Other books that might interest you

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  Sweet Darusya - A Tale Of Two...

  Maria Matios

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  'To my mind Maria Matios's Sweet Darusya is the best contemporary Ukrainian novel written since Ukrainian Independence in 1991. It reveals a family saga that is much more dynamic than classical sagas and at the same time is much more touching and engaging. It is an emotional history of Ukraine with a very well researched and vivid historical background that gives the reader the opportunity to understand not only the characters and their drama, but the entire drama of the country/countries in which they lived without leaving their village.' –Andrei Kurkov 
   
   
   
  'Maria Matios with her novel Sweet Darusya has boldly and strongly tossed political caution and public taboos to the wind—and at her own risk has taken us on a cruel journey into our bloody, and no less cruel, historical hell, into the abyss, where it is terrifying to peer.' –Pavlo Zahrebelny 
   
   
   
  'Ecstatic reactions, many awards, and the large number of readers are tied to its vivid, rich, but almost never sweet language, thanks to which the old world of a Ukrainian village blooms and begins a new life.' –Uli Hufen, Westdeutscher Rundfunk / Germany

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  The Silkworm Keeper - A...

  Deborah Swift

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  Rome 1638 
  Old sins have long shadows ~ Italian Proverb 
  Giulia Tofana never wanted to be a nun, but she is determined to atone for her past misdeeds by making her new monastery a success. 
  When an unexpected disaster closes the convent, Giulia is forced to turn to her old friend Fabio Pasello for help. Giulia still has intense feelings for Fabio and Fabio’s passion for her has never diminished. 
  But they are not the same people they were before. Giulia has taken her vows, and Fabio is apprenticed to Gianlorenzo Bernini the famous sculptor, and has become one of Bernini’s rakish libertines. They could not be further apart. 
  To add to their problems, Giulia cannot escape her reputation as a poisoner, and is soon embroiled in a plot against Fabio’s patron, Pope Urban VIII. Faced with the idea of murder, will Giulia renounce her vows or embrace them? 
  Inspired by true stories, this is a novel of nuns and courtesans, artists and priests, in the shadow and splendour of the Eternal City. 
  'Swift is a consummate historical novelist, basing her books on immaculate research and then filling the gaps between real events and real people with eloquent storytelling, atmospheric scene setting and imaginative plot lines.' - The Visitor

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  All the World's a Wonder

  Melia McClure

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  A playwright possessed by her muses, an actress desperate to succeed, and a doctor haunted by a lost love. Three people cross time and space to meet through the playwright's bizarre creative process: to create, the playwright must become her characters; to tell her tragic story, the actress must speak from the grave; to heal his harrowing past, the doctor must surrender to his patient - the playwright.

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  A Slash of Emerald - A Dr Julia...

  Patrice McDonough

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  London, 1867: Among the genteel young ladies of London society, painting is a perfectly acceptable pastime—but a woman who dares to pursue art as a profession is another prospect, indeed. Dr. Julia Lewis, familiar with the disrespect afforded women in untraditional careers, is hardly surprised when Scotland Yard shows little interest in complaints made by her friend, Mary Allingham, about a break-in at her art studio. Mary is just one of many "lady painters" being targeted by vandals. 
   
   
   
  Painters' sitters are vanishing, too—women viewed by some as dispensable outcasts. Inspector Richard Tennant, however, takes the attacks seriously, suspecting they're linked to the poison-pen letters received by other members of the Allingham family. For Julia, the issue is complicated by Tennant's previous relationship with Mary's sister-in-law, Louisa, and by her own surprising reaction to that entanglement. 
   
   
   
  But when someone close to them commits suicide and a woman turns up dead, the case can no longer be so easily ignored by "respectable" society. Layer after layer, Julia and Tennant scrape away the facts of the case like paint from a canvas. What emerges is a somber picture of vice, depravity, and deception stretching from London's East End to the Far East—with a killer at its center, determined to get away with one last, grisly murder . . .

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  The Keepers of Memory - A Tale...

  Christopher Allen

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  "The Keepers of Memory" tells the remarkable story of Lady Aelfwyn, an Anglo-Saxon widow whose world is shattered by the Norman Conquest of 1066. When her husband Thegn Aelred dies at the Battle of Hastings, Aelfwyn faces an impossible choice: flee into exile with her three children or submit to Norman rule and marry the foreign knight who has claimed her lands. 
  Choosing survival over pride, Aelfwyn marries Sir Raoul de Montfort, a Norman lord who needs legitimacy through union with Anglo-Saxon nobility. But this marriage of necessity becomes the foundation for something far more significant—a quiet revolution of cultural preservation. While publicly embracing her role as a Norman lady, Aelfwyn secretly begins teaching her children the Anglo-Saxon heritage that the conquest threatens to erase. 
  In hidden evening lessons, she passes down the ancient stories, songs, and customs of her people. Her eldest son Godwin struggles with his dual identity, torn between resentment and pragmatism. Her daughter Eadgyth becomes a natural bridge between cultures, while young Wulfric grows up truly bilingual and bicultural. Through patient persistence, Aelfwyn demonstrates that Anglo-Saxon traditions can coexist with Norman rule, gradually winning over even her initially skeptical husband. 
  The family's greatest test comes when Archbishop Lanfranc arrives to investigate reports of their cultural preservation activities. Rather than deny her actions, Aelfwyn boldly argues that understanding Anglo-Saxon customs makes Norman lords more effective rulers. Her courage and wisdom not only save her family but help convince the Church hierarchy that transformation, rather than destruction, is the wisest approach to conquered peoples. 
  The story culminates thirty-three years later, when Aelfwyn's youngest son Wulfric is commissioned by King Henry I to establish a school teaching both Norman and English customs to royal administrators.

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  The Last Flight from Moscow

  Andie Newton

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  The USA Today Bestseller! 
  In the shadowy underbelly of Cold War Moscow, Mae Pierce, once a formidable OSS agent, has found herself once again thrust into a perilous mission that could spell redemption—or ruin. 
  Tasked with posing as a model at the American Exhibition, Mae is haunted by the ghosts of her past and the weight of a life she thought she had left behind. As she navigates the treacherous waters of deceit, betrayal, and the ruthless Russian Mafia, Mae realizes that the stakes are higher than she ever imagined. 
  In a game where trust is a luxury and survival is paramount, can one broken agent rise from the ashes to confront the Cold War's most hidden secrets? 
  Prepare for a gripping tale of courage, sacrifice, and the haunting echoes of a life once lived in the shadows.

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