Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

Stylish, outgoing, creative, May Alcott grows up longing to experience the wide world beyond Concord, Massachusetts. While her sister Louisa crafts stories, May herself is a talented and dedicated artist, taking lessons in Boston, turning down a marriage proposal from a well-off suitor, and facing scorn for entering what is very much a man's profession.

Paris in the 1920s: It is a city of intoxicating ambition, passion, art, and discontent, where louche jazz venues like the Chameleon Club draw expats, artists, libertines, and parvenus looking to indulge their true selves. It is at the Chameleon where the striking Lou Villars, an extraordinary athlete and scandalous cross-dressing lesbian, finds refuge among the club's loyal denizens, including the rising photographer Gabor Tsenyi, the socialite and art patron Baroness Lily de Rossignol, and the caustic American writer Lionel Maine.

England, 1065: The Saxon kingdom is under threat of invasion at both ends. From the north comes Harald Hardrada of Norway intent on pillage, while across the Channel, Duke William of Normandy is about to enforce his claim to the throne. Between the two lie the villages and townships defended only by part-time armies maintained by the Earls of Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, barely united under King Harold Godwineson. It falls to brave and determined young men like Will Riveracre and Selwyn Astenmede to stand firm against whichever marauding invader reaches them first.

The Vitals is Tracy Sorensen's cancer memoir transformed by imagination into something far richer and stranger. Narrated by her internal organs, it will make you infinitely more aware of the peculiar world inside your body and discover all the hidden parts that make you human.

On the banks of the River Seine in 1899, a young woman takes her final breath before plunging into the icy water. Although she does not know it, her decision will set in motion an astonishing chain of events. It will lead to 1950s Norway, where a grieving toy-maker is on the cusp of a transformative invention, all the way to present-day Canada where a journalist, battling a terrible disease, risks everything for one last chance to live.

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 solitude again or die'. Amidst the wild beauty of the Californian landscape, Kerouac struggles to come to terms with his own myth and its malign impact upon his life.

Welcome to the mostly true memoir of Quincy, an Irish soft-coated wheaten terrier. Learn about Quincy's life as he describes his time with his dog mom and his puppy siblings and feel the mixture of concern and excitement as they all go to their forever homes with their new pet parents. Quincy tells us his thoughts as he moved to New Jersey with his new parents, Diane and John, and then describes the adventures he experiences with his humans until his parents bring home a tiny wheaten terrier puppy named Duffy.

In these short stories, collected and translated by Ralph McCarthy, we can see just how closely Dazai’s life mirrored his art, and vice versa, as the writer/narrator falls from grace, rises to fame, and falls again. Addiction, debt, shame, and despair dogged Dazai until his self-inflicted death, and yet despite all the lies and deception he resorted to in life, there is an almost fanatical honesty to his writing.

A vividly original literary novel based on the astounding true-life story of Laura Bridgman, the first deaf and blind person who learned language and blazed a trail for Helen Keller. At age two, Laura Bridgman lost four of her five senses to scarlet fever. At age seven, she was taken to Perkins Institute in Boston to determine if a child so terribly afflicted could be taught. At age 12, Charles Dickens declared her his prime interest for visiting America. And by age 20, she was considered the 19th century's second most famous woman.

Inspired by true events, Among Kings tells the inspiring story of William Sheppard, the first African American missionary to the Congo who rescues the entire nation enslaved by Belgian's ruthless King Leopold II. Traveling 1,000 miles up the Congo River with Samuel Lapsley, his white missionary companion, the two overcome deadly fevers, dangerous animals, and cannibal tribes. Sheppard becomes a famous explorer honored by kings, queens, and presidents. Armed with a camera, he exposes widespread Congo atrocities to the world.

John Barleycorn is a novel about the enjoyment of drinking and the struggles of alcoholism.

Sixteen-year-old Catherine Seymour has always idolized her elder sister Jane. As a child was groomed to be queen, to marry her cousin King Edward, and since his death she has been determined to restore her family's claim to throne. After spending time at Queen Mary's court, Jane has now returned home to Hanworth Park to the delight of Catherine and their brother Ned. To their surprise, Jane brings with her Lady Catherine Grey, sister of Jane Grey, the ill-fated nine-day queen, and heiress to the throne after Princess Elizabeth.

London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France.

Klaus Mann: Mephisto - Roman einer Karriere, gelesen von Ingolf Kloss. Klaus Mann schrieb seinen "Mephisto" in weniger als einem halben Jahr. Begonnen hatte er den Roman Anfang 1936 und im Mai desselben Jahres war das Manuskript bereits fertig. Kurz darauf erschien er in einer Pariser Zeitung als Vorabdruck. In der Hauptrolle glänzte der berühmte und ganz reale Schauspieler, Gustaf Gründgens, hier im Buch unter dem Namen Hendrik Höfgen benannt.

Brendan Behan is widely remembered as a hard-drinking, wise-cracking writer who turned up roaring drunk for interviews and cared little for authority. But he was more than just a hell-raising celebrity. His wit, expressive use of language and understanding of human nature made his writing famous around the world, and his masterpieces The Quare Fellow, Borstal Boy and The Hostage rank among the greatest works of 20th century Irish literature. Dramatisations of all three appear here, alongside a short interview with Behan himself and a fascinating biographical programme celebrating his genius.

På den amerikanske vestkyst i Los Angeles arbejder Henry Chinaski for postvæsnet. Vi følger ham i en hverdag præget af faste rutiner, hvor dagen begynder tidligt med at dele breve ud, mens fritiden fordrives med hestevæddeløb, druk til langt ud på natten og talrige og sporadiske romancer med mange forskellige kvinder, før det igen bliver morgen, og hele rumlen starter forfra.

Este libro es una novela, un ensayo, una autobiografía. La autora emprende en él un viaje al interior en un juego narrativo lleno de sorpresas. En La loca de la casa se mezclan literatura y vida en un cóctel afrodisíaco de biografías ajenas y autobiografía novelada. Y, así, descubrimos que el gran Goethe adulaba a los poderosos hasta extremos ridículos, que Tolstoi era un energúmeno, que Montero, de niña, fue una enana, y que, con veintitrés años, mantuvo un estrafalario y desternillante romance con un famoso actor.

Based on a true story, Queenie of Norwich is the compelling tale of one remarkable girl's journey to womanhood. Spanning the first half of the 20th century, Queenie's story is one of heartbreak and triumph, love and loss, and the power of family. It is a story of redemption, and how, with grit and determination, anything is possible.

Salisbury 1226. When a child of village outcasts disappears from Salisbury, the odious new sheriff doesn’t seem to care. Ela Longespée is determined to help the girl’s desperate parents and her investigation leads her into the thick of a human-trafficking ring in London. There, she vows to find the lost child, arrest the perpetrators, and convince the king to make her high sheriff of Wiltshire.

It is the 1970s in LA, and Jacaranda Leven - child of sun and surf - is swept into the dazzling cultural milieu of the beautiful people. Floating on a cloud of drink, drugs and men, she finds herself adrift before her talent for writing, and a determined literary agent, set her on a course for New York and a new life. Sex & Rage is a recently rediscovered classic from author Eve Babitz, herself a muse to many an artist, writer and musician in the 1970s.