A powerful you-are-there narrative, authentic and engaging.
Iggulden (Bloodline, 2016, etc.) concludes his Wars of the Roses series with Richard III dead on Bosworth Field and Henry VII taking the throne for the House of Tudor.
After the bloody battle of Towton, Edward of York seizes the crown from Henry VI, House of Lancaster, a frail and incompetent ruler. However, Edward IV prefers ale and the hunt to kingly duties, and soon Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick restores Henry VI to the throne. Edward and his ever loyal brother, Richard of Gloucester, take refuge in Burgundy. That’s close by the Paris sanctuary of Henry’s queen, Margaret of Anjou, and their son, Edward. Edward and Richard mount a campaign to retake England, one leaving Warwick dead after a battle near Barnet. Edward, crown restored, again turns dissolute. Richard schemes. Princes are murdered. Edward dies. Richard takes the throne. Margaret and son Edward return, landing in Wales, but then young Edward dies in battle, and from the wilds of Wales springs young Henry Tudor (Tewdyr from Welsh), “no doubt or indecision in him,” descendant of John of Gaunt, House of Lancaster. Mentored by his uncle Jasper Tudor, Henry Tudor lures Richard III into battle and defeats him at Bosworth Field. Iggulden’s a masterful writer, capable of setting a scene, sketching a description, or defining a character in a few words, often while turning a literary phrase—a dead York brother “raised to an angelic presence by the smoothing iron of memory.” The dialogue sounds modern, but it's laced with historical syntax and grammar to lend credibility. Moreover, despite the complicated history and plethora of Edwards, Henrys, and Richards, Iggulden’s narrative remains clear as the aristocratic houses fight not only for political power, but also titles and crown estates, land and wealth.
A powerful you-are-there narrative, authentic and engaging.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68177-685-9
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
This is a picture of war less as a series of impossible choices than as a vaguely romantic miasma.
A crime writer in occupied France finds himself in a plot more dangerous than any he's dreamed up.
Having been shot by the Gestapo, a man surreptitiously hands something to Paul Ricard just before dying: It appears to be a drawing specifying the technical details of a military weapon. After making some inquiries as to whom he might pass the papers to, Ricard finds himself volunteering for the Resistance and, under the guise of a journalist, traveling to Germany to make contact with the conscripted Polish workers who can explain the document. As with his other novels, Furst (A Hero of France, 2016, etc.) bases his tale on a lesser-known nugget of World War II history, in this case, the Polish laborers forced to build U-boats who took their revenge by smuggling technical information to the French Resistance, who forwarded it to British intelligence. But the tension has, for the moment, gone out of Furst's work, and the elliptical and compact writing style he developed has devolved into a kind of drifting, random series of scenes that never accumulate into more. There is still a fine sense of the details of life during wartime, the strange and pregnant heaviness that lies over the most banal activities. What's missing, though, are the moments when that heaviness bursts forth.
This is a picture of war less as a series of impossible choices than as a vaguely romantic miasma.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-399-59230-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Never flinching from the bleak, this sweeping historical romance pieces together hope from the ruins.
In January 1941, as a pogrom descends upon the Jews of Bucharest, Romania, a fleeing Jewish couple must make a horrifying decision: leave their 3-year-old daughter behind or risk all of their lives at the hands of the Iron Guard. Their daughter survives, and her life arcs through some of the most devastating events of Eastern Europe.
Soon adopted into a wealthy Christian family, the child is renamed Natalia and raised by loving parents, Despina and Anton Goza. After four heart-wrenching miscarriages, Despina is eager to shower Natalia with love, drawing the traumatized girl out of her shell. Anton, the owner of several successful stationery stores, dotes on Despina and Natalia, even buying Natalia a piano and engaging a teacher for the talented pupil. Although politically opposed to fascism, the Gozas’ wealth shelters them from the atrocities visited daily upon their city’s Jewish population. Meanwhile, Natalia’s birthparents have been hiding in the attic of Despina’s cousin, who helps them escape the country, yet from afar, they try to help their daughter. From the pogroms and bombings to the Soviet occupation and the fall of the Iron Curtain, debut novelist Veletzos deftly threads historical events through Natalia’s life story as she survives the fracturing of her biological family, the destruction of her country, the stifling of her education, and cultural isolation from the rest of the world. As Natalia navigates a swiftly changing landscape, her adoptive father befriends Victor, a political revolutionary, who rises in the ranks of the Communist regime. In their times of need, it will be Victor to whom the Gozas turn again and again. But can he be trusted to rescue the fallen bourgeois family? Above all, can he be trusted with Natalia’s heart? And will Natalia ever find her parents again?
Never flinching from the bleak, this sweeping historical romance pieces together hope from the ruins.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-8768-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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