Books like 'Gathering of Waters'
Readers who enjoyed Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century horror historical-fiction magical-realism social-commentary drama literary-fiction poc-mc family
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The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsThe internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author returns to the magnificent universe he constructed in his bestselling novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven in this riveting series finale—a heart-pounding thriller and nail-biting work of suspense which introduces a sexy, seductive new heroine whose investigation shines a light on the dark... -
![Boy's Life by Robert McCammon]()
Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAn Alabama boy’s innocence is shaken by murder and madness in the 1960s South in this novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Swan Song. It’s 1964 in idyllic Zephyr, Alabama. People either work for the paper mill up the Tecumseh River, or for the local dairy. It’s a simple life, but it stirs the impressionable imagination of twelve-year-old aspiring writer Cory Mackenson... -
![Kindred by Octavia E. Butler]()
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsThe first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland... -
![The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead]()
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsColson Whitehead dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc social-commentary 20th-century 21st-century abuse -
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![The Book of Fantasy by Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo]()
The Book of Fantasy by Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Book of Fantasy began one night when three friends fell to talking about fantasies and ghost stories...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction historical -
![The Complete Saki by Saki]()
The Complete Saki by Saki
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHector Hugh Munro is perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England's "golden afternoon''--those slow and peaceful years prior to the outbreak of World War I. The good wit of bad manners, elegantly spiced with irony and deftly controlled malice, has made Saki stories small, perfect gems of the English language...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics comedy -
![Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Alberto Manguel, Julio Cortázar]()
Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Alberto Manguel, Julio Cortázar
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis huge anthology offers a kaleidoscope of brilliant writing from the Magi of the imagination. Alberto Manguel has selected 72 fantastic tales from life on the edge of the twilight zone, with stories from Marguerite Yourcenar, Herman Hesse, Italo Calvino, Vladimir Nabokov, and many, many more...Categorized as:
ghosts literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century absurdism adult anthologies audiobook -
![Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa]()
Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"There can be no doubt that Akutagawa had more individuality than any other writer of his time and has left in Japanese literature a mass of artistic work, often grotesque and curious, that, while it undoubtedly angers the proletarian experimenters who now hold the stage and fight with lusty pens and a highly developed class consciousness against all that he stood for, will continue to live as...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics dark fiction -
![Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler]()
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsDoro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex--or design. He fears no one--until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu has also died many times. She can absorb bullets and make medicine with a kiss, give birth to tribes, nurture and heal, and savage anyone who threatens those she loves. She fears no one--until she meets Doro... -
![The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón]()
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsBarcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past... -
![Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz]()
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis is the second and final work of Bruno Schulz, the acclaimed Polish writer killed by the Nazis during World War II. In the words of Isaac Bashevis Singer, "What he did in his short life was enough to make him one of the most remarkable writers who ever lived...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction historical -
![The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman]()
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn Berlin in 1941 during humanity's darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites Alice Hoffman. In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime... -
![Human Acts by Han Kang, Alba Cunill Fulquet]()
Human Acts by Han Kang, Alba Cunill Fulquet
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom the internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian, a rare and astonishing (The Observer) portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice.In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century 21st-century -
![The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy]()
The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil mines the subtle horrors of 1950s America in a gripping novel about a woman under pressure—from the living and the dead. The first day of autumn brought the fever, and with the fever came the voices. Missouri, 1955... -
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![The Vanished Bride of Northfield House by Phyllis M. Newman]()
The Vanished Bride of Northfield House by Phyllis M. Newman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsEngland, 1922. Times are hard. Anne Chatham is a clever, modest young woman with little money, no prospects for marriage, and a never-shared secret—she can see spirits. Anne finds employment as a typist at Northfield House, the grand country manor of the Wellington family. Her employer, the wheelchair-bound Mr. Wellington, is kindly. His haughty wife is not... -
![The Veldt by Ray Bradbury]()
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThe advanced technology of a house first pleases then increasingly terrifies its occupants... -
![The Delicate Prey and Other Stories by Paul Bowles]()
The Delicate Prey and Other Stories by Paul Bowles
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPaul Bowles once said that a story should remain taut throughout, like a piece of string. That tense, stretched tone is the key to this collection of 17 eerie tales by the author best known for The Sheltering Sky. The Delicate Prey is dedicated: "For my mother, who first read me the stories of Poe... -
![The Spinster's Fortune by Mary Kendall]()
The Spinster's Fortune by Mary Kendall
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMoonlit alleys, shadowy tunnels, and buried secrets…Summer of 1929.Of supposed unsound mind without a penny to her name, Blanche Magruder lies alone in a home for the aged and infirm.Meanwhile, her house, a crumbled ruin in the heart of Georgetown, Washington, D.C., is pillaged nightly by thieves looking for treasure rumored to be hidden there... -
![The Commandant's Daughter by Catherine Hokin]()
The Commandant's Daughter by Catherine Hokin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratings1933, Berlin. Ten-year-old Hanni Foss stands by her father’s side watching the torchlit procession to celebrate Adolf Hitler as Germany’s new leader. As the lights fade, she knows her safe and happy childhood is about to change forever. Practically overnight, the father she adores becomes unrecognisable, lost to his ruthless ambition to oversee an infamous concentration camp…Twelve years later...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book coming-of-age -
![The Cremator by Ladislav Fuks, Rajendra A. Chitnis]()
The Cremator by Ladislav Fuks, Rajendra A. Chitnis
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“The devil’s neatest trick is to persuade us that he doesn’t exist.”—Giovanni Papini It is a maxim that both rings true in our contemporary world and pervades this tragicomic novel of anxiety and evil set amid the horrors of World War II...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book classics -
![Shaman by Noah Gordon]()
Shaman by Noah Gordon
