Fiction Five: Journey back to the 20th Century

For this month’s Fiction Five we’re looking at new books that take us back into the 1900s. From tales strongly rooted in historical fact to those that view history through a speculative lens, these novels take you around the world, starting in a place that could be your own backyard and ending in a jungle in Southeast Asia. Whether you’re returning to a familiar era or visiting for the first time, strap in and take a fictional dive into yestercentury.

The Harvey Girls by Juliette Fay

Charlotte was born into one of the finest Boston society families. Now she’s on the run from a brutal husband desperate to disappear into the wilds of the Southwest.

Billie is the oldest of nine children born to Scottish immigrants in Nebraska. She quit school in the sixth grade to help with her mother’s washing and mending business, but even that isn’t enough to keep the family afloat.

Both women join the ranks of the Harvey Girls, waitresses who serve in America’s first hospitality chain on the Santa Fe railroad. Hired on the same day, they share three things: a room, a heartfelt dislike of each other and a secret that will certainly get them fired.

Through 12-hour days of training in Topeka, they learn the fine art of service, perfecting their skills despite homesickness, fear of being discovered and a run-in with the KKK. When they’re sent to work at a luxurious Grand Canyon hotel the challenges only grow. Billie struggles to hide her young age from would-be suitors. Charlotte discovers the little-known dark side of the national park’s history.

“The Harvey Girls may be Juliette Fay’s best historical novel to date, full of unforgettable women, juicy conflict, and fascinating facts about an underexplored chapter in the history of the American West. A must-read.” ― Greer Macallister, bestselling author of The Thirteenth Husband 

Fonseca by Jessica Francis Kane

Penelope Fitzgerald’s husband is a struggling alcoholic, their literary journal is on the brink and she is pregnant with their third child. Out of the blue she receives a letter from two spinster sisters named Delaney. They are distant relations with a silver mine who dangle the possibility of an inheritance. Leaving her younger daughter with relatives, Fitzgerald sets out with her 6-year-old son halfway around the globe.

When they arrive, nothing goes as planned. There are others vying for the Delaney money and for three months Penelope must navigate a quixotic household and guide her impressionable son. More and more people frequent the house: an ambitious American couple, various local entrepreneurs and artists, and finally a handsome stranger who claims he is a Delaney.

Based on the real-life journey Fitzgerald and her son made in 1952, Fonseca is a thoroughly researched chapter from one of Britain’s most celebrated authors.

“Fonseca is a beautifully written novel about a woman searching for her own story during a precarious moment in her life. Read this book for the mystery, for the joy of encountering the complicated marriage of the artists Jo and Edward Hopper, for the love stories of the main character Penelope: with a handsome stranger, her charming, alcoholic husband, her children, and with herself. This is the novel Penelope Fitzgerald was unable, or unwilling, to write during her own lifetime, and it chimes with quiet, perfect notes. I loved it.” — Ann Napolitano, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso

Enter the time space, a soaring library filled with books containing the memories of those have passed. It can be accessed only by specially made watches once handed from father to son, but mostly now in government hands. This is where 11-year-old Lisavet finds herself trapped in 1938 waiting for her watchmaker father to return for her.

When he doesn’t return she grows up among the books able to see the world only through the memories of those who came before. As she realizes government agents are entering the time space to destroy books and maintain their preferred version of history, she sets about saving scraps in her own volume of memories. Until the appearance of an American spy named Ernest sets her on a course to change history and possibly the time space itself.

“The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso is a magnificent and complex feat of imagination, a love story that defies the boundaries of time, memory, and reality. From the very first wild page, you’ll be swept into a world where the past isn’t just remembered—it’s lived, fought for, and protected at all costs. Luminous and haunting, Gelfuso’s prose takes us on a journey through a tale of love that transcends time and space, an exploration of how far we’ll go to hold on to what matters most. The Book of Lost Hours is a testament to the power of memory, the fragility of truth, and the enduring strength of the human heart. You’ll never look at time the same way again.” — Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Book of Flora Lea

Narrow the Road by James Wade

With his father missing and his mother gravely ill, William is struggling to keep his family's cotton farm afloat in the face of drought and foreclosure. As his options wane William receives a mysterious letter that claims to know his father's whereabouts.

Together with his best friend Ollie, a mortician in training, William sets out to find his father and bring him home to set things right. Before the boys can complete their quest, they must navigate the labyrinth of the Big Thicket, some of the country's most untamed land. Along the way they encounter eccentric backwoods characters of every order, running afoul of murderers, bootleggers, and the legendary Bonnie and Clyde.

But the danger is doubled when the boys agree to take on a medicine show runaway named Lena. This evokes the wrath of the show's leader the nefarious conman Doctor Downtain. As William, Ollie and Lena race to uncover the clues and find William's father, Downtain is closing in on them readying to make good on his violent reputation. William must decide where his loyalties lie and how far he's willing to go for the people he loves.

"Wade delivers a rewarding tale of a boy's quest to find his father...reminiscent of Davis Grubb's classic Southern gothic The Night of the Hunter, with its stark evocation of good versus evil. This odyssey of the West is tough to shake." — "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

The Last Assignment by Erika Robuck

Since her arrest for disobeying orders and going ashore at Iwo Jima almost a decade earlier, combat correspondent Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle has been unmoored. Her military accreditation revoked, her marriage failing and her savings dwindling, Dickey jumps at the next opportunity. In the aftermath of an assignment gone wrong, Dickey is determined to survive to be the world's witness to war from the front lines.

Dickey and her camera journey with American and international soldiers from frozen wastelands to raging seas to luscious jungles, revealing one woman's extraordinary courage and tenacity in the face of discrimination and danger. In her desire to save the world she realizes she might also be saving herself.

"Full of passion, courage, and surprises, Dickey Chapelle is a firecracker of a main character! The Last Assignment takes us on a wild ride around the globe with one of the twentieth century's most fascinating photojournalists. I couldn't put this book down." ― Elise Hooper, author of The Library of Lost Dollhouses