Book picks similar to
Words To Shape My Name by Laura McKenna


historical-fiction
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The Poseidon Network


Kathryn Gauci - 2019
     “One never knows where fate will take us. Cairo taught me that. Expect the unexpected. Little did I realise when I left London that I would walk out of one nightmare into another.” 1943. SOE agent Larry Hadley leaves Cairo for German and Italian occupied Greece. His mission is to liaise with the Poseidon network under the leadership of the White Rose. It’s not long before he finds himself involved with a beautiful and intriguing woman whose past is shrouded in mystery. In a country where hardship, destruction and political instability threaten to split the Resistance, and terror and moral ambiguity live side by side, Larry’s instincts tell him something is wrong. After the devastating massacre in a small mountain village by the Wehrmacht, combined with new intelligence concerning the escape networks, he is forced to confront the likelihood of a traitor in their midst. But who is it? Time is running out and he must act before the network is blown. The stakes are high. From the shadowy souks and cocktail parties of Cairo’s elite to the mountains of Greece, Athens, the Aegean Islands, and Turkey, The Poseidon Network, is an unforgettable cat-and-mouse portrait of wartime that you will not want to put down.

The Tears of Monterini


Amanda Weinberg - 2020
    1921. Yacobo Levi, an intellectual dreamer, works in the family bookshop. Angelo Ghione, a contadino, makes good wine by singing to the grapes. Lifetime best friends, their Jewish and Catholic families live side by side amidst a backdrop of village communal life, Etruscan tales and the growth of Benito Mussolini. Born on the same day, their children grow up and fall in love. When the 1938 racial laws are passed, the love between Bella and Rico thrives amidst and perhaps because of the fear and uncertainty. When Angelo discovers their liaison he suggests they marry but life is complicated and tensions simmer beneath the surface of love and friendship. When war is declared on the day of Bella's wedding to Michele a fellow Jew, the peaceful village they live in is torn apart, and the Levis find themselves displaced and fighting for their lives. Will life ever be the same again?The Tears of Monterini is a story of love and betrayal, loyalty and friendship. Inspired by true events in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, this beautifully written debut will appeal to readers interested in history, Italy, romance, family dynamics and conflict.

Still Falling


Sheena Wilkinson - 2015
    He has epilepsy.And, as it turns out, he has much bigger issues too.Esther falls. In love.It’s wonderful – but there’s a shadow that she can’t identify and she can’t make go away just by loving Luke.Luke’s experience has taught him to despise himself; Esther’s self-belief is fragile. And love is not as easy as it looks. Will they be still falling at the end of term?A story about the struggle it can be to love someone who doesn’t love themselves – and why it’s worth it.From the winner of Children’s Books Ireland Honour for Fiction, the CBI Children’s Choice Award and CBI Book of the Year Award for her previous novels Taking Flight and Grounded.

Second Chances


Rachel Cullen - 2017
     Second Chances follows a single mother deserted by her adulterous ex-husband, a socialite who abandoned her family and fled to the Caribbean, a high-powered executive with a disconcerting fear of commitment and a questionable sense of judgment, and a privileged teenager plagued with a lecherous father and absentee mother while bewildered by an unforeseen opportunity with the most sought after boy in school. Although the women are each dealt cards they never expected, they find friendship, family and love in the least likely of places, and with those, they find hope.

Flight


Oona Frawley - 2014
    Elizabeth’s mother rang her morning, noon and night. He’s driving me mad with his pepper talk, she said, I’ll crown him if he talks to me about the need for Vietnam to join the International Pepper Community and duties and postmen one more time! The cracks one begins to see in families.Flight is the story of four travellers as their journeys intersect one winter in Dublin.Sandrine, a Zimbabwean woman who has left her husband and son behind in the hope of making a better life for them in Ireland, is alone and secretly pregnant. She finds herself working as a carer for Tom and Clare, a couple whose travels are ending as their minds begin to fail. Meanwhile Elizabeth, their world-weary daughter, carries the weight of her own body’s secret.Set in Ireland in 2004 as a referendum on citizenship approaches, Flight is a magically observed story of a family and belonging, following the gestation of a friendship during a year of crisis. A story of arrival and departure, the newly found and the left behind, Flight is among a new breed of Irish novel – one that recognizes the global nature of Ireland experience in the late 20th century, and one that considers Ireland in the aftermath of the failed Celtic Tiger.

Great Village


Mary Rose Donnelly - 2011
    It is in her home in Great Village, Nova Scotia where she is surrounded by piles of books. It is beside her as she gazes out over the shore with her lifelong friend Mealie. It walks with her into the village, while details of the distant past return to her with startling clarity. With worsening chest pains, exacerbated by the arrival of an unwelcome teenager, she fully expects her life is ebbing away — but before it does, she must finally confront the deceptions and shame of the long-hidden past.

Three Impossible Wishes


Anmol Malik - 2020
    Her jugaad and privilege puts her directly in the path of a hardworking scholarship student– Vladimir Petrov, the vodka to her hot chocolate. Their tumultuous friendship is affected by global events, the landscape around them ever changing. And slowly, the Russian winter begins to melt for the Indian summer.Funny and endearing, Three Impossible Wishes is a heart-warming book about finding love and learning to love yourself.

Anchors & Vacancies


Kat Savage - 2016
    It's all the things we all hold onto, all the things we let anchor onto us, and all the things that leave us vacant.

