Today, LitNuts is shining a spotlight on recent releases from History Through Fiction, an indie press focused on high quality historical fiction. Read on to learn more.
Bonus: Sign up this month to receive news from History Through Fiction and get a chance to win a print edition of HTF's newest release, The Aziola's Cry.
The Aziola’s Cry: A Novel of the Shelleys by Ezra Harker Shaw
New release: May 7, 2024Genre: Historical Fiction
4.0 stars, 21 ratings on Goodreads
From $9.49
Love, tragedy, and the pursuit of literary greatness intertwine in a tumultuous journey that defies societal norms and tests the resilience of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
In the year 1814, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, a gifted teenager born into a family of literary brilliance, falls deeply in love with the youthful rebel, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Defying societal conventions, they embark on a daring escapade, accompanied by Mary's step-sister Claire, leaving behind their respective families and Percy's wife and children. However, their journey proves to be far from an idyllic romance, for it is fraught with tumultuous challenges.
In their quest for freedom and expression, Mary and Percy immerse themselves in experimental notions of free love and join forces with the enigmatic and infamous Lord Byron. Amidst these thrilling encounters and adventures, the young lovers are confronted by heart-wrenching tragedies that test their resilience and resolve.
Driven to elude the strict laws of England, which threaten to separate them from their own children, Mary and Shelley embark on a nomadic existence, wandering through the captivating landscapes of Italy while constantly evading their haunting past. As their circumstances become increasingly dire, their shared passion for writing emerges as the sole lifeline that binds them together. Through their literary endeavors, they become each other's guiding force, ultimately crafting timeless masterpieces that will etch their names into the annals of literary history.
Praise for The Aziola's Cry
"Eloquent narrative driven storytelling...truly memorable and deftly crafted." ~Midwest Book Review
"Shows us the terrible joy of life lived on the very precipice of love and art's volcano." ~Jonathan Gibbs, author of The Large Door and Randal: Or the Painted Grape
South of Sepharad: The 1492 Jewish Expulsion from Spain by Eric Z. Weintraub
Release date: February 20, 2024Genre: Historical Fiction
4.7 stars, 28 ratings
From $9.49
Fleeing death by the Spanish Inquisition, a Jewish doctor makes an impossible choice between home and faith, then struggles to lead his family on a journey for a new life.
GRANADA, SPAIN, 1492. Vidal ha-Rofeh is a Jewish physician devoted to his faith, his family, and his patients. When Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand conquer Granada they sign the Alhambra Decree, an edict ordering all Jews convert to Catholicism or depart Spain in three months’ time under penalty of death.
Against his wife’s belief that converting is safer than exile, Vidal insists they flee. Unwillingly leaving behind their oldest daughter with her Catholic husband, Vidal’s family joins a caravan of 200 Jews journeying to start their lives anew across the sea in Fez. On the caravan, Vidal struggles to balance his physician duties of caring for the sick while struggling to mend strained relationships with his family. At the same time, his daughter back home finds herself exposed to the Spanish Inquisition living as a converso in a Christian empire.
Presenting readers with a painful but important part of Jewish history, South of Sepharad is a heroic, heart-breaking story of a father who holds tightly to his faith, his family, and his integrity all while confronting the grief of the past and the harsh realities of forced exile.
Praise for South of Sepharad
"An epic, historical novel which brings readers directly into the lives of 15th century Jews during their expulsion from Granada, Spain." ~John W. Jarrett, author of The Dark Prairie
"An insightful, compelling, and poignant fictional recreation of the trials of displacement and what it meant to be expelled from or forced to leave one’s home." ~Teofilo F. Ruiz, author of Spain's Centuries of Crisis: 1300 - 1474
"Weintraub personalizes history, bringing heart and humanity to Renaissance geo-politics." ~Jordan A. Rothacker, author of The Pit
Reclaiming Mni Sota: An Alternate History of the U.S. - Dakota War of 1862 by Colin Mustful
Release date: October 10, 2023Genre: Historical Fiction
4.3 stars, 24 ratings
From $9.49
Two cultures met in Minnesota—one striving to maintain its homeland and traditions, another trying to create a life of freedom, prosperity, and abundance.
Samuel Copeland was just a teenager in 1859 when he and his family left Vermont for the promise of a new life in Minnesota. But life is harder and more dangerous than he expected. Devastated by the loss of his father at the hands of Indians and seeking to protect his brother, Samuel joins the Union army believing he’d be safe on the frontier.
WaabiskiMakwa was still a boy in 1850 when his father perished at Sandy Lake because of the negligence of U.S. government officials. Seeing his way of life crumbling around him, WaabiskiMakwa leaves his home to mourn his father and seek a new way, one that includes his lost-love, Agnes.
Seeking their own solutions, neither Waabi or Samuel could see the collision course their paths had been set upon by a world in conflict. War was in their future and it was inevitable. But when war breaks out, and their cultures collide, so do their individual paths. Though they can’t stop the war, maybe they can help each other.
Fueled by years of mistreatment and seeing the opportunity provided by the War with the South, Dakota spokesman Little Crow and Ojibwe leader Bagone-giizhig, join forces in an effort to reclaim their Native lands. Spurred by early victories over Fort Ridgley and New Ulm, the Dakota-Ojibwe Alliance heads north to Fort Snelling, the beacon of American strength in the region. Once thought impenetrable, the fort and its small group of volunteer militia fights to hang on when a new enemy arrives from the West.
In Reclaiming Mni Sota, the true and lasting results of history are challenged. What if the defeated became the victors? What would that mean for the world today and how would that illuminate the wrongs of the past?
Praise for Reclaiming Mni Sota
"Brings one of the most tragic events in Minnesota's history to life in this carefully researched book." ~Stephen E. Yoch, author of Becoming George Washington
"Inspires contemplation about what could have happened and what did." ~Linda Ulleseit, author of The River Remembers
"An imaginative and intriguing story of what might have happened...leaves the reader pondering race relationships today." ~Candace Simar, author of the Spur-Award winning Abercrombie Trail Series
About the Publisher
History Through Fiction seeks to provide readers with compelling narratives that also act as valuable historical resources. HTF, though fictionalized, include important primary and secondary source materials that are disclosed to readers through a variety of traditionally nonfiction elements such as footnotes, endnotes, or a bibliography. This way, readers may enjoy a fictional narrative while also examining the historical foundation upon which that narrative is based. By combining elements of fiction and nonfiction, HTF authors provide readers with an immersive experience that is both entertaining and educational.Learn more at HistoryThroughFiction.com. Also, be sure to sign up for HTF's newsletter and to follow History Through Fiction online:
