The Historical Fiction category has 5,886 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 31,971 ratings. The most-rated is The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
The Murmur of Bees
Summary
From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel - her first to be translated into English - about a mysterious child with the power to change a family’s history in a country on the verge of revolution.
From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can - visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats - both human and those of nature - Simonopio’s purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.
Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, The Murmur of Bees captures both the fate of a country in flux and the destiny of one family that has put their love, faith, and future in the unbelievable.
©2019 by Sofía Segovia. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. English translation © 2019 by Simon Bruni.
Hum If You Don't Know the Words
Summary
Perfect for fans of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy. Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising, in which a protest by black students ignites racial conflict, alters the fault lines on which their society is built, and shatters their worlds when Robin's parents are left dead and Beauty's daughter goes missing. After Robin is sent to live with her loving but irresponsible aunt, Beauty is hired to care for Robin while continuing the search for her daughter. In Beauty, Robin finds the security and family that she craves, and the two forge an inextricable bond through their deep personal losses. But Robin knows that if Beauty finds her daughter, Robin could lose her new caretaker forever, so she makes a desperate decision with devastating consequences. Her quest to make amends and find redemption is a journey of self-discovery in which she learns the harsh truths of the society that once promised her protection. Told through Beauty's and Robin's alternating perspectives, the interwoven narratives create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid-era South Africa. Hum If You Don't Know the Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family.
©2017 Bianca Marais (P)2017 Penguin Audio
Harlequin
Summary
The first book in Bernard Cornwell's best-selling Grail Quest series, in a bright and bold repackage. The year is 1342. The English, led by Edward III, are laying waste to the French countryside. The army may be led by the King, but it is the archers, the common men, who are England's secret weapon. The French know them as Harlequins. Thomas of Hookton is one of these archers. But he is also on a personal mission: To avenge his father's death and retrieve a stolen relic. Thomas begins a quest that will lead him through fields smeared with the smoke of fires set by the rampaging English, until at last the two armies face each other on a hillside near the village of Crécy.
©2008 Bernard Cornwell (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers
The Last Train to London
Summary
The New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Exiles conjures her best novel yet, a pre-World War II-era story with the emotional resonance of Orphan Train and All the Light We Cannot See, centering on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe - and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety. In 1936, the Nazi are little more than loud, brutish bores to 15-year-old Stephan Neuman, the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family and budding playwright whose playground extends from Vienna’s streets to its intricate underground tunnels. Stephan’s best friend and companion is the brilliant Žofie-Helene, a Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper. But the two adolescents’ carefree innocence is shattered when the Nazis’ take control. There is hope in the darkness, though. Truus Wijsmuller, a member of the Dutch resistance, risks her life smuggling Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to the nations that will take them. It is a mission that becomes even more dangerous after the Anschluss - Hitler’s annexation of Austria - as, across Europe, countries close their borders to the growing number of refugees desperate to escape. Tante Truus, as she is known, is determined to save as many children as she can. After Britain passes a measure to take in at-risk child refugees from the German Reich, she dares to approach Adolf Eichmann, the man who would later help devise the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, in a race against time to bring children like Stephan, his young brother Walter, and Žofie-Helene on a perilous journey to an uncertain future abroad.
©2019 Meg Waite Clayton (P)2019 HarperAudio
Bear No Malice: A Novel
Summary
Great Expectations meets Grantchester in this story of love and lies, secrets and second chances, set in Edwardian England. Beaten and left for dead in the English countryside, clergyman and reformer Tom Cross is rescued and nursed back to health by Miranda and Simon Thorne, reclusive siblings who seem to have as many secrets as he does. Tom has spent years helping the downtrodden in London while lying to everyone he meets, but now he's forced to slow down and confront his unexamined life. Miranda, a skilled artist, is haunted by her painful past and unable to imagine a future. Tom is a welcome distraction from her troubles, but she's determined to relegate him to her fantasy world, sensing that any real relationship with him would be more trouble than it's worth. Besides, she has sworn to remain devoted to someone she's left behind. When Tom returns to London, his life begins to unravel as he faces the consequences of both his affair with a married woman and his abusive childhood. When his secrets catch up with him and his reputation is destroyed, he realizes that Miranda is the only person he trusts with the truth. What he doesn't realize is that even if she believes him and returns his feelings, he can't free her from the shackles of her past.
