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Jan 31, 2025 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |Midge Raymond
In 1929 Berlin, Dore Strauch is unhappy with her life—ill with multiple sclerosis, married to an older man she doesn’t love, and straddled with the domesticity of a hausfrau. She falls in love with her physician, Dr. Friedrich Ritter, and they leave the civilized world for Floreana, an isolated and uninhabited island of the Galápagos. Friedrich persuades Dore that she can heal herself by determination alone.
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Jan 31, 2025 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |Myfanwy Cook
WRITTEN BY MYFANWY COOKDebut novelists Elyse Durham, Joanna Miller, Tiffany L. Warren & Jane Yang explore captivating characters from hidden gems of history. Joanna Miller shares the moment that sparked her debut, The Eights (Fig Tree/Putnam, 2025): “In October 2020, Oxford University shared a series of photographs to commemorate one hundred years of women being awarded degrees.
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Jan 31, 2025 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |Bethany Latham
WRITTEN BY BETHANY LATHAM“There’s little humanity, and what there is is veiled in transgression, but this is the bold, barnstorming filmmaking of the Lynchs, the Cronenbergs, the Kubricks. Robert Eggers is weird. And he knows it. In fact, he revels in it.” 1Auteur Robert Eggers, who burst onto the moviemaking scene a decade ago, has had a noticeable impact on the genre of historical film.
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Jan 28, 2025 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Claire Morris |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |Lisa Redmond
BY LISA REDMONDKate Mosse has brought her Joubert Family Chronicles to a close with her most recent novel The Map of Bones (Mantle, January 2025). The series is a vast historical family tale which began in 16th century Carcassonne when the French wars of religion led to the expelling of the Huguenot population. The series has travelled through the centuries from France to the Netherlands, the Barbary Coast to South Africa.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |Evelyn Waugh
INTERVIEW BY ELLEN IRWING. M. Baker writes stories that find the truth of the human condition in action, adventure, romance, and even magic. He is the author of the newsletter Stories All the Way Down, and has penned many historical and fantasy novels. How would you describe The Wrecker’s Daughter to readers in a few sentences?
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |Alana White
INTERVIEW BY LESLIE S. LOWETrish Purnell-Webb is a clinical psychologist, relationship therapist and author. A writer of short stories, non-fiction journal articles, training programs, book chapters, self-help blogs, and a nonfiction self-help book for couples (2020), she published her first novel in late 2024. How would you describe this book and its themes in a couple of sentences?
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |Alana White
INTERVIEW BY SUSAN HIGGINBOTHAMErica Colahan lives in the Philadelphia region of the United States with her five children, relying on copious amounts of coffee to shepherd her busy offspring while working full-time, writing historical fiction, and pursuing her hobbies. Erica loves to knit, walk in the woods, kayak on the lake, and listen repeatedly to her children say “Mom.” Her debut novel, The Oystercatcher of Southwark, was published by Chrism Press in July 2024.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |Marilyn Pemberton
BY MARILYN PEMBERTONFiona Davis had always wanted to set a book at the Metropolitan Museum but was ‘overwhelmed by the sheer size of the building, not to mention the many departments and employees.’ It was an article in The New York Times that finally gave her the hook she needed. The article told of a ‘viral photo of a celebrity that exposed an international art theft.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |J. Lynn Else
BY J. LYNN ELSEFor sixty-five years, American author Zora Neale Hurston’s final manuscript rested quietly in the University of Florida archives. But now, thanks to work of scholar, literary critic and editor Deborah Plant, this manuscript is finally making its debut. On January 7th, 2025, on what would have been Hurston’s 134th birthday, The Life of Herod the Great was published by Amistad/HarperCollins. The book opens in 47 BCE, with Herod being appointed governor of Galilee by his father.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
historicalnovelsociety.org | Byzantine Empire |Bywater Books |Lara Byrne |Alana White
INTERVIEW BY J. K. KNAUSSRoberta Kaye Waldbaum was born in Denver, Colorado and is a professor of Italian culture at the University of Denver, where she holds the Anna Maglione-Sie Endowed Professorship. An award-winning educator and Italian film consultant, she has contributed to various publications on Italian education, memoirs, and film. The Color of Dreams: An Umbrian Tale is her debut novel. How would you describe this book and its themes?
