Staff Picks Category: Alternative history

Midnight on the Marne by Sarah Adlakha [Book]

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An unlikely series of events repeats itself, giving one of the participants the opportunity to change the future by sacrificing his past. Wartime in occupied France is made difficult by rationing, persecution, and fear, particularly for French nurse (and spy) Marcelle Marchand and American soldier George Mountcastle. They are immediately drawn to each other, then separated by circumstance and the Great War. Following Germany’s victory, Marcelle and George reconnect, and live in France with their cobbled together family of survivors, including George’s comrade Philip and Marcelle’s sister Rosalie. Hiding their vegetable garden and black market activities from government agents and living as well as they can, they find happiness where possible. After they are caught and punished, George somehow finds himself once again at a critical point in the Battle of the Marne, several years earlier. George and Philip have spent many years contemplating what might have happened if a single decision had been made differently, and now George has the opportunity to find out.

Framed by the narrative of Marcelle’s daughter reading her journal many years later, readers will be drawn in by the details of an alternative post-World War I history, and also pleasantly set adrift by the conflicting information presented in the journal and the known details of Marcelle’s life and history. Offer this to fans of alternative history, war stories, and what-ifs.

Widowland by C. J. Carey [Book]

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In this alternate history, Germany and Great Britain are thirteen years into an alliance that began with the 1940 murder of George VI and his family in favor of the rule of Edward VIII, remorseless pawn of The Leader. Women are classified into six categories based on their usefulness to men and, by extension, the empire. Any sign of rebellion or resistance is punishable by interrogation, torture, and death. Rose Ransom is a Geli, the most elite class of women, and has a job with the culture ministry editing literature of the past to match the current values of the regime. When inflammatory quotes from forbidden texts begin to appear as graffiti, she is asked to infiltrate a Widowland community, where childless women over 50 are relegated and the insurgent messages appear to originate. The subversion must be stopped before The Leader arrives for the coronation of King Edward and Queen Wallis, and Rose is expected to act in the best interests of the Protectorate. Carey builds a chillingly believable setting and society that feels relevant now.

For fans of historical fiction, women’s stories, alternate history (it’s all three!) and readers looking for The Handmaid’s Tale by way of Fatherland.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde [Audiobook]

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