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  Edith

  Martina Devlin

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  Martina Devlin, an award-winning columnist for the Irish Independent and podcaster for Dublin City of Literature #CityofBooks, has delivered a new novel based on the life of Edith Somerville of 'Somerville and Ross' fame – authors of The Irish R.M.
  In this work, set during the turbulent period of Irish Independence 1921–22, Somerville finds herself at a crossroads. Her position as a member of the Ascendancy is perilous as she struggles to keep her family home, Drishane House in West Cork, while others are burned out. After years in a successful writing partnership with Violet Martin, Edith continues to write after her partner's death, comforted in the belief they continue to connect through automatic writing and séances.
  Against a backdrop of Civil War politics and lawlessness erupting across the country via IRA flying columns, people across Ireland are forced to consider where their loyalties lie.
  In Edith, Devlin limns a vivid historical context in this story of proto-feminist Edith Somerville courageously trying to keep home and heart in one piece.
  The story of Somerville and Ross is unique in the history of Irish women writers. Academic Shawn R. Mooney described these best-selling authors as 'undeniably New Women: single, educated and economically independent writers whose lives and literary collaboration were unique manifestations of late-nineteenth century feminist strivings toward political and sexual equality'. Devlin depicts Edith in the round, suffering from loss, striving for safety, and keeping hold of hope in this captivating narrative set in the early years of a nascent state — a triumph of ventriloquism rooted in a society on the cusp of change.

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  High on the List

  Andrew Wareham

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  Nick Turnhouse is now a senior captain, some two thirds of the way up the List, perhaps as little as five years short of automatic promotion to Rear Admiral. As such, he must accept more responsibility, and he will be expected to offer more than blind obedience to his orders. It is time to replace Bloody Nick with Sir Nicholas. 
   
   
   
  Bonaparte is committing the error of trying to place his brother on the throne of Spain, currently occupied by a madman and his erratic queen. 
   
   
   
  The Spanish are divided into at least four different factions nationally, and a dozen more in each separate province. 
   
   
   
  Sir Nicholas sails out to the Mediterranean to offer assistance to those Spaniards who will serve British interests best. 
   
   
   
  It is not a straightforward task.

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  Blood at the Whistletop - Murder...

  James D. Brewer

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  "You're the most famous railroad detective that nobody ever heard of," says railroad tycoon Henry Plant when in May of 1887 he hires Jimmy Lee "Choctaw" Parker to investigate the murder of his head surveyor and geologist Leon Skarvo. In a story that ranges from Tampa to Ybor City and along the Florida Southern Railroad line to Arcadia, Choctaw Parker and his colleagues battle deceitful politicians, bolita gamblers, and ruthless cracker cowboys to uncover the truth in this fast-paced mystery set in Florida during the Gilded Age. About the Choctaw Parker Mysteries, The Historical Novel Society says that Brewer creates "…an engaging, anchored crime tale. [He] crafts an interesting cast of many memorable, despicable, and even some semi-honorable characters within a realistic historical setting."

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  Royalists and Roundheads Collide...

  Christopher Allen

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  Set against the tumultuous backdrop of the English Civil War (1642-1651), this epic historical fiction follows two noble families torn apart by political conviction and united by unexpected love. The Cavendish family, led by William, Earl of Newcastle, represents the Royalist cause—aristocrats who believe in the divine right of kings and traditional order. Opposing them are the Hampdens, headed by the principled John Hampden, Parliamentary champions who fight for constitutional government and the rights of Englishmen. 
  The story begins in 1641 as tensions between King Charles I and Parliament reach breaking point. In a London tavern, Charles Cavendish, younger brother to the Earl of Newcastle, encounters William Hampden in a heated political debate. Their philosophical sparring is interrupted when William's sister Ruth needs assistance with her lame horse. Charles gallantly escorts her home, where he meets John Hampden himself. Despite their political differences, mutual respect develops, and Charles finds himself captivated by Ruth's intelligence and beauty. 
  As civil war erupts in 1642, the families choose their sides. The Cavendishes rally to King Charles I's standard at Nottingham, while John Hampden takes command of a Parliamentary regiment. Charles and Ruth's forbidden romance blossoms through secret correspondence, their love transcending the growing chasm between their worlds. Their relationship symbolizes the personal cost of political division—two souls united by affection yet separated by loyalty to opposing causes. 
  The war's brutal reality unfolds through major battles. At Edgehill, the first great engagement, both sides suffer heavy casualties without decisive victory. Charles fights bravely for the King while wondering if William Hampden stands among the enemy ranks. The northern campaigns see William Cavendish commanding Royalist forces in Yorkshire, while his daughter Jane defends Welbeck Abbey against Parliamentary siege.

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  The Bridge of San Luis Rey

  Thornton Wilder

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  Set in Peru in the summer of 1714, this novel tells the tale of a group of interrelated people who perish following the collapse of an Inca rope bridge. A Franciscan friar, Brother Juniper, witnesses the accident and sets out to find out more about each victim, seeking answers—cosmic or otherwise—as to why they had to die. In his quest, Brother Juniper spends six years trying to interview as many people that knew the victims as he can, seeking to prove that both their beginning and their end was part of God's plan for each victim. In doing so, he hopes to document empirical evidence of God's Divine Providence. Winner of the 1928 Pulitzer Prize and the bestselling work of fiction that same year, this novel is exploration of the meaning of a person's life beyond their personal choices.

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  Arachne - A tale from the French...

  Marcel Schwob

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  Mayer André Marcel Schwob was born in Chaville, Hauts-de-Seine, France on 23rd August 1867 into a cultivated Jewish family.  
   
  As a child he devoured the works of Poe and Stevenson in French and then again in English.  His attachment to the bizarre and dark was already forming. 
   
  His education at the Lycée of Nantes earned him the 1st Prize for Excellence.  In 1881, he was in Paris with his maternal uncle to study at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand.  Schwob quickly developed his multilingual abilities and then studied philology and Sanscrit at the École pratique des hautes études before completing his military service in Vannes with the artillery. 
   
  After completing a Bachelor of Arts in 1888 he became a professional journalist and worked for the Phare de la Loire, the Événement and L'Écho de Paris. 
   
  The 1890’s marked his establishment as a brilliant writer with the publication of six short story collections.   
   
  He fell ill in 1896 with a chronic, incurable intestinal disorder.  He also suffered recurring bouts of influenza and pneumonia.  Intestinal surgery was given several times, at first with success but, by 1900, after two more surgeries, he was told that nothing more could be done for him.  Schwob now existed on kefir and fermented milk. 
   
  By the turn of the century, despite failing health, and often too ill to write, he embarked on several long travels, including to Vailima in the South Pacific where his literary hero Stevenson had died.  
   
  Schwob was regarded as a symbolist writer and a ‘precursor of Surrealism’.  He wrote over a hundred short stories, journalistic articles, essays, biographies, literary reviews and analysis, translations and plays.  
   
  Marcel Schwob died on 26th February 1905 of Pneumonia.  He was 37.

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