Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

Brought to you by Penguin. Driven mad by three years of endless telegrams, phonecalls, mail, reporters and snoopers in the wake of his hugely successful novel On the Road, Jack Kerouac, 'King of the Beats', needs peace, quiet and sobriety: surrounded and outnumbered he has to 'get away to...

Aleen Cust has big dreams. And no one―not her family, society, or the law―will stop her. Born in Ireland in 1868 to an aristocratic English family, Aleen knows she is destined to work with animals, even if her family is appalled by the idea of a woman pursuing a veterinary career. Going against their wishes but with the encouragement of the guardian assigned to her upon her father’s death, Aleen attends the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, enrolling as A. I. Custance to spare her family the humiliation they fear.

Artist Hans Holbein is summoned to the house of Sir Thomas More to receive the commission of a lifetime. He will leave with a secret that could cost him his life. He will learn the truth about the life of King Richard III, the man that the Tudor dynasty has been at great pains to villify. From his return from exile with his brother, King Edward IV, to his rise to become the king's most loyal, most trusted, and most powerful subject. From his flourishing personal life to his seizure of the throne from his nephew.

A kiss, a touch. A smile and a beating heart. Love and sex and dreams, art and drugs and the madness of youth. Betrayal and heartbreak, regret and pain, the melancholy of age. Katerina, the explosive new novel by America's most controversial writer, is a sweeping love story alternating between 1992 Paris and Los Angeles in 2018. At its centre are a young writer and a young model on the verge of fame, both reckless, impulsive, addicted, and deeply in love. 

Melbourne, 1976. A crew of precision-minded criminals walks into the fortified Victoria Club and disappears with millions in cash. No weapons. No alarms. No arrests. What they pulled off would go down as one of the boldest and most mysterious heists in Australian history. But this story isn’t just about the robbery—it’s about the silence that followed… and the cost of keeping it.

The National Book Award finalist and national bestseller exploring the life and legend of Marilyn Monroe Soon to be a Netflix Film starring Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale and Julianne Nicholson In one of her most ambitious works, Joyce Carol Oates boldly reimagines the inner, poetic...

Who was the real George Eliot? In Love with George Eliot is a glorious debut novel which tells the compelling story of England’s greatest woman novelist as you’ve never heard it before.

From the author of Confessions of the Fox comes a novel in which a yenta on her deathbed gives an unrepentant account of all her failures—including her child. “A rant of comedic genius . . . [Jordy Rosenberg] writes with an enchanting command of language and satire.”—Melissa Broder, The...

Tantas páginas se han escrito sobre Carlota y Maximiliano que bastarían para tapizar cada muro del Castillo de Chapultepec. ¿Qué más queda entonces por decir? Esta novela no intenta revivir el Imperio mexicano con datos fehacientes ni héroes empolvados por la gloria. Lo que aquí se ofrece es otra cosa: un testimonio alucinante narrado por una cortesana que ha perdido la razón, y que desde ese margen turbio reconstruye la figura esquiva de la emperatriz Carlota. Una loca narrando a otra loca.

After winning his freedom in Rise of the Wolf, Robin - with his faithful lieutenant John Little at his side - now spends his days travelling around northern England dispensing King Edward II's justice. When a new band of outlaws appears in Barnsdale, Sheriff Henry de Faucumberg sends Robin and John to deal with them.

For fans of Vanessa Miller, Sheila Williams, Victoria Christopher Murray and Tracy Chevalier, the story of an unconventional woman who overcame adversity to create enduring tributes in stone to her race and times. The life of pioneering Black Neoclassical sculptor Edmonia Lewis–from the Civil War-era Midwest to Boston’s abolitionist circles, to Rome’s expatriate community–is resurrected in this stunning debut biographical novel.

“A riveting reimagining of a true tale of forbidden love.”—People The captivating novel following the exploits of Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, the forgotten and rebellious daughter of one of America's greatest political dynasties. London, 1938. The effervescent "It girl" of London society...

My Struggle introduces American listeners to the audacious, addictive, and profoundly surprising international literary sensation that is the provocative and brilliant six-volume autobiographical novel by Karl Ove Knausgaard. It has already been anointed a Proustian masterpiece and is the rare work of dazzling literary originality that is intense and irresistible to hear. Unafraid of the big issues - death, love, art, fear - and yet committed to the intimate details of life as it is lived, My Struggle is an essential work of contemporary literature.

Italy, 1943. The Nazi occupation has cemented its grip on the devastated city of Naples. Giuseppe DiPietra, a curator in the National Archives, has a subversive plan to aid the Allies. If he’s discovered, forced labor or swift execution. Lucia Pastone, secretary for the Italian Fascist government, is risking her own life in secret defiance of orders. And Lucia’s father, Aldo, is a black marketeer who draws Giuseppe and Lucia into the underworld - for their protection and to help plant the seeds of resistance.

In the spirit of Loving Frank and The Paris Wife, acclaimed novelist Melanie Benjamin pulls back the curtain on the marriage of one of America’s most extraordinary couples: Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. “The history [is] exhilarating. . . . The Aviator’s Wife soars...

Hungary, 1939. Like most Hungarian Jews during the onset of World War II, Shomo Stern is sent to the front lines with the Forced Labor Services–to be worked to death under the thumb of the Nazi war machine. Fighting the bitter European winter, the battalions witness horrific events in the wake of the Nazi advance.

Morgan Conner had it all—until the words cheating wife appeared spray-painted across her property, turning her world upside down. Suddenly, her picture-perfect life is in pieces, and the whispers of her community grow louder by the second. Caught in a storm of judgment and betrayal, Morgan must dig deep to fight for her truth and her survival. In a society where appearances often mean more than facts, can she rise above the scandal and find her own voice?

Bosworth 1485: After victory against King Richard III, Henry Tudor becomes King of England. Rebels and pretenders plot to seize his throne. The barons resent his plans to curb their power and he wonders who he can trust. He hopes to unite Lancaster and York through marriage to the beautiful Elizabeth of York. With help from his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, he learns to keep a fragile peace. He chooses a Spanish Princess, Catherine of Aragon, as a wife for his son Prince Arthur.

If you love Jennifer Robson or The Crown you will love New York Times bestselling author Karen Harper’s novel about Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. 1939. As the wife of the King George VI and the mother of the future queen, Elizabeth—“the queen mother”—shows a warm, smiling face to the...

Wife and mother to a dynasty of kings, crusader, prisoner and formidable political operator, Eleanor of Aquitaine is a thoroughly modern woman, despite living almost 900 years ago. Intelligent, witty and independent, she is tough enough to forge her own destiny—and subtle enough to shape the world to her will.