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  33 Revolutions

  Canek Sánchez Guevara

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  A young man’s political awakening takes shape in the aftermath of Castro’s Revolution in this “prayer of a novel” by the grandson of Che Guevara (Cleaver Magazine).   At the dawn of Communist Cuba, our unnamed hero, a young black Cuban man, loses his father to death and his mother to emigration. Now he spends much of his time with his Russian neighbor, discovering the pleasures of reading. The books he reads gradually open his eyes to the incongruity between party slogans and the oppressive reality that surrounds him: the office routine; the daily complaints of his colleagues; his own obsessive thoughts which circulate around his mind like a broken record.   Every day he photographs the spontaneous eruptions of dissent on the streets and witnesses the sad spectacle of young people crowding onto makeshift rafts to escape the island. His frustration grows until a day when he declares his unwillingness to become an informer. And this is when his real troubles begin.  “Not since Reinaldo Arenas has a Cuban literary voice arrived on American shores with such beaten madness, and sense of personal desperation.” —Cleaver Magazine

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  Everything We Lose - A Civil War...

  Annette Oppenlander

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  "Oppenlander's rich, gritty descriptions are a joy to read. Her touching story moves along quickly, but will keep you in suspense until the final pages." -Historical Novel Society 
  "I fell in love with this book." -Our Town Book Reviews 
  "...a well-deserved 5+ stars." -Locks, Hooks and Books  
   "...full of rich details..." -Books Direct  
  "...dramatic twists did make me think of some of those grand tales like North and South and Gone with the Wind..." -Andy's Young Adult Books  
  "An entertaining read for those who love historical fiction." -Nancy Fraser, Award Winning Author 
   
  Two friends - one black, one white.  
  Torn apart by an attack gone wrong. 
  One escapes into war, the other is sold into slavery. 
   
  Told from alternating viewpoints, one black and one white, Surviving the Fatherland author Annette Oppenlander delivers another stunning historical tale set against the epic backdrop of the American Civil War--a breathtaking examination of the power of hope and friendship, and the endurance of the human spirit to find a way home. 
   
  Tennessee, 1861. Fifteen-year-old farm boy Adam Brown would do anything to protect his friend Tip, a slave at the neighboring plantation--even if it means fighting Nathan Billings, the rich and obnoxious landowner's son. But when it seems his attack has killed Nathan, Adam has no choice but to run away and join the Union Army under an assumed name. Together with Wes, a chatty soldier with a few secrets of his own, Adam embarks on a traumatic odyssey through the war-torn Midwest. As his soul darkens with the atrocities of war, all he wants is to go home. But in order to do that--if he survives--he must face his past. 
   
  Unbeknownst to Adam, sixteen-year old Tip is sold to a farmer who takes drunken pleasure in torturing his slaves. Tip quickly realizes that if he wants to survive he must run. Ahead lie hundreds of miles of unknown country, infested by slave owners, traders, starvation and cold. And so begins a journey of escape and recapture, of brutal attacks and unexpected kindness. When a rescue by the Underground Railroad goes terribly wrong, Tip finds himself caring for a pregnant runaway, his journey seemingly at an end. They have reached the Ohio River, a vast watery expanse impossible to cross. It is only a matter of time before roaming slave traders will pick them up--he will never see his mother and his best friend again.

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  The Invention of Exile

  Vanessa Manko

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  Austin Voronkov is many things. He is an engineer, an inventor, an immigrant from Russia to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1913, where he gets a job at a rifle factory. At the house where he rents a room, he falls in love with a woman named Julia, who becomes his wife and the mother of his three children. When Austin is wrongly accused of attending anarchist gatherings his limited grasp of English condemns him to his fate as a deportee, retreating with his new bride to his home in Russia, where he and his young family become embroiled in the Civil War and must flee once again, to Mexico. While Julia and the children are eventually able to return to the U.S., Austin becomes indefinitely stranded in Mexico City because of the black mark on his record. He keeps a daily correspondence with Julia, as they each exchange their hopes and fears for the future, and as they struggle to remain a family across a distance of two countries. Austin becomes convinced that his engineering designs will be awarded patents, thereby paving the way for the government to approve his return and award his long sought-after American citizenship. At the same time he becomes convinced that an FBI agent is monitoring his every move, with the intent of blocking any possible return to the United States. Austin and Julia's struggles build to crisis and heartrending resolution in this dazzling, sweeping debut. The novel is based in part on Vanessa Manko's family history and the life of a grandfather she never knew. Manko used this history as a jumping off point for the novel, which focuses on borders between the past and present, sanity and madness, while the very real U.S.-Mexico border looms. The novel also explores how loss reshapes and transforms lives. It is a profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home.

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  Last Night With the Earl - A...

  Kelly Bowen

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  Earl. War hero. Notorious rake. After the Battle of Waterloo, Eli Dawes was presumed dead—and would have happily stayed that way. He's no longer the reckless young man he once was, and only half as pretty. All he wants is to hide away in his country home, where no one can see his scars. But when he tries to sneak into his old bedroom in the middle of the night, he's shocked to find someone already there. 
  Rose Hayward remembers Eli as the arrogant lord who helped her late fiancé betray her. Finding him stealing into her art studio doesn't correct her impression. Her only thought is to get him to leave immediately. Yet the tension between them is electric, and she can't help but be drawn to him. He might be back from the dead, but it's Rose who is suddenly feeling very, very much alive.

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  Beyond

  John Galsworthy

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  Gyp, the daughter of ex-Major Charles Claire Winton, at the age of 23 marries Fiorsen, a Swedish violin virtuoso. Her mother, the wife of another man, has been Winton's mistress; she had died when Gyp was born. A highly sensitive child, Gyp has grown up in isolated surroundings with a kind, but very British, father.As she gets older her father tries to introduce her into society. An attack of gout takes him to Wiesbaden for a cure and, as he never goes anywhere without her, she accompanies him. There she is mesmerised by Fiorsen and his playing. Intensely musical herself and inexperienced, she's flattered by the homage of the violinist although her father soon sees through him. She also sees he is talented but unstable, ignorant, vain, hypersensitive, with an air of romance – a typical virtuoso.Gyp realises that she may well have made a mistake in marrying Fiorsen. The book follows what happens to her thereafter.( Simon Evers)

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  Eben Holden - A Tale of the...

  Irving Bacheller

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  Eben Holden - A Tale of the North Country. Having lost both parents and his home in northern Vermont, orphan Willie Brower is taken in by Eben Holden, "Uncle Eb" who transports him westward to save him from being sent to an orphanage. Through the Adirondacks and into the St. Lawrence valley they travel. Eben is kind, happy, and loves to tell stories to the youngster, many of which were to shape the life and ideals of Willie during his life.This story follows Willie as a young orphan, later as a journalist, and finally as a soldier who enlists in the army at the outset of the American Civil War. The book was immensely popular when it was published in 1900 and the years to follow, as the characters were all drawn from people who the author had known himself. (Summary by Roger Melin)

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