я унаследовал от матери темный дар. Мертвые поют мне о своих горестях, а я, слушая их песни, пишу свои пьесы.
Но теперь меня самого втянули в очередную темную охоту. Угроза костра оказывается близка, как никогда. Я чувствую себя марионеткой в руках судьбы.
Смогу ли я спастись?
Hester Musson0.0 SOME HOUSES ARE HAUNTED BY THE LIVING June, 1878. The body of a boy is pulled from the depths of the River Thames, suspected to be the beloved missing child of the widely admired Liberal MP Ralph Gethin. Four months earlier. Harriet is a young maid newly employed at Finton Hall. Fleeing the drudgery of an unwanted engagement in the small village where she grew up, Harriet is entranced by the grand country hall; she is entranced too by her glamorous mistress Clara Gethin, whose unearthly singing voice floats through the house. But Clara, though captivating, is erratic. The master of the house is a much-lauded politician, but he is strangely absent. And some of their beautiful belongings seem to tell terrible stories. Unable to ignore her growing unease, Harriet sets out to discover their secrets. When she uncovers a shocking truth, a chain of events is set in motion that could cost Harriet everything, even her freedom…
