New Reviews: Historical Fiction

Tanya Reynolds gives this stunning novel a luminous performance. Budding journalist Joseph Adelaide is invited to interview the world-famous, notoriously reclusive painter Edouard Tartuffe. "Tata" lives in isolation in Provence with his niece, Ettie. Ettie caters to him, doing everything from answering his mail to cutting his hair while silently enduring his rages, cruelty, and... Read More

In her cool tone and British accent, Evie Butcher narrates the indecision and fear of two characters who echo the emotions of everyone around them as Hitler attempts to invade England. Eleanor Rand is a brilliant military mathematician working in the British RAF. Using probability theories, she predicts where the Luftwaffe will attack next. Johnnie Shaux is a Spitfire pilot and... Read More

Unless you have a time machine, the best way to visit the court of Henry VIII is to listen to this flawlessly researched audiobook. Accomplished narrator Rosalyn Landor delivers this lengthy fictionalized account of the life of Cardinal Wolsey in a low-pitched smoky voice that captures the drama, intrigue, and uncertainty of the time and place. Listeners learn how powerful... Read More

Dina Pearlman narrates this fictional reimagining of real-life German Jewish painter Charlotte Salomon with conviction and urgency. In 1939, 21-year-old Charlotte is expelled from the Berlin Art Academy because of her religion. She's sent to her grandparents, who are refugees in Nice, and is eventually deported to the notorious Auschwitz death camp, where she dies. Throughout... Read More

What a treat it is to listen to Alix Dunmore's splendid narration of this novel about the first class of women to matriculate at Oxford University in 1920. The story revolves around four young women who all reside on Corridor 8. Dunmore portrays aristocratic Ottoline, the ringleader of the group, with a posh London accent and an imposing intonation. Beatrice, the daughter of a... Read More

Thanks to Amy Scanlon's virtuosic narration, paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey's personal and professional lives become historical fiction at its finest. Her story ranges from the 1930s, when she was in her 20s, to the 1970s, when she was a cigar-smoking scientist in her 70s. Listeners hear Mary fall in love with Louis as she illustrates his books on human evolution. The story... Read More

Caroline Hewitt's superb narration takes listeners on a powerfully emotional journey in this dual-timeline audiobook. In 1942, as German officers arrive at their French countryside home, 7-year-old Martine is hidden in a cabinet by her Jewish father with a valuable bottle of wine. Alone on the streets, Martine is brought to an abbey by Sister Ada, who is hiding her own secret.... Read More

Listeners meet the very French Gabriële Buffet. An accomplished conductor and composer who was educated at the most elite French conservatory, she was way ahead of her time. But she also set her personal talent aside to be a muse for her husband, a Spanish artist. Barrie Kealoha portrays Gabriële as the brilliant artist and intellectual she was during the Belle poque, when... Read More

Lisa Flanagan narrates this historical novel with compassion. In 1942, almost 300 works of art from the Uffizi Galleries in Florence were hidden in a Tuscan villa to protect them from Nazi looting. Stella is sent to stay with her uncle in that villa, which he is overseeing for its absentee owners. There, Stella tries to find her place with relatives she's never known and to... Read More

Erin Bennett's complex narration of this historical audiobook wraps listeners in a web of mystery. In early 1942, June Hudson manages the luxurious Avallon Hotel with calm certainty of her place in the world. When the State Department commandeers the West Virginia hotel to house Axis diplomats in the wake of Pearl Harbor, June realizes that nothing will ever be the same again.... Read More

In this riveting work of historical fiction, listeners learn about the remarkable exploits of French Resistance leader Marie-Madeleine Fourcade and her intrepid agents who supplied vital information to the Allies during the dark days of WWII. Award-winning narrator Saskia Maarleveld tells this story in a hushed voice and conspiratorial tone. The plot moves swiftly, and... Read More

Eva Feiler gives an emotionally expressive performance of this historical novel. Listeners will feel they are witnessing history as they learn of the harrowing conditions two young Jewish women found themselves in during WWII in Nazi-occupied northern Italy. Anti-Semitic laws were in force, and military officers were rounding up Jews for deportation. Determined Esti, who is... Read More

In this "reimagined companion" to Louisa May Alcott's beloved LITTLE WOMEN, the emphasis is on the distinct voices of the three slightly less known but just as bright, energetic, and independent-minded sisters of budding writer Jo March. With a straightforward delivery, Laura Knight Keating finds the eldest, Meg, balancing motherhood (twins) with a new interest in turning her... Read More

Thom Rivera performs the story of Theo Sterling, a New York boy whose Mexican Jewish family suffers terrible hardship during the Great Depression. Rivera's strongly masculine voice is surprisingly suitable for young Theo, who is wise beyond his years due to his challenging experiences on the Lower East Side, and later at an English boarding school. The story becomes more... Read More

The War of the Roses comes to life in this fascinating novel about the political struggles and bloody battles between rival houses of the Plantagenet family. John Hollingworth portrays the innocent 10-year-old boy who is plucked from farm life and told that he's secretly the 17th Earl of Warwick, heir to the throne of England. As the boy is educated, Hollingworth's voice... Read More

It has to benefit an audiobook to have its narrator so embedded in its production. While they worked together, actor Blair Underwood asked screenwriter Joe McClean if he had a novel in him. The result is the two-volume story of the Carter brothers, who migrated from the South to Detroit in the early decades of the 20th century. Since Underwood became involved with these... Read More

Mia Hutchinson-Shaw gives a vibrant performance in this variation on TRUE GRIT, which captures the historic quality of the Old West in the mid-1800s and a woman who poses as a man to survive a journey. Haidie Richards's father left home years ago to seek his fortune mining gold in Colorado and disappeared. Convinced he's still alive, she begins a dangerous trek with her sister,... Read More