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsRobert Jeremy Cole, the legendary doctor and hero of The Physician, left an enduring legacy. From the 11th century on, the eldest son in each generation of the Cole family has borne the same first name and middle initial and many of these men have followed the medical profession...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Heart Of A Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov]()
The Heart Of A Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsA rich successful Moscow professor befriends a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting into it the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man. A distinctly worryingly human animal is now on the loose, and the professor's hitherto respectable life becomes a nightmare beyond endurance... -
![The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden]()
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsDuring the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the NightingaleJanuary 1918... -
![How Much It May Storm by A.N. Willis]()
How Much It May Storm by A.N. Willis
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTheir secret didn’t die with her.Colorado, 1918: Millie Boylan is a nurse who sees darkness marking those soon to die. When she falls for a doomed soldier named Edward Gainsbury, she vows to save his life. But Millie soon finds the greatest danger is the one she cannot see.Colorado, 1943: With a brother gone to war, Dinah must learn how to fend for herself... -
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![Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray]()
Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this thriller set on the battlefields of the Somme after the end of World War I, a woman investigates the disappearance of her fiancé.The Great War has ended, but for Amy Vanneck there is no peace. Her fiancé, Edward Haslam, a lieutenant in the 7th Manchesters, is missing, presumed dead. Amy travels to the desolate battlefields of northern France to learn his fate and recover his body...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century adult book crime -
![The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic by Nick Joaquín, Gina Apostol]()
The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic by Nick Joaquín, Gina Apostol
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNick Joaquin is widely considered one of the greatest Filipino writers, but he has remained little-known outside his home country despite writing in English. With the post-colonial sensibilities of Junot Diaz, Teju Cole, and Jhumpa Lahiri and an ironic perspective of colonial history resonant with Marques and Llosa, Joaquin is a long-neglected writer ready to join the ranks of the world classics...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century adult anthologies classics -
![The Kindred of Darkness by Barbara Hambly]()
The Kindred of Darkness by Barbara Hambly
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen James Asher and his wife Lydia's baby daughter Miranda is kidnapped by the Master Vampire of London, the stakes are high: blindly follow the Master Vampire's instructions, keep out of the way of the human networks that serves the vampires, destroy the interloper who seeks to seize control of the London Nest, and find the key to the Nest's tortuous inner workings: The Book of the Kindred of...Categorized as:
black-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc 20th-century adult alternate-history book -
![A House in the Country by José Donoso]()
A House in the Country by José Donoso
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsGames turn to nightmares during the summer holidays at the magnificent Chilean country estate of the Ventura family when the children - 33 cousins ranging in age from 6 to 16 - are left to themselves while their parents pursue their own pastimes... -
![Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram]()
Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis is a novel by the author of Hold Tight...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction friendship -
![Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins, Catherine Pope]()
Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins, Catherine Pope
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHarriet Ogilvy is a young woman with a small fortune and a mental disability, making her the ideal target for the handsome and scheming Lewis Oman. After winning Harriet's love, Lewis, with the help of his brother and mistress, sets in motion a plan of unspeakable cruelty and evil to get his hands on her money...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction true-crime 20th-century adult book british-isles -
![The Between by Tananarive Due]()
The Between by Tananarive Due
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Hilton was just a boy, his aged grandmother saved him from drowning by pulling him out of a treacherous ocean current, sacrificing her life for his. Now, thirty years later, Hilton begins to think his borrowed time is running out...Categorized as:
black-mc literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century adult afrofuturism audiobook -
![The Seven That Were Hanged by Leonid Andreyev]()
The Seven That Were Hanged by Leonid Andreyev
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSergey did not know that the colonel, having locked himself all the previous night in his little study, had deliberated upon this ritual with all his power. "We must not aggravate, but ease the last moments of our son," resolved the colonel firmly, and he carefully weighed every possible phase of the conversation, every act and movement that might take place on the following day... -
![Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine]()
Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis masterfully crafted first novel tells the spellbinding story of a contemporary woman who discovers her past life as a 12th-century Welsh noblewoman. Erskine's extraordinary romance has been translated into 17 languages and has sold well over a million copies worldwide...Categorized as:
drama ghosts historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy]()
The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhat if the ordinary things in life suddenly…disappeared?Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has always been a mystery: vibrant yet guarded, she keeps her secrets beyond Aila’s reach. When Juliet dies, Aila and her younger brother Miles are sent to live in Sterling, a rural town far from home--and the place where Juliet grew up.Sterling is a place with mysteries of its own...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
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![The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury]()
The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSet the controls for the heart of the sun.The Captain bent in the warm air, cursing, felt his hands run over the cold machine, and while he worked he saw a future which was removed from them by the merest breath. He saw the skin peel from the rocket beehive, men thus revealed running, running, mouths shrieking, soundless. Space was a black mossed well where life drowned its roars and terrors...Categorized as:
drama literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook -
![The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy]()
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratings1950s Los Angeles: The City of Angels has become the city of the Angel of Death. Communist witch-hunts and insanely violent killings are terrorising the community. Three men are plunged into a maelstrom of violence and deceit when their lives become inextricably linked as each one confronts his own personal darkness...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction true-crime 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison]()
Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratings'Legends of the Fall, an epic tale of three brothers and their lives of passion, madness, exploration and danger at the beginning of the Great War, confirms Jim Harrison's reputation as one of the finest American writers of his generation. This magnificent trilogy also contains two other superb short novels. In Revenge, love causes the course of a man's life to be savagely and irrevocably altered...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies -
![Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann]()
Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThomas Mann's last great novel, first published in 1947 and now rendered into English by acclaimed translator John E. Woods, is a modern reworking of the Faