Historical Fiction

Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms · 鉄条網と桜

by Anita Heiss
Ligature finest
genre Historical Fiction · Literary Fiction · Romance

A story about a love that transcends all boundaries, from one of Australia’s best loved authors—in a new Japanese translation by Noriko Oka with Professor Donna Weeks.

In August 1944, over 1000 Japanese soldiers break out of their prison compound on the fringes of Cowra. Many are killed or recaptured, and some take their own lives. But one soldier, Hiroshi, manages to escape. At a nearby Aboriginal mission, Banjo Williams discovers Hiroshi, distraught and on the run, and he and his fellow townsfolk offer him refuge. Banjo’s daughter Mary is intrigued by the softly-spoken stranger, and charged with his care. Love blossoms between them, and they each dream of a future together. But how long can Hiroshi be hidden safely and their bond kept a secret?

The Steele Diaries

by Wendy James
Ligature finest
genre Historical Fiction · Literary Fiction · Mystery

Zelda Steele is destined for great things. The talented daughter of two celebrity artists, raised by wealthy art patrons in Sydney’s sixties art scene, artistic success is hers for the taking. But Zelda dies young, leaving only the possibility of the artist she could have become—as well as two young children and the rumour of secret diaries.

Years later, Zelda’s daughter Ruth returns to her hometown to search for those diaries. What she finds there takes her deep into the mysteries of her parents’ and grandparents’ lives, and shifts the foundations of her own.

Weaving together the lives of three very different women across three eras, The Steele Diaries is a rich triptych of the tensions between ambition and responsibility, art and family, the past and present and future.

Out of the Silence

by Wendy James
Ligature finest
genre Crime · Historical Fiction · Literary Fiction

The dawn of the 20th century brings three remarkable women into each other’s orbit. Maggie Heffernan is a spirited country girl whose betrayal sends her spiralling into desperation and tragedy. Vida Goldstein is a suffragist about to make political history. And Elizabeth Hamilton, heartbroken after the death of her fiancé and hoping for a new life in a new country, brings them together with her grace and empathy as she searches for justice and mercy.
Out of the Silence weaves historical fact with poetic invention in a captivating story of hope and ambition, regret and consolation, and the quest to right personal and political wrongs.

噺家と三人の娘たち

by Lian Hearn
Ligature finest
genre Historical Fiction

明治時代になると西洋諸国の影響をうけて、日本はおおきく変わった。
　　
九代目の噺家、赤羽セイも時代に置いていかれる不安を感じはじめ、新しい物語をかくことが出来なくなっていた。

そこへ、朝鮮国を併合すべきと主張する政治集団の活動家が近づき、高座で世論を動かすようにと依頼する。

しかし噺家としての矜持を大切にするセイは言うなりになるわけにはいかない・・・

陰謀や裏切りに愛や嫉妬が加わり、セイはすばらしい物語をつくりだしていく。

Unsettled

by Gay Lynch
Ligature first
genre Historical Fiction · Literary Fiction

The unsettled South Australian frontier near Mount Gambier is a strange and difficult place for a Galway family trying to make sense of their new world.