Showing results for "Running" in Historical Fiction

After the blockbuster international success of From Here to Eternity, James Jones retreated from public life, making his home at the Handy Writers’ Colony in Illinois. His goal was to write something larger than a war novel, and the result, six years in the making, was Some Came Running, a stirring portrait of small-town life in the American Midwest at a time when our country and its people were striving to find their place in the new postwar world. Five decades later, it has been revised and reedited under the direction of the Jones estate.

Avra Helvaçi, former field agent of the Arashti Ministry of Intelligence, has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world – and the only place to flee with a secret that big is the open sea. To find a buyer with deep enough pockets, Avra must ask for help from his on-again, off-again ex, the pirate Captain Teveri az-Haffar. They are far from happy to see him but, together, they hatch a plan: take the information to the isolated pirate republic of the Isles of Lost Souls; fence it; profit.

In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India", Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by an exceptional writer.

The year is 1126. Heulwen, daughter of Welsh Marcher baron Guyon FitzMiles, has grown up with her father's ward, Adam de Lacey. There has always been a spark between them, but when Heulwen marries Ralf le Chevalier, a devastated Adam absents himself on various diplomatic missions. When Ralf is killed, Heulwen's father considers a new marriage for her with his neighbour's son, Warrin de Mortimer. Adam, recently returned to England, is determined not to lose Heulwen a second time....

Once a devastated mill town, by 1959 Locke City has established itself as a thriving center of vice tourism. The city is controlled by boss Royal Beaumont, who took it by force many years ago and has held it against all comers since.

1821: Thirteen-year-old Àjàyí is snatched from the Nigerian village of Òsogùn by slave raiders who burn the town and enslave its people. Shackled and taken to Lagos, he is certain he will never see his family again. Freed by English warships, Àjàyí is put in the care of the Church Missionary Society and baptised Samuel Crowther. Quickly rising through the ranks of the church, Crowther never forgets the driving passion of his life: to end the slave trade, by any means necessary.

The prairie fires that sweep the grazing lands, the coming of white men with their guns and diseases, and the quick slaughter of the vast buffalo herds leave Running Fawn's Blackfoot tribe with little choice but to take up residence on the assigned Reserve. All her life, Running Fawn has known only contentment, but now what will become of her hopes and dreams?

Her name is synonymous with the West. Her celebrity has spread to the East Coast and California, traveling down the newly laid railroads and along the telegraph wire. But breathless tales of Calamity Jane bear little resemblance to the truth. As she senses death coming closer, the legendary hellcat longs to set the record straight - to reveal her life story at last, unclouded by legend, every sin and failing laid bare. Only then can she hope to rest in peace. In a Deadwood saloon, she finds a writer willing to hear her out and recount the truth to the public....

In the scorching heat of the Southwestern desert, a frightened old man knows his time is quickly running out, as the bad karma of his own good fortune is finally closing in on him after 50 years.

Jedediah Trelawney joins a small, overcrowded ship bound for America. A young man from a privileged background, he struggles to adapt to life at sea. Determined to earn the respect of his fellow passengers, he undertakes arduous tasks alongside the crew, but Jed is not cut out for the life of a sailor.

The running wolf inscription told the world that a Solingen blade was at its throat. When a German smuggler is imprisoned in Morpeth Gaol in the winter of 1703, why does Queen Anne's powerful right-hand man, the Earl of Nottingham, take such a keen interest? At the end of the turbulent 17th century, the ties that bind men are fraying, turning neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend and brother against brother.

Ellen has to stop running sometime. She's fled her past all the way across the Atlantic and has given up hope of having the kind of romance she dreamed of as a girl. Bruised, inside and out, she'll be happy just to find a family for whom she can keep house. Nate Harper has been in Lazarus County, NM, for years. His younger sister knows how lonely he is and has been seeking a bride for him back East. He's embarrassed, but his heart wells up with kindness when he reads about Ellen's hopes for a new life and invites her to his home as a housekeeper.

Growing up in the mill slums of Pittsburgh, Daniel Robinson was a punching bag for his drunken father, ignored by his mentally ill mother, and trapped in the grip of poverty. He’s finally freed from the torture of that home only to crash land in another hell when he’s abused by the pastor who takes him in. Daniel escapes once again, spending the next decade wandering homeless throughout the country during the turbulent 1960s.

The Crest Stone Hotel is the perfect place for a man like Thomas Drexel to hide. Wanted for crimes he didn't commit, Thomas hopes he can blend in as a handyman at the newly opened hotel. But his past threatens his future when one of the hotel restaurant's waitresses discovers his identity. Caroline Beauchamp ran from Boston to escape an arranged marriage to a despicable man. She's safe in the hotel, hidden from those who want her to return home. Yet she finds herself drawn to Thomas and compelled to help him prove his innocence, even if she risks her position as a Gilbert Girl to do so.

What’s it like to reach out and touch history in the moment, to peel back the layers of hyperbole and political deception for yourself as a simple soldier? Try the Philippine-American War, sometimes referred to as "the first Vietnam" (1899-1902). You might find that “desertion” really means conversion to a noble cause and “enlisting” is just another form of surrender….

The Resistors is a parallel sequel to 2018's The Kidnapped. It focuses on blacks, whites, and Native Americans resisting pre-Civil War oppression while attempting to establish dignified identities. It is also in the voice of Sarah, one of the author's direct ancestors. It is imagined that Sarah was primarily educated by her father who himself was taught reading and writing by Nathan Prescott, his slave master, and secondarily through two years of education at Goose Creek Friends School, a Quaker school in Northern Virginia, renown for being integrated.

It's 1890. The town is growing and changing, with many emerging farms and ranches. But some of its people are not changing in concert with the times. After the brutal murder of a young girl, the killer escapes from prison with the help of his father. Determined to bring Jenny's killer to justice, Ralph Forney and his best friend, Ross Hendershot, enter into a deadly chase to capture the killer. But even at the 19th century, the West is a dangerous, unforgiving place. Can the law keepers catch the criminals before it's too late?

In 1985, 20-year-old Lauren has a dead-end job as a waitress at the Oaklyn Diner. Alone and with no direction, Lauren becomes ecstatic when the diner is chosen to be the focal point of an upcoming movie Jersey Diner, starring Jonathan Pearce. Scouted to be a part of the local crew, Lauren builds a relationship with Jonathan Pearce. When filming ends, she moves to California to start a new life with Jonathan.

Electrifying, compelling, and ultimately terrifying, Two Trains Running is a galvanizing evocation of that moment in our history when the violent forces that would determine America’s future were just beginning to roil below the surface.

Dwight Wilson researched for more than a dozen years to ensure this brilliant historic fiction collection portrayed the very nuanced history of African Americans in the United States. These stories span initial capture of Dwight's ancestors to those who broke the laws in the name of truth, humanity, and kindness.