©2018 Clarissa Harwood (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Celtic Mythology
Summary
Most people have heard of the Celts - the elusive, ancient tribal people who resided in present-day England, Ireland, Scotland and France. Paradoxically characterized as both barbaric and innocent, the Celts appeal to the modern world as a symbol of a bygone era, a world destroyed by the ambition of empire and the spread of Christianity throughout Western Europe. Despite the pervasive cultural and literary influence of the Celts, shockingly little is known of their way of life and beliefs, because very few records of their stories exist. In this book, for the first time, Philip Freeman brings together the best stories of Celtic mythology. Everyone today knows about the gods and heroes of the ancient Greeks, such as Zeus, Hera, and Hercules, but how many people have heard of the Gaulish god Lugus or the magical Welsh queen Rhiannon or the great Irish warrior Cú Chulainn? We still thrill to the story of the Trojan War, but the epic battles of the Irish Táin Bó Cuailgne are known only to a few. And yet those who have read the stories of Celtic myth and legend - among them writers like J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis - have been deeply moved and influenced by these amazing tales, for there is nothing in the world quite like them. In these stories a mysterious and invisible realm of gods and spirits exists alongside and sometimes crosses over into our own human world; fierce women warriors battle with kings and heroes, and even the rules of time and space can be suspended. Captured in vivid prose these shadowy figures - gods, goddesses, and heroes - come to life for the modern listener.
©2017 Philip Freeman (P)2017 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Lords of the Bow
Summary
The gathering of the tribes of the Mongols has been a long time in coming, but finally, triumphantly, Temujin of the Wolves, Genghis Khan, is given the full accolade of overall leader and their oaths. Now he can begin to meld all the previously warring people into one army, one nation. But the task Genghis has set himself, and them, is formidable. He is determined to travel to the land of the long-time enemy, the Chin, and attack them there. The distances and terrain - the wide deserts, the impenetrable mountains - make it a difficult venture, even for the legendarily speedy Mongols. But the greatest problem is confronting complex fortifications, a way of fighting a settled urban population - which the nomadic Mongolians have never come across. Finding ways to do that, and keeping his tribes together in a strange environment, presents another new and exciting challenge for Genghis Khan. Not only must Genghis succeed in this incredible campaign, but he must also reconcile the restless factions among his own generals, mediate between his ambitious brothers, and cope with his own reactions to his growing sons. The young warrior has become a notable and victorious military commander of thousands. He must now learn to become a great leader of peoples of many different races and religions. Lords of the Bow is a deeply satisfying novel, epic in scope, convincing, and fascinating in its narration of an extraordinary story.
©2008 Conn Iggulden (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, London UK
The Eagle's Prey
Summary
The Eagle's Prey is the thrilling fifth novel in Simon Scarrow's best-selling Eagles of the Empire series. A must-listen for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden. It is late summer AD 44, and the battle-weary Roman legions are in their second year of campaigning against the British tribes. The troops' commander, General Plautius, is under pressure from the emperor to crush the natives once and for all. Centurions Macro and Cato are with the crack Second Legion under the precarious leadership of Centurion Maximus, and it's their task to hold a ford across the river Tamesis when the natives are forced into a trap. But Maximus' nerve breaks at the critical point, allowing the enemy leader, Caratacus, and his men to escape. Outraged by this failure, General Plautius orders the decimation of the unit. Their choice: die, or escape to become fugitives pursued by soldiers of their own ruthless army. Hiding from their former comrades as well as the Britons, Cato's small band of fugitives have only one chance to redeem themselves before they are hunted down like animals.
