Category: Past Tense

In the mid-nineteenth century, Inuit society was changed forever by the coming of the qallunaat, the white people. Sanaaq tells that story through the eyes of one outspoken Inuk woman and her daughter in their semi-nomadic community in northern Quebec. But their way of live, carefully balancing their needs with the harsh landscape around them, is threatened the encroaching missionaries and their battle to convert Inuit souls.

In Life Among the Qallunaat, Mini Aodla Freeman tells her story as an Inuk woman growing up in the 1940s before her training as a nurse and then moving to Ottawa to work as a translator for the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. Though it’s technically a memoir, it’s a beautifully rendered account of the changes taking place in Inuit communities of the 40s and 50s that serves an important place alongside similar fictionalized accounts.

A woman on a plantation in Barbados escapes enslavement and sets out on a harrowing journey to track down the five children that were taken from her and sold away. It’s a journey that takes her from Barbados deep into the jungles of British Guiana and all the way to Trinidad as she determines the fates of her children.

The author of A Thousand Ships and The Furies is back with a retelling of the most famous Gorgon of them all: Medusa. As the only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa knows what it is to be an outsider. But when a god does the unthinkable, she is the one to pay the price. And now a life of loneliness and solitude is all she will ever know. At least, until the son of Zeus come to collect the head of a Gorgon…

I love Chanel Cleeton’s historical fiction about Cubans and the Cuban diaspora, and her new novel sounds like another surefire hit. A luxury cruise on its way from New York to Havana unearths the secrets of two women desperately trying to deal with the repercussions of their pasts.

This historical fiction novel about one of the most legendary pirates of all time as she schemes to keep her fleet amidst the death of her husband, her marriage to his second-in-command, and the birth of her child, all while the Chinese Emperor sets out to rid the South China Seas of pirates.

A young girl moving up through the ranks of the Soviet-era gymnastics program looks for answers about her missing mother’s past from an old neighbor woman who survived the horrors of a Gulag. There is little room for error in the elite world of USSR gymnastics, and the further Anya rises through its ranks, the more she realizes how narrow that margin of error really is.

In 1970s Nunavut in northern Canada, a girl grows up amidst a world of ice and sky, animals and the all-too-human ravages of alcohol and violence. Weaving together myth and the electrifying proximity of the human and animal world, Tagaq crafts a story of life in the Arctic like no other.

A woman who made a spiritual bargain to save her son’s life from the destruction of Jerusalem’s temple during Roman occupation now lives with the consequences: eternal life. She’s buried numerous children and grandchildren and lived to see tragedy and triumph, but now she’s done. After 2,000 years of living, can modern technology help Rachel find a way out or will she be stuck being reborn into an 18-year-old body for the rest of eternity?

In this magical novel, a living doll is whisked away to Poland in the company of a Dollmaker with a storied past. The two are soon befriended by a local violinist and his daughter. But when their new friends are threatened by the Nazi soldiers descending upon Poland, Karolina and the Dollmaker become determined to save them no matter the cost.

In this sequel to A Marvellous Light, the younger sister of baronet Robin Blythe attempts to bring an elderly magician back to Britain to help prevent the dangerous conspiracy overtaking the magical community there. But when she’s murdered in cold blood, Maud must team up with an unlikely group of allies including a scandalous socialite, a surly magician, and a thief in order to steal back the murdered magician’s priceless silver artifacts before their enemies realize just what it is they’ve stolen.

Former Rioter and author of the Goodreads Choice nominated Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating, Adiba Jaigirdar, is back with a new book — this time set on the Titanic! It’s described as the Titanic with “an Ocean’s 8 makeover,” following a thief, an artist, an acrobat, and an actress attempting to steal a jewel-encrusted book, the Rubaiyat, before the ship’s journey comes to its fateful end.

A young Chinese-British acrobat sneaks aboard the Titanic to track down her twin brother and convince him to join her in a new act in America. But her brother isn’t interested, she’s pretending to be someone she’s not, and a recent act passed in the United States is barring entry for people of Chinese descent. And that’s not even to mention the fate we all know awaits the Titanic on her maiden voyage. But Valora possesses an auspicious surname — Luck — and perhaps it will help her reach the other side of the Atlantic if luck is in fact on her side.

In this novella-length book of short fiction, the author of The Wonder and The Pull of the Stars follows four centuries of wanderers from puritan Massachusetts to antebellum Louisiana. The stories feature emigrants and runaways, gold miners and drifters. And all of them explore the history of restless times.

The acclaimed author of Washington Black brings her talent to a short tale of a West African girl who’s gift for languages is used for the advantage of her English enslavers. But it’s the guilt she still harbors for losing her younger brother that helps her find her own voice.

A young mathematician sets out to solve the Riemann Hypothesis, the greatest unsolved mathematics problem of her day. Her research into this theorem with a mysterious past also brings up questions about her own history and identity. Her parents are not who they seem to be — so who, exactly, is Katherine? It is a question that will have her digging into some of the biggest moments of the 20th century.

Two men who were awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA. But they were not the first to uncover the hidden double helix structure of DNA — Rosalind Franklin was. Her place in scientific history was hidden by the men around her, but her discoveries advanced our understanding of DNA forever. This is her story.

In a family saga that spans generations, two identical twin sisters find their lives diverging radically as one moves back to the hometown she always tried to escape with her Black daughter while the other passes as white with a husband who knows nothing of her past or her racial identity.

Another tale of twins awaits in The God of Small Things. Raised in an affluent Indian family, Rahel and Esthappen’s world is shaken by the arrival of their young cousin and by a growing tide of unrest. Amidst it all, the complicated shambles of their family provide some comfort. But soon, the arrival of Sophie and her English mother prove that all that they thought they knew can change in a day.

A down-and-out former policeman is brought in to help investigate the death of a reclusive family’s matriarch in the 1950s. Irene Lamontaine was notoriously secretive about her soap recipes, but that wasn’t the only secret she held dear. She and her family stayed hidden to protect themselves, but now they must let someone in. And Evander Mills is beginning to see that there might be more to life than nightclub trysts and desperate lies. But certain members of the Lamontaine family are hiding darker secrets. And Mills is beginning to think he might be on the hunt for a killer after all.

In 1920s Bombay, Perveen Mistry has just become one of the first female lawyers in India. When she comes across a strange amendment to a will, she suspects the three widows living in seclusion after their husband’s death are being taken advantage of. When her investigation results in a murder, Perveen knows her suspicions were right. What exactly is happening on Malabar Hill? And will her skills as a lawyer and a women’s rights activist help her make it right?

An unsolved murder haunts the town of Pluto, North Dakota, generations after it changed the lives of the Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation forever. And in a reckoning during the present day, a part-Ojibwe girl, her grandfather, and a local judge come together as a wrenching truth is finally revealed.

Aiyi Shao, a young heiress and owner of a Shanghai nightclub, hires a Jewish refugee to play piano at her club. His hiring causes a sensation, but it’s their shared love of jazz and a burgeoning feelings for one another that change things for good — especially as the war worsens and circumstances threaten to tear them apart.

Siblings working for the war effort stateside discover a mysterious woman hiding underneath their back stairs. This woman, who has a penchant for poisons, quickly draws Maggie and Will under her spell, but she may be hiding deadly secrets. Is she a friend or a foe? And will befriending her become Will and Maggie’s downfall?

Two women, one the American wife of a Frenchman, the other a crack shot with dual citizenship recruited by the British Special Operations Executive, become enmeshed in clandestine operations during WWII only to find their endeavors brought to a jarring halt when they’re caught and brought to the Ravensbrück concentration camp.