Historical Sagas

When larger-than-life cattle rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict arrives at the family home of sharp-witted but genteel Virginia socialite Leslie Lynnton to purchase a racehorse, the two are instantly drawn to each other. But for Leslie, falling in love with a Texan was a lot simpler than falling in love with Texas. Upon their arrival at Bick's ranch, Leslie is confronted not only with the oppressive heat and vastness of Texas but also by the disturbing inequity between runaway riches and the poverty and racism suffered by the Mexican workers on the ranch.

Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last. This is destined to be remembered as one of the most-recognized first sentences in literature - along with "Call me Ishmael." And Una Spenser, the transcendent hero at the center of Ahab's Wife may well become every bit as memorable as Ahab. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an entirely new universe - an epic-scale, enthralling, and compelling saga, spanning a full, rich, eventful, and dramatic life. In the "soprano voice" whose absence critics lamented in Moby Dick - the strong, intelligent voice of a woman whose life is dominated by the sea - Naslund tells many stories.

France 1917 Agnès Gunarsson de Melancourt, now a qualified doctor, faces a critical decision. Her duty as a physician draws her back to Château de Dragancourt despite her earlier attempts to distance herself. As World War I rages in northern France, the chateau becomes a frontline hospital led by the once-charismatic Elle and Jacques. Agnès, with her friend Kat, navigates the chateau's makeshift operating room to save Allied soldiers. In this crucible of healing and sacrifice, Agnès encounters a transformed Elle and Jacques, now driven by duty over privilege. Can she offer Elle a ...

The final book of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove tetralogy is an exhilarating tale of legend and heroism. Captain Woodrow Call, August McCrae's old partner, is now a bounty hunter hired to track down a brutal young Mexican bandit. Riding with Call are an Eastern city slicker, a witless deputy, and one of the last members of the Hat Creek outfit, Pea Eye Parker, now married to Lorena -- once Gus McCrae's sweetheart. This long chase leads them across the last wild streches of the West....

With war looming dangerously close, Ilse’s school days soon turn to lessons of survival. In the harshness of winter, her family must join the largest exodus in human history to survive. As battle lines are drawn and East Prussia’s borders vanish beneath them, they leave their farm and all they know behind for an uncertain future. But Ilse also has Janusz, her family’s young Polish laborer, by her side. As they flee from the Soviet army, his enchanting folktales keep her mind off the cold, the hunger, and the horrors unfolding around them.

Keeping watch over the young Arthur Pendragon, the prince and prophet Merlin Ambrosius is haunted by dreams of the magical sword Caliburn, which has been hidden for centuries. When Uther Pendragon is killed in battle, the time of destiny is at hand, and Arthur must claim the fabled sword to become the true High King of Britain.

Justine is the first volume in the Alexandria Quartet, four interlinked novels set in the sensuous, hot environment of Alexandria just before the Second World War. Within this polyglot setting of richly idiosyncratic characters is Justine, wild and intense, wife to the wealthy businessman Nessim, a Mari complaisant. Her emotional and sexual wildness fuels a highly charged atmosphere.

After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he's still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn't interested (and he'd like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash.

Welcome to the Village of Ballybucklebo. Come and say hello to Dr. O'Reilly's odd-as-two-left feet patients, his housekeeper, Mrs. "Kinky" Kinkaid, and O'Reilly's pets, Arthur Guinness, the beer-swilling black Lab and Lady MacBeth, the demonically possessed white cat. And of course, to young Dr. Barry Laverty. After Barry's first month as an assistant to crusty Dr. O'Reilly, he has been offered a permanent spot. But Laverty's excitement is dashed when one of his patients unexpectedly dies.

Forbidden passions have been the hallmark of the Dollanganger clan since Flowers in the Attic debuted more than 40 years ago. In this third book of a new related trilogy, witness the birth of the Dollanganger curse as Corrine Foxworth’s children learn that family is but destiny by another, crueler name.

It's 1894. Jordan Wallace and Sadie Wagner appear to have little in common. Jordan, a middle-aged black teacher, lives in segregated Chicago. Two thousand miles away, Sadie, the white wife of an ambitious German businessman, lives in more tolerant Oakland, California. But years ago, their families intertwined on a plantation in Virginia. There, Jordan's and Sadie's mothers developed a bond stronger than blood, despite the fact that one was enslaved and the other was the privileged daughter of the plantation’s owner.

In Sarum, Edward Rutherfurd weaves a compelling saga of five English families whose fates become intertwined over the course of centuries. While each family has its own distinct characteristics, the successive generations reflect the changing character of Britain. We become drawn not only into the fortunes of the individual family members, but also the larger destinies of each family line.

A town in turmoil. A young woman caught between loyalty and suspicion. Can love and courage unmask a deadly enemy? Deborah Taber is struggling to find her place in Pearson Grove, but her search for purpose is interrupted when violence strikes close to home. Her brother is shot, her family’s newspaper is firebombed, and suspicion falls on Trey Pearson—the man she’s secretly loved since childhood. With the town on edge and a killer on the loose, Deborah must decide who to trust and how far she’ll go to protect those she loves. Trey Pearson, newly returned after years away, never ...

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Picking up where Volume 3 left off in the summer of 1838, this book finds the Steeds, (all but daughter Melissa and her family) happily reunited in Far West, Missouri, only to be thrown into a maelstrom of intense and tragic events: the electionday battle at Gallatin; the siege of DeWitt; the Battle of Crooked River; the issuing of Governor Bogg's extermination order; the Haun's Mill massacre; the fall of Far West; the incarceration of the Prophet Joseph Smith; and the expulsion from Missouri. Characters whom audiences have come to know and love from previous volumes return here.

England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army.

Alfred of Wessex has survived the Danish invasions, but though he now has an uneasy truce with his enemies, fresh Viking ships are arriving to plunder and enslave the Saxons. Those Vikings must be defeated, and Alfred's first move is to deny them their fortress on the Thames, the decayed Roman city of London. His weapon is Uhtred, a warrior of formidable reputation. But neither Alfred's wisdom, not Uhtred's prowess, might be enough to save Wessex when a Viking lord captures a prize of inestimable value.

Norway, AD 785. It began with the betrayal of a lord by a king.... King Gorm puts Jarl Harald's family to the sword but makes one fatal mistake - he fails to kill Harald's youngest son, Sigurd. His kin slain, his village seized and its people taken as slaves, Sigurd wonders if the gods have forsaken him. Hunted by powerful men, he is unsure who to trust, and yet he has a small band of loyal followers at his side.

883AD, Scandinavia. Harald Fairhair is King of Norway, and Bjorn Ironside King of Sweden. To the west, the Crippled King of Mann builds an army in thrall to Loki. He threatens to destroy the Viking world and set Midgard on the road to the Ragnarök, the end of days.

London, 1941. The Blitz. When a Royal Navy memo arrives at head office, requesting female recruits to sign up as motorcycle dispatch riders, delivering highly classified orders across the country, three women jump at the chance to sign up for the most dangerous jobs in London.