©2004 Simon Scarrow (P)2017 Headline Digital
The Crystal Cave
Summary
This is what happened. I saw it, and it is a true tale. So begins the story of Merlin, born the illegitimate son of a Welsh princess in fifth-century Britain, a world ravaged by war. Small and neglected, with his mother unwilling to reveal his father's identity, Merlin must disguise his intelligence - and hide his occasional ability to know things before they happen - in order to keep himself safe. One beautiful afternoon, while exploring the countryside near his home, Merlin stumbles across a cave filled with books and papers and hiding a room lined with crystals. It is the home of Galapas, who becomes Merlin's tutor and friend, and who teaches Merlin to understand the world around him...and to harness the power of the crystal cave to see the future. Merlin will rise to power and enter history - and legend - as advisor to King Arthur. But all stories must begin somewhere. And this is his. The Crystal Cave is the first of Mary Stewart's brilliant Arthurian Saga, telling the story of King Arthur from the perspective of the extraordinary, mysterious Merlin.
©1970 Mary Stewart (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Paris Architect
Summary
Like most gentiles in Nazi-occupied Paris, architect Lucien Bernard has little empathy for the Jews. So when a wealthy industrialist offers him a large sum of money to devise secret hiding places for Jews, Lucien struggles with the choice of risking his life for a cause he doesn't really believe in. Ultimately he can't resist the challenge and begins designing expertly concealed hiding spaces - behind a painting, within a column, or inside a drainpipe - detecting possibilities invisible to the average eye. But when one of his clever hiding spaces fails horribly and the immense suffering of Jews becomes incredibly personal, he can no longer deny reality. Written by an expert whose knowledge imbues every word, this story becomes more gripping with every life the architect tries to save.
©2013 Charles Belfoure (P)2013 Random House Audio
Fire Along the Sky
Summary
With epic sweep and breathtaking adventure, Sara Donati's best-selling saga of an Early American family's struggle for survival in the Northeast wilderness continues with the story of an indomitable woman and an unforgettable journey of redemption across a young nation threatened by the flames of war. The year is 1812, and Hannah Bonner has returned to her family's mountain cabin in Paradise. But Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner can see that Hannah is not the same woman as when she left. For their daughter has come home without her husband and without her son, and with a story of loss and tragedy that she can't bear to tell. Yet as Hannah resumes her duties as a gifted healer among the sick and needy, she finds that she is also slowly healing herself. Little does she realize that she is about to be called away to face her greatest challenge ever. As autumn approaches, news of the latest conflict with Britain finds the young men of Paradise, including 18-year-old Daniel Bonner, eager to take up arms. Against their better judgment, Nathaniel and Elizabeth must let him go, just as they must let his twin sister, Lily, a stubborn beauty, pursue her independence in Montreal. But on the eve of the War of 1812, an unexpected guest arrives from Scotland: It is the Bonners' distant cousin, the newly widowed Jennet Scott of Carryckcastle. Far from home, Lily and Jennet will each learn the price of pursuing their dreams and the possibility of true love. But it's Hannah herself who must risk everything once more, this time to save Daniel, who's been taken prisoner by the British. As the distant thunder of war threatens Paradise, Hannah may learn to live - and maybe love - again in one final act of courage, duty, and sacrifice.
©2004 Sara Donati (P)2009 Random House
Wars of the Roses: Bloodline
Summary
Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Wars of the Roses: Bloodline, the third instalment in Conn Iggulden's thrilling Wars of the Roses trilogy. Winter 1461 - Richard Duke of York is dead, his ambitions in ruins, his head spiked on the walls of York city. King Henry VI is still held prisoner. His Lancastrian queen rides south with an army of northerners, accompanied by warriors from the Scottish Highlands. Margaret and her army seem unstoppable. But his death has unleashed York's sons. Edward of March, now Duke of York, proclaims himself England's rightful king. Through blood and treason, broken men and vengeful women, brother shall confront brother, king shall face king. Two men may claim a crown. Only one can keep it.
©2015 Conn Iggulden (P)2015 Penguin Books Limited
The Blood of Rome
Summary
The gripping new Cato and Macro adventure in Simon Scarrow's best-selling Eagles of the Empire series, not to be missed by fans of Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell. It is AD 55. As trouble brews on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire, Tribune Cato and Centurion Macro must prepare for war.... The wily Parthian Empire has invaded Armenia, a frontier territory claimed by Rome, ousting King Rhadamistus. The king is ambitious and ruthless, but he is vital to Rome's strategic interests. General Corbulo must restore him to power while also readying the troops for war with the powerful Parthian Empire. Corbulo orders new arrivals Cato and Macro, and their elite cohort of Praetorian Guards, to carry out the task. Marching into unmapped and unfamiliar terrain to restore an unpopular king is a perilous mission. Allies cannot be trusted, and foes lurk on all sides. The bravery and skill of the Roman army will be tested to the limit....
