Historical Fiction “Sure Bets”
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See
In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the
tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match
that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending
Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that
Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the
influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on
fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams,
and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their
arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find
solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their
deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart
Girl With a Pearl Earring
by Tracy Chevalier
Tracy Chevalier's second novel Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's
prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly
perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old
narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs
her as his assistant--and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier
vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter's
jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between
servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a
final delicious twist
Girl in Hyacinth Blue
by Susan Vreeland
A professor invites a colleague from the art department to his home to view a
painting he has kept secret for decades in Susan Vreeland's powerful historical
novel, Girl in Hyacinth Blue. The professor swears it's a Vermeer -- but why
exactly has he kept it hidden so long? The reasons unfold in a gripping sequence of
stories that trace ownership of the work back to Amsterdam during World War II
and still further to the moment of the painting's inception.
The Religion (Tannhauser Trilogy #1)
by Tim Willocks
2007 Sarah Crichton Books (Farrar Straus Giroux) HB, 1st American Edition, 2nd
printing. Historical novel by Tim Willocks (Bad City Blues, Green River Rising).
Suleiman the Magnificent declares a jihad against the Knights of St. John the
Baptist of Malta, also known as "The Religion." Lush historical details collide
with military mayhem. The fist book of the Tannhauser trilogy
The Birth of Venus
by Sarah Dunant
Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth
merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the
chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a
precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the
painter’s abilities. But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when
Alessandra’s parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is
changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk
Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are
caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the
hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola’s reactionary followers. Played out
against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra’s married life is a misery, except for the surprising
freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art.