Showing results for "The Story of a Mother" in Historical Fiction

A young woman's future is torn away in a heartbeat. Herded on to a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope. Jean-Luc thought he had left it all behind. The scar on his face a small price to pay for surviving the horrors of Nazi Occupation. Now, he has a new life in California, a family. He never expected the past to come knocking on his door. On a darkened platform, two destinies become entangled. Their choice will change the future in ways neither could have imagined.

Herta lives a contented life until Nazi Germany invades the Netherlands. As Jews, she and her family face persecution. Across town, Julia finds herself in the midst of upheaval when her husband becomes involved in Nazi activities. Then Herta and Julia’s husbands go missing—one to hide from the Nazis, and the other to collaborate with them. As the Jewish population faces rising tension, Herta feels compelled to find a hiding place for her daughters.

Rebecca Waterhouse is just 13 when she witnesses her mother's death at the hand of her father in Seaview Cottage. But what else did she see? Years later, Rebecca's daughters Iris and Jessie know their mother will never speak of that terrible night. But when Jessie goes missing, with her gravely ill newborn, Iris realises the past may hold the key to her sister's disappearance.

In this haunting short story of loyalty and betrayal, a young woman in early 1900s Massachusetts discovers that in navigating her treacherous coming-of-age, she must find her voice first. For fatefully observant Adeline, growing up carries an ominous warning from her adulterous mother: don’t say a word. Adeline vows to never speak again. But that’s not her only secret. After her mother takes a housekeeping job at a lighthouse off the tip of Cape Ann, a local woman vanishes. The key to the mystery lies with Adeline, the silent witness.

Afice is the last of nine generations of women who have survived enslavement, sickness, and hunger. Alone at age seventeen, she sets out through the Louisiana swamps to follow the trail of her ancestors and hear their songs anew. On this journey, Afice must decide how to honor her ancestors while embracing her own future.

Traveling alone from Miami to Port-au-Prince, our narrator finds comfort at the airport. She feels free to ponder the silence that surrounds her homeland, her mother, her aunts, and her own inner thoughts. Between two places, she sees how living in poverty keeps women silent, forging their identities around practicality and resilience. From a distance, she is drawn inevitably homeward toward her family and the glittering blue Caribbean Sea.

While war rages across the world, Kate struggles on her family farm by the wild Atlantic Ocean. But when she meets American airman Tony, whose blue eyes are as stormy as the sea, her life collides with the war in ways she never imagined.Their time is cut short when Tony leaves for war, promising to come back for her. Only then does Kate learn she is carrying his child - and when her family finds out, she is shunned and banished to a Magdalen Laundry to be imprisoned.

Mary goes to the library looking for escape, not love. With three daughters married in a single year, one would think that Mrs. Bennet’s matchmaking ploys would diminish. One would be wrong. Very wrong. To avoid her mother’s affectionate arts, Mary takes refuge at Clarke’s library. There, in the reading room, she can forget the trials of Longbourn, lost in the pages of her favorite books. The strategy works - surprisingly well in fact - until the morning a tall, handsome stranger wants the same book she has already checked out - a text she needs to help a friend.