©2018 Simon Scarrow (P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
The Eagle and the Wolves
Summary
If you don't know Simon Scarrow, you don't know Rome! The Eagle and the Wolves is the gripping fourth novel in Simon Scarrow's best-selling Eagles of the Empire series. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden. Britannia, AD 44. Occupation is never easy. The enemy is butchering their supply convoys, their garrison town is starving and the truce with the locals is uneasy at best. Young Cato, newly promoted, and veteran centurion Macro are ordered to train the Wolves and the Boars, two cohorts of barbarian Britons, and introduce them to the brutal drills of the Roman Imperial Army. Macro is confident they'll win the natives over, but Cato worries about putting weapons into the hands of potential rebels. Ultimately, only one thing matters: is there a difference between the enemy at their gates, and the allies in their own camp?
©2003 Simon Scarrow (P)2017 Headline Publishing Group Ltd.
Last Christmas in Paris
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Hazel Gaynor has joined with Heather Webb to create this unforgettably romantic novel of the Great War. August 1914. England is at war. As Evie Elliott watches her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas Harding, depart for the front, she believes - as everyone does - that it will be over by Christmas, when the trio plan to celebrate the holiday among the romantic cafés of Paris. But as history tells us, it all happened so differently.... Evie and Thomas experience a very different war. Frustrated by life as a privileged young lady, Evie longs to play a greater part in the conflict - but how? - and as Thomas struggles with the unimaginable realities of war, he also faces personal battles back home, where War Office regulations on press reporting cause trouble at his father's newspaper business. Through their letters Evie and Thomas share their greatest hopes and fears - and grow ever fonder from afar. Can love flourish amid the horror of the First World War, or will fate intervene? Christmas 1968. With failing health, Thomas returns to Paris - a cherished packet of letters in hand - determined to lay to rest the ghosts of his past. But one final letter is waiting for him.... Full narrative cast includes Alex Wyndham, Billie Fulford-Brown, Morag Sims, Gary Furlong, Greg Wagland, Antony Ferguson, Derek Perkins, Jane Copland, and Mary Jane Wells.
©2017 Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
The Physician
Summary
An orphan leaves Dark Ages London, taking a dangerous journey and posing as a Jew to study medicine in Persia, in "an adventurous and inspiring tale" (Library Journal). A child holds the hand of his dying mother and is terrified, aware something is taking her. Orphaned and given to an itinerant barber-surgeon, Rob Cole becomes a fast-talking swindler, peddling a worthless medicine. But as he matures, his strange gift - an acute sensitivity to impending death - never leaves him, and he yearns to become a healer. Arab madrassas are the only authentic medical schools, and he makes his perilous way to Persia. Christians are barred from Muslim schools, but claiming he is a Jew, he studies under the world's most renowned physician, Avicenna. How the woman who is his great love struggles against her only rival - medicine - makes a riveting modern classic. The Physician is the first book in New York Times best-selling author Noah Gordon's Dr. Robert Cole trilogy, which continues with Shaman and concludes with Matters of Choice.
©1986 Lise Gordon, Michael Seay Gordon and The Jamie Gordon Trust (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
The Gilded Hour
Summary
The internationally best-selling author of Into the Wilderness makes her highly anticipated return with a remarkable epic about two female doctors in 19th-century New York and the transcendent power of courage and love. The year is 1883, and in New York City it's a time of dizzying splendor, crushing poverty, and tremendous change. With the gravity-defying Brooklyn Bridge nearly complete and New York in the grips of antivice crusader Anthony Comstock, Anna Savard and her cousin, Sophie - both graduates of the Woman's Medical School - treat the city's most vulnerable, even if doing so may put everything they've strived for in jeopardy. Anna's work has placed her in the path of four children who have lost everything, just as she herself once had. Faced with their helplessness, Anna must make an unexpected choice between holding on to the pain of her past and letting love into her life. For Sophie, an obstetrician and the orphaned daughter of free people of color, helping a desperate young mother forces her to grapple with the oath she took as a doctor - and thrusts her and Anna into the orbit of Comstock, a dangerous man who considers himself the enemy of everything indecent and of anyone who dares to defy him. With its vivid depictions of old New York and its enormously appealing characters, The Gilded Hour is a captivating, emotionally gripping novel that proves Sara Donati is an author at the height of her powers.
