Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

Francis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis' life were not always what they seemed. This wonderfully ingenious portrait of an art expert and collector of international renown is told in stylish, elegant prose and endowed with lavish portions of Davies' wit and wisdom.

Continuing the international bestselling saga of Alexander the Great, Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Sands of Ammon brilliantly describes his quest to conquer Asia, the limitless domain ruled by the Great King of the Persians. In a seemingly impossible venture, the mighty Alexander and his men...

An epic re-creation of the exhilarating and mysterious time when the Sun King ruled Egypt, Ramses, the Son of Light, has become the rage in France. With over two million copies sold, it is the greatest publishing phenomenon to hit the shelves there in 20 years. Rameses is only 14 when his father, the Pharaoh Seti, begins testing his true mettle. Being the younger of two sons, the proud Ramses has a problem with being relegated to second place.

The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. Estranged from Ada's father, who was infamously "mad, bad, and dangerous to know", Ada's mathematician mother is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada's mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science.

The first novel by James Joyce, this semi-autobiographical narrative depicts the life of Stephen Dedalus, a character created as an allusion to Daedalus, a craftsman in Greek mythology. Beginning by depicting the early stages of Stephen's life, the language of the novel grows with the main character as he awakens sexually and rebels against religion. When he realizes that Ireland is restricting him, he commits to a self-imposed exile and travels elsewhere to grow as an artist - but not before declaring Ireland his homeland.

Nelson Algren was a renowned writer, known for his penetrating and influential social novels such as The Man with the Golden Arm and A Walk on the Wild Side. Originally published in 1935, Somebody in Boots was Algren’s first novel, based on his experiences living in Texas during the Great Depression. A wonderful companion to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, this new edition of Somebody in Boots features an introduction by Colin Asher, the author of a biography of Algren.

With the age of voyages of discovery in the 15th century, the curtain of history slowly came down on the late Middle Ages. Portuguese and Spanish seafarers set out to remeasure the dimensions of the earth. Numerous spices and fruits, which we would hardly be able to do without today, found their way to Europe for the first time. Columbus discovered America in 1492 on his quest for India. Six years later, it was left to Vasco da Gama to travel through the sea route to India sought by Columbus on the eastern route around Africa.

C'est un jour comme un autre dans la vie de Saroo. Le garçon, âgé de cinq ans, est dans une gare du fin fond de l'Inde en train de ramasser quelques pièces lorsqu'il monte dans un train à quai. Le lendemain, Saroo se réveille à Calcutta. Dans l'immense ville, il est complètement seul, sans aucun papier. Il est recueilli par un orphelinat où, quelques mois plus tard, un couple d'Australiens va l'adopter. Saroo grandit, mais, depuis l'Australie, il pense toujours à sa famille biologique. Pendant 25 ans, il scrute les villages indiens sur Internet, à la recherche d'images familières.

In late March 1944, as Stalin’s forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel must make a terrible decision: Do they wait for the Soviet bear’s intrusion and risk being sent to Siberia? Or do they reluctantly follow the wolves—murderous Nazi officers who have pledged to protect “pure-blood” Germans? The Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed in Ukraine for more than a century.

Kathryn Janeway reveals her career in Starfleet, from her first command to her epic journey through the Delta Quadrant leading to her rise to the top as vice-admiral in Starfleet Command. Discover the story of the woman who travelled further than any human ever had before, stranded decades from home, encountering new worlds and species.

Young Marlene Tulloch was the third child of Anne and George Tulloch. She had two older sisters, Gloria and Sylvia. George desperately wanted an heir, a son to carry on his name. She was born after a difficult pregnancy, and her mother died ten days later from complications of childbirth. She was reared by her grandmother, Estrella, who was cruel to the young child. At the age of two, her father left. Thus, she knew neither parent. Due to kindness of friends and strangers, she survived. Despite obstacles, she became a teacher, got married, and had four boys.

Fénix de América, la Décima Musa, consentida de la virreina y antagonista del arzobispo Francisco de Aguiar; hija del volcán por haber visto la luz a los pies del Popocatépetl, pero registrada como "hija de la Iglesia" por haber llegado al mundo en bastardía; cortesana, religiosa, dramaturga… Todo eso —y más— fue Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, la más grande poetisa que han dado estas tierras mesoamericanas.

Tantas páginas se han escrito sobre Carlota y Maximiliano que bastarían para tapizar cada muro del Castillo de Chapultepec. ¿Qué más queda entonces por decir? Esta novela no intenta revivir el Imperio mexicano con datos fehacientes ni héroes empolvados por la gloria. Lo que aquí se ofrece es otra cosa: un testimonio alucinante narrado por una cortesana que ha perdido la razón, y que desde ese margen turbio reconstruye la figura esquiva de la emperatriz Carlota. Una loca narrando a otra loca.

In 1846 Yorkshire, the Brontë sisters—Charlotte, Anne, and Emily—navigate precarious lives marked by heartbreak and struggle. Charlotte faces rejection from the man she loves, while their blind father and troubled brother add to their burdens. Despite their immense talent, no one will publish their poetry or novels. Amidst this turmoil, Emily encounters a charming shepherd during her solitary walks on the moors, yet he remains unseen by anyone else. After Emily’s untimely death, Charlotte—now a successful author with Jane Eyre—stumbles upon hidden letters and a mysterious map.

Twenty years of marriage. Twenty years of ignored red flags. And one very smug ex-girlfriend. He seemed perfect at first. Don’t they always? I fell fast, and I fell hard. So when I discovered his secret double life, suddenly all those years of feeling paranoid made sense. I had two options...

Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider - brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments. When she is assigned to work on DNA, she believes she can unearth its secrets. Rosalind knows if she just takes one more X-ray picture - one more after thousands - she can unlock the building blocks of life.

In 1909, Clementine steps off a train with her new husband, Winston. An angry woman emerges from the crowd to attack, shoving him in the direction of an oncoming train. Just before he stumbles, Clementine grabs him by his suit jacket. This will not be the last time Clementine Churchill will save her husband. Lady Clementine is the ferocious story of the ambitious woman beside Winston Churchill, the story of a partner who did not flinch through the sweeping darkness of war, and who would not surrender either to expectations or to enemies.

When Mary Todd meets Abraham Lincoln in Springfield in the winter of 1840, he is on no one's shortlist to be president. Rough and reticent, he's a country lawyer lacking money and manners, living above a dry goods shop, but with a gift for oratory. Mary, a quick, self-possessed debutante with a tireless interest in debates and elections, at first finds him an enigma. "I can only hope," she tells his roommate, the handsome, charming Joshua Speed, "that his waters being so very still, they also run deep."

Germany, 1942. Franciscan friar Anton Starzmann is stripped of his place in the world when his school is seized by the Nazis. He relocates to a small German hamlet to wed Elisabeth Herter, a widow who seeks a marriage - in name only - to a man who can help raise her three children. Anton seeks something too - atonement for failing to protect his young students from the wrath of the Nazis. But neither he nor Elisabeth expects their lives to be shaken once again by the inescapable rumble of war.

Born at the beginning of the 20th century, Raphael Ignatius Phoenix is determined to take his own life as the new millennium begins and he turns 100 years old. But before he ends it all, he wants to get his affairs in order, and that includes making sense of his own life. He decides to write it down, remembering the experiences, the myriad encounters and, of course, the 10 murders he committed along the way.