Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

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.

Im Chaos, das die Französische Revolution hinterlässt, wird Napoleon des Verrats angeklagt. Um seine Reputation zu retten, begibt der große Feldherr sich auf Kriegszüge nach Italien und Ägypten. Während Napoleon sich in zahlreichen blutigen Schlachten verliert, schickt England sich an, unter der Führung Wellingtons das mächtige Frankreich zu unterwerfen. Die beiden großen Schlachtenlenker Napoleon und Wellington stehen sich als erbitterte Feinde gegenüber in einem Kampf, der die Grundfesten der Weltgeschichte erschüttert.

In the early hours of Saturday, December 17th, 2011, Zoe Nolan, a 19-year-old Manchester University student, walked out of a party taking place in the shared accommodation where she had been living for three months. She was never seen again.

Dos jóvenes poetas latinoamericanos, Arturo Belano y Ulises Lima, emprenden una aventura que transcurrirá durante varias décadas y cruzará distintos países. Símbolo de la rebeldía y la necesidad de ruptura con la realidad establecida, sus vidas representan los anhelos de toda una generación. La búsqueda en 1975 de la misteriosa escritora mexicana Cesárea Tinajero, desaparecida y olvidada en los años posteriores a la revolución, sirve de inicio a un viaje sin descanso marcado por el amor, la muerte, el deseo de libertad, el humor y la literatura.

Why Mummy Swears is the much anticipated new novel from Gill Sims, author of the hilarious Why Mummy Drinks and online sensation Peter and Jane. It’s every parents’ nightmare - the start of the school holidays - and instead of sitting in the sun, reading a book over a cold, crisp glass of Pinot Grigio, Mummy has two bored moppets to attend to. After frantically booking sports camps, child minder slots, not to mention time off work, Mummy is exhausted. But this is only the beginning....

Having survived her perilous childhood as a royal captive of Rome, Selene has pledged her loyalty to Emperor Augustus, swearing to become his very own Cleopatra. But even though she is forced to marry a man of the emperor's choosing, Selene will not allow her new husband to rule in her name. As she rules the kingdom of Mauretania and contends with imperial politics and religious persecution, Selene beguiles her way to the precipice of power with the ultimate goal of taking back her birthright.

"The others form the human being, I depict him; and here I present an individual who is quite poorly formed and whom I would certainly make largely differently if I had to reshape him. But now that's the way he is." This phrase from the famous essays of Michel de Montaigne outlines the character of the author and his work. Montaigne wrote his essays not from a position of certainty but from an awareness of his inadequacy. He thus reveals a level of critical self-reflection that, before his time, was rarely put on paper.

This is A Madman's Diary, and Other Stories by Lu Xun, a renowned writer of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun was a novelist, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, and poet who wrote both in Vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese. He became the titular head of the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai in the 1930s.

Contada con la propia voz de Cleopatra, Las memorias de Cleopatra es una fascinante historia de ambición, pasión y traición en el mundo del antiguo Egipto, que comienza cuando la reina de veinte años busca al hombre más poderoso del mundo, Julio César.

In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, best-selling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph - a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.

Vitangelo Moscarda, il protagonista dell'ultimo, straordinario romanzo di Pirandello, in seguito alla banale osservazione della moglie a proposito del suo naso che pende un po' da una parte, si mette sulle tracce del vero se stesso, accorgendosi però, che se il corpo può essere unico, così non accade per l'anima. La sua ricerca finisce per prendere inquietanti aspetti che si avvicinano ad una molteplicità di sapore faustiano, fino ad una modificazione tale dei propri comportamenti, che spinge sua moglie, i parenti e gli amici a considerarlo pazzo.

Originally published in 1965, this autobiographical novel covers a key year in Jack Kerouac’s life—the period that led up to the publication of On the Road in September of 1957. After spending two months in the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington, Kerouac’s fictional self Jack Duluoz comes down from the isolated mountains to the wild excitement of the bars, jazz clubs, and parties of San Francisco, before traveling on to Mexico City, New York, Tangiers, Paris, and London.

When a health scare forces Orla, 29, to move in with her secretive father, she decides it's time to swap family drama for sun-soaked Greek beaches. After checking into a charming B&B, she realises the turquoise sea isn't the only eye-catching sight. Her neighbour, brooding writer Georgios, is in dire need of inspiration – and Orla seems to be the muse he's been waiting for. But over candlelit dinners and Greek wine, he persuades Orla to share her past. As soon as she does, however, Georgios abruptly ends their rendezvous.

The Paris Wife meets PBS’s Victoria in this enthralling novel of the life and loves of one of history’s most remarkable women: Winston Churchill’s scandalous American mother, Jennie Jerome.

In 1940s and ’50s America, polio is as dreaded as the atomic bomb. No one’s life is untouched by this disease that kills or paralyzes its victims, particularly children. Outbreaks of the virus across the country regularly put American cities in lockdown. Some of the world’s best minds are engaged in the race to find a vaccine. The man who succeeds will be a god.

Ireland, 1912. Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. For 17-year-old Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with the sweetheart she left behind. Chicago, 1982. Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. When her Great Nana Maggie shares the painful secret she harboured for almost a lifetime about the Titanic, the revelation gives Grace new direction.

Thomas Ransom, born to a severely dysfunctional Southern family transplanted to New York City, is left to his own devices by neglectful parents and spends his childhood shadowing his criminally inclined half brother and roaming the city with hard-drinking teenage pals. He eventually finds an outlet as the flamboyant singer of a downtown rock band, and later as the young editor of the Detroit-based magazine that invented punk, only to return to New York, at the height of the 1970s bacchanal, and crash.

Peter Rock's stunning autobiographical novel begins in the '90s on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. The narrator, a recent college graduate, and a young widow, Mrs. Abel, swim together at night, making their way across miles of open water, navigating the currents and swells carried by the rise and fall of the lake. The nature of these night swims, and of his relationship to Mrs. Abel, becomes increasingly mysterious to the narrator as the summer passes, until the night that Mrs. Abel disappears.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu longs for adventure, freedom and love, believing that only by truly living can she ever escape the stalking crow of Death. An aristocratic woman in 18th century England is expected to act in certain ways. But Mary has never let society's expectations stifle her: she writes celebrated poetry and articles advocating for equality, as well as endless, often scandalous, letters to her many powerful friends. However, Mary wants more from the world. Using her charm and connections, she engineers a job offer for her husband as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

Brought up in the magnificent castles of Scotland under the storm of her parent's turbulent marriage, Margaret Douglas is well-acquainted with the changing whims of those who hold power. And when her father is exiled by King James V, Margaret is sent to England to seek refuge with her uncle King Henry VIII. Margaret is an asset to Henry, who plans to use her eligible marriage status for his own advantage.