Rebel Sisters


Marita Conlon-McKenna - 2016
    Bright, beautiful and intelligent, the Gifford sisters Grace, Muriel and Nellie kick against the conventions of their privileged, wealthy Anglo-Irish background and their mother Isabella’s expectations.As War erupts across Europe, the spirited sisters soon find themselves caught up in Ireland’s struggle for freedom.Muriel falls deeply in love with writer Thomas MacDonagh, artist Grace meets the enigmatic Joe Plunkett – both leaders of ‘The Rising’ – while Nellie joins ‘The Citizen Army’ and takes up arms to fight alongside Countess Markievicz in the rebellion. On Easter Monday 1916, the Rising begins, and the world of the Gifford sisters and everyone they hold dear is torn apart in a fight that is destined for tragedy.‘Engrossing’ Irish Sunday Times‘Finally, women are being written back into the history of [Ireland's] awakening’ Irish Mail on Sunday

All the Walls of Belfast


Sarah Carlson - 2019
    Fiona’s mom fled with her to the United States when she was two, but, fourteen years after the Troubles ended, a forty-foot-tall peace wall still separates her dad’s Catholic neighborhood from Danny’s Protestant neighborhood.After chance brings Fiona and Danny together, their love of the band Fading Stars, big dreams, and desire to run away from their families unites them. Danny and Fiona must help one another overcome the burden of their parents’ pasts. But one ugly truth might shatter what they have…

A Tale of Two Sisters: A heartfelt historical drama of intrigue, love and loss in a strange land


Merryn Allingham - 2019
    But as their search uncovers unforeseen dangers and exposes an unexpected ardour, is Alice ready for the truths they’ll uncover? An emotional historical drama perfect for fans of Linda Finlay and Rosie Goodwin

Through the Barricades


Denise Deegan - 2016
    They form a legacy that she carries in her heart, years later when, at the age of fifteen, she tries to better the lives of Dublin's largely forgotten poor. 'Don't go getting distracted, now, ' is what Daniel Healy's father says to him after seeing him talking to the same Maggie Gilligan. Daniel is more than distracted. He is intrigued. Never has he met anyone as dismissive, argumentative . . . as downright infuriating. A dare from Maggie is all it takes. Daniel volunteers at a food kitchen. There, his eyes are opened to the plight of the poor. It is 1913 and Dublin's striking workers have been locked out of their jobs. Their families are going hungry. Daniel and Maggie do what they can. Soon, however, Maggie realises that the only way to make a difference is to take up arms. The story of Maggie and Daniel is one of friendship, love, war and revolution, of two people prepared to sacrifice their lives: Maggie for her country, Daniel for Maggie. Their mutual sacrifices put them on opposite sides of a revolution. Can their love survive?

The Heebie-Jeebie Girl


Susan Petrone - 2020
    Between the closing of the city's largest steel mill and the worst blizzard in more than 40 years, the table is set for remarkable change. Unemployed steel worker Bobby Wayland is trying hard to help his family and still pay for his wedding, but the only solution he can think of involves breaking the law. On the other side of town, a little girl named Hope is keeping a big secret, one she won't even share with her Great Uncle Joe―she can make things move without touching them. Watching over both of them is the city herself, and she has something to say and something to do about all of this.The Heebie-Jeebie Girl is the story of an era ending and the uncertainty that awakens. It's the story of what happens when the unconscionable meets the improbable. It's the story of dreams deferred, dreams devoured, and dreams dawning. It is likely to be the most distinctive novel you read this year, but it will startle you with its familiarity. Author Susan Petrone has created an unforgettable tale of family, redemption, and magic.

I Adopted My Mom at the Bus Station


Savannah Hendricks - 2020
    Having a fear of germs is inconvenient when you’re on a road-trip adventure. However, needing to know what it’s like to have a mom, and to finally see the beach means more than anything to an eleven-year-old.Some twenty years later, a man Sandy never wanted to see again shows up at her doorstep. When Sandy’s best friend places an ultimate life-changing decision in her hands, Sandy must venture back down the road, this time with the father she hates.Making these decisions will be much easier with Justin, a long-time friend, by Sandy’s side. Yet, Justin’s help only leads to continued mixed emotions Sandy has been fighting for some time.Sandy is searching for what she lost, but will she accept what she finds? A journey rich in history, the truth, and determining forgiveness with a touch of humor is the portrait of life.

Music From Home


Geraldine O'Neill - 2013
    Having lost her mother at a young age, she has a close and loving relationship with her father, Leo who owns an Italian restaurant, Leonardo's. Finding first romance with Paul Spencer seems like the icing on the cake. Secretly, however, she worries over Leo's drinking and gambling binges. Then he buys a racehorse she know he cannot afford. Maria has no one to advise her as Leo's family are in Italy and her mother's family in Ireland rejected her when she married a foreigner. Having carefully guarded her father from female attention, Maria's attitude alters when the elegant Diana Freeman comes into their lives. She hopes that Diana's presence may distance Leo from his addictions. Then Leo is tragically killed. In the dark days that follow it emerges that he has left them deeply in debt and their home and her beloved Leonard's are in jeopardy. Maria has no choice but t o turn to her estranged Irish Family. Still reeling from her loss, she fins she has yet another challenge to face, In Ireland, as she uncovers a bitter legacy of secrets and lies, she comes to realise that their mother was not the person she's been led to believe she was.