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  The Great Stink - A Novel of...

  Clare Clark

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  A mystery that offers “a gripping and richly atmospheric glimpse into the literal underworld of Victorian England—the labyrinthine London sewer system” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).   Clare Clark’s critically acclaimed The Great Stink “reeks of talent” as it vividly brings to life the dark and mysterious underworld of Victorian London (The Washington Post Book World). Set in 1855, it tells the story of William May, an engineer who has returned home to London from the horrors of the Crimean War. When he secures a job trans­forming the city’s sewer system, he believes that he will be able to find salvation in the subterranean world beneath the city. But the peace of the tunnels is shattered by a murder, and William is implicated as the killer. Could he truly have committed the crime? How will he bring the truth above ground?   With richly atmospheric prose, The Great Stink combines fact and fiction to transport readers into London’s putrid past, and marks the debut of a remarkably talented writer in the tradition of the very best historical novelists.   “A crackerjack historical novel that combines the creepy intrigue of Caleb Carr, the sensory overload of Peter Ackroyd and the academic curiosity of A. S. Byatt.” —Los Angeles Times

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  The Sleeping Car Porter

  Suzette Mayr

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  SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 
  WINNER OF THE 2022 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE 
  WINNER OF THE 2023 GEORGES BUGNET AWARD FOR FICTION 
  FINALIST FOR THE 2023 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD FOR ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FICTION 
  PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TOP 20 LITERARY FICTION BOOKS OF 2022 
  OPRAH DAILY: BOOKS TO READ BY THE FIRE 
  THE GLOBE 100: THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 
  CBC BOOKS: THE BEST CANADIAN FICTION OF 2022 
  SHORTLISTED FOR THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION 
  WINNER OF THE CITY OF CALGARY W.O. MITCHELL BOOK PRIZE 
  SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 REPUBLIC OF CONSCIOUSNESS PRIZE 
  When a mudslide strands a train, Baxter, a queer Black sleeping car porter, must contend with the perils of white passengers, ghosts, and his secret love affair 
  The Sleeping Car Porter brings to life an important part of Black history in North America, from the perspective of a queer man living in a culture that renders him invisible in two ways. Affecting, imaginative, and visceral enough that you’ll feel the rocking of the train, The Sleeping Car Porter is a stunning accomplishment. 
  Baxter’s name isn’t George. But it’s 1929, and Baxter is lucky enough, as a Black man, to have a job as a sleeping car porter on a train that crisscrosses the country. So when the passengers call him George, he has to just smile and nod and act invisible. What he really wants is to go to dentistry school, but he’ll have to save up a lot of nickel and dime tips to get there, so he puts up with “George.” 
  On this particular trip out west, the passengers are more unruly than usual, especially when the train is stalled for two extra days; their secrets start to leak out and blur with the sleep-deprivation hallucinations Baxter is having. When he finds a naughty postcard of two queer men, Baxter’s memories and longings are reawakened; keeping it puts his job in peril, but he can’t part with the postcard or his thoughts of Edwin Drew, Porter Instructor. 
  "Suzette Mayr brings to life –believably, achingly, thrillingly –a whole world contained in a passenger train moving across the Canadian vastness, nearly one hundred years ago. As only occurs in the finest historical novels, every page in The Sleeping Car Porter feels alive and immediate –and eerily contemporary. The sleeping car porter in this sleek, stylish novel is named R.T. Baxter –called George by the people upon whom he waits, as is every other Black porter. Baxter’s dream of one day going to school to learn dentistry coexists with his secret life as a gay man, and in Mayr’s triumphant novel we follow him not only from Montreal to Calgary, but into and out of the lives of an indelibly etched cast of supporting characters, and, finally, into a beautifully rendered radiance." – 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize Jury

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  No Resting Place - A Novel

  William Humphrey

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  A Scottish-Cherokee boy accompanies his grandparents on the Trail of Tears in this “superb” novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Ordways (Time).   Twelve-year-old Amos Ferguson is a blond, blue-eyed boy of mixed Cherokee and Scottish heritage, the son of a physician and the grandson of a gentleman farmer. Despite wealth and education, however, the family has no recourse when a drifter forges a bill of sale to their plantation: Georgia state law forbids anyone with Native American blood from testifying in court.   Amos and his grandparents are relocated to a squalid internment camp and forced to join their tribe on a long and brutal march to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi. Along the way, the doctor’s son tends to the sick as thousands perish from disease, starvation, and exhaustion. In the Republic of Texas, he bears witness to the doomed last stand of Chief Bowles and his band of Cherokee, who refuse to sacrifice the lands promised them by Sam Houston.   More than a century later, Amos’s great-great-grandson narrates the story of his ancestor’s harrowing journey and heroic survival, in “a novel every American should be required to read” that brings a shameful chapter of US history to life (Los Angeles Times). From the National Book Award–nominated author of Home from the Hill and Farther Off from Heaven, No Resting Place “is more than one boy's story; it is the story of a nation dispossessed and brought to its knees by the greed and power of another” (Library Journal).This ebook features an illustrated biography of William Humphrey including rare photos form the author’s estate.

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  The Possessed or The Devils

  Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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  Originally published in 1872, "The Possessed" (also known as "The Devils" or "Demons") is a political novel by the renowned Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The story focuses on a group of revolutionaries plotting an uprising in a provincial Russian town, exploring their motives, philosophies, and interpersonal dynamics. It delves deep into the psychology of its characters, offering a scathing critique of radical ideologies and the intellectuals who espoused them during Dostoyevsky's time. As with much of his work, the narrative is a profound exploration of good and evil, freedom and enslavement, and the nature of power.

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  Erik the Navigator - The New...

  Griff Hosker

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  Book Five in the New World series, set in the world of the Vikings.When the old world meets the new world there will be clashes! Erik is Norse but he was left in the new world when his clan returned home. He has to fight not only to protect his new family but his new clan as hostile tribes try to earn honour by slaying the Shaman of the Bear. Forced to flee from their northern home Erik and his family head south to the land of the Powhatan tribe where he hopes to begin life anew. Before he can do so he has to endure a voyage through strange and uncharted waters and fight enemies as yet unknown.

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  Fatal Rivalry

  Mercedes Rochelle

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  In 1066, the rivalry between two brothers brought England to its knees. When Duke William of Normandy landed at Pevensey on September 28, 1066, no one was there to resist him. King Harold Godwineson was in the north, fighting his brother Tostig and Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge. How could this have happened? Why would Tostig turn traitor to wreak revenge on his brother? 
  Harold and Tostig were not always enemies; it took a massive Northumbrian uprising to tear them apart, making one an exile and the other his sworn enemy. After Edward the Confessor died and Harold took the crown, Tostig was intent on reclaiming his earldom. But he was on his own; his brother was not sympathetic. In fact, Harold allied with Tostig's enemies. What else could he do?

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