JANET SOMERVILLE HISTORICAL FICTION
Acts of Love and War
Maggie Brookes Viking Canada, 416 pages $24.00
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) over fifty thousand people volunteer to fight with the International Brigades and to provide humanitarian aid to refugees in support of democracy and to push back against fascism. Lucy Nicholson and her Hertfordshire childhood friend Thomas Murray join the causa, committed antifascists, while Thomas’s brother Jamie chooses to report from the other side, blindly believing in the Roman Catholic Church’s support of Franco. Letters sustain the characters through difficult days full of loss, but it’s Brookes’ extraordinary empathy for all of them that triumphs during a time when being needed is a form of happiness.
The Thread Collectors
Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman Graydon House 384 pages $35.99
It’s the heart of the US Civil War. In March 1863 in New Orleans, gifted musician William is illiterate and enslaved. With the help of his secret lover Stella, he escapes to join the Union Army. There he meets New Yorker Jacob Kling, a cornet player who has been convinced by his abolitionist wife Lily to volunteer based on moral grounds, pitting him on the opposite side of his Confederate sympathizing brother Samuel who grows rich in Mississippi. Secrets kept (and shared) propel the plot forward, and music serves as a motif that links the narrative threads of this engrossing tale that emerges out of the family histories of its collaborators.
The Orphan Girl
Kurt Palka McClelland & Stewart 328 pages $22
The novel opens in 1945 London, following Kate Henderson, who has served as an ambulance driver and paramedic throughout the war. Her father’s death is a shadow in Kate’s life. David Cooper, one of her father’s closest friends, trusts her with a mysterious hidden manuscript — “Dostoevsky and Friends” — insisting that if he should die or disappear Kate must burn it. Recovering from physical trauma and new tragedy in her life, Kate stays with Dr. Giroux, a sympathetic physician. A friend’s uncle teaches Kate about self-defence and weapons of convenience, skills that become essential as she rebuilds her life. With harrowing detail, it’s a page-turner about the resilience of ordinary people in an extraordinary time.
The Manhattan Girls: A Novel of Dorothy Parker and Her Friends
Gill Paul William Morrow 416 pages $21 In fizzing Jazz Age New York City, four ambitious and creative working women keep secrets, gossip and cheer each other on especially during dark personal times. Chapters alternate between the voices of this notable true-life quartet: Jane Grant, the first female reporter at the New York Times; Peggy Leech, aspiring novelist and ad salesperson for Condé Nast; Winifred Lenihan, Broadway actress on the cusp of her big break; and Dorothy Parker, legendary wit and member of the Algonquin Round Table. Paul’s impeccable ear for dialogue and her vibrantly imagined characters bring this tale irresistibly to life.