©2015 Sara Donati (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Treason's Harbour
Summary
While Captain Aubrey worries about repairs to his ship, Stephen Maturin assumes the centre stage; for the dockyards and salons of Malta are alive with Napoleon's agents, and the admiralty's intelligence network is compromised. Maturin's cunning is the sole bulwark against sabotage of Aubrey's daring mission. All of Patrick O'Brian's strengths are on parade in this novel of action and intrigue, set partly in Malta, partly in the treacherous, pirate-infested waters of the Red Sea.
©1983 The Estate of the late Patrick O'Brian CBE (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Morna's Legacy Set #1
Summary
USA TODAY best-selling Morna's Legacy Set #1 contains the following books from the Morna's Legacy Series: Love Beyond Time (Book 1): When Texas Kindergarten teacher Brielle Montgomery accompanies her archaeologist mother on a dig in Scotland, they discover a secret spell room below the castle ruins. Bri finds herself transported back in time and suddenly married to the castle's ill-fated Laird. Now, she must work to change the fate of his people, not only to save herself, but to rescue the man she's come to love. Love Beyond Reason (Book 2): When the only woman to ever steal Arran Conall's heart falls prey to ancient magic, she is transported to a time centuries ahead of him. Believing she is gone forever, he marries another to save her from an evil suitor, but his love for Blaire haunts him. Hundreds of years in the future, Blaire MacChristy lives each day adjusting to modern life. When visitors from her past arrive asking her to return, Blaire takes a chance on love. Will fate find a way to mend their broken hearts? Will they be able to stop the darkness that is coming for them both? A Conall Christmas (Book 2.5): Christmas is approaching, and Adelle is determined to make it the best one Conall Castle has ever seen, but loneliness haunts her. Hew Moray has spent the last 20 years all alone. When a storm causes him to seek shelter at Conall Castle, he meets the first lass since the death of his wife to make his heart flutter in his chest once again. Can he release himself from his past grief to allow another love to enter his life? If he does, will his love be returned? Love Beyond Hope (Book 3): After Mitsy's divorce, she flies to Scotland to forget about her own problems by helping her best friend. She finds few who know how to take her fiery personality in the 17th century, but she finds her match in Baodan, laird of McMillan Castle.
©2014 Bethany Claire (P)2016 Bethany Claire
The Circle of Ceridwen
Summary
It is the year 871, when England was Angle-Land. Of seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, five have fallen to the invading Vikings. No trait is more valued than loyalty, and no possession more precious than one's steel. Across this war-torn landscape travels 15-year-old Ceridwen, now thrust into the lives of the conquerors. Lost in the frozen woods, Ceridwen is discovered by the warriors accompanying young Aelfwyn, daughter of a Saxon lord, sold against her will in marriage as part of a peace treaty with a marauding Viking war chief. Their destination is the captured fortress of Four Stones, a ruin holding glittering treasure. There Aelfwyn must keep her vow and wed Yrling - and Ceridwen must do all she can to support her new friend in the rebuilding of the ravaged village and great hall. But living with the enemy affords Ceridwen unusual freedoms - and unlooked-for conflicts. Amongst them she explores again her own heathen past, and learns to judge each man on his own merits. Yrling's nephews Sidroc and Toki, both formidable warriors yet as different as night and day, compete to win Ceridwen for their own. Through both guile and goodness Ceridwen and Aelfwyn begin transforming the world of Four Stones. But the threat of full-scale war escalates, and a midnight party of furtive Danes delivers someone to Four Stones who destroys the girls' hopes of peace and contentment. Now Ceridwen must summon all her courage - a courage which will be sorely tested as she defies both Saxon and Dane and undertakes an extraordinary adventure to save a man she has never met. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1995 Octavia Randolph (P)2016 Octavia Randolph