> HISTORICAL FICTION
The Brideship Wife By Leslie Howard, Simon & Schuster, 400 pages, $24.99
Like so many bookworms across the city, in the early days of the pandemic, I found myself unable to concentrate enough to read. The book that finally brought me back to reading was Leslie Howard’s wonderful debut. The Penticton, B.C., author is the daughter of the late novelist Blanche Howard, to whom this book is dedicated. When she was 10 years old, Leslie Howard’s parents took her to visit the historic gold rush town of Barkerville, B.C. The trip stayed with her for decades, ultimately inspiring her to pen this page-turner. “The Brideship Wife” opens in England in 1862 and follows 21-year-old Charlotte, as she makes the long, harrowing journey to Canada, as part of a real-life scheme to provide single, English (and often destitute) women as wives to male settlers in the colonies. There’s a reason this well-researched read has landed on the Toronto Star bestseller list; it marks the arrival of a new talent on the Canadian historical fiction scene.
The Library of Legends By Janie Chang HarperAvenue, 400 pages, $22.99
The Vancouver, B.C., author of “Three Souls” and “Dragon Springs Road” has done it again. One of the most original voices in Canadian historical fiction, Chang writes epic novels inspired by personal family stories. This time out, Chang is inspired by her father’s experiences as a refugee student in China. In 1937, at the start of the Second SinoJapanese War, there was a mass exodus of youth from Chinese universities, relocating scholars to safer campuses, away from the conflict, and protecting the country’s cultural legacy in the process. “The Library of Legends” follows several such students as they make this treacherous trek. Captivating, tinged with magic realism, and rich with Chinese history, folklore (and cuisine!), this is a delight from start to finish.
The Secret Hours: A Deverill Story By Santa Montefiore Simon and Schuster UK, 528 pages, $22.00
A Santa Montefiore novel is always a major event, and “The Secret Hours” is no exception. The British author — whose books have been translated into 25 languages and sold millions of copies — is a master storyteller. And her multi-generational series on a family in
Deverill castle, in Ballinakelly, Ireland, has her at the height of her powers. This time out, Montefiore tells the tale of American wife and mother Faye Clayton, whose own mother Arethusa has just passed away. She’s left behind mysterious instructions that propel Faye on a voyage to Ireland, uncovering roots she never knew she had — and upending her entire life in the process. This is the kind of epic story you can lose yourself in. A triumph of a novel.
Daughter of the Reich By Louise Fein William Morrow, 560 pages, $34.99
Another riveting debut rounds out the pandemic reading list, this one from British writer Louise Fein. Fein’s father was 61 when she was born, and he died when she was 17 years old. A Jewish lawyer originally from Germany, he’d fled the Nazis in 1933, his pregnant young wife following him to England shortly after to build a life there. The idea of writing a novel inspired by his experiences percolated for many years, and after much research, Fein felt compelled to also include a Nazi character, as a way of trying to understand what went so horrifically wrong. The result is “Daughter of the Reich,” about the child of a high-ranking Nazi officer and her secret love for a Jewish friend. Containing fascinating parallels between 1930s Germany and Western history post-2008, this is a must-read. Tara Henley is a writer and radio producer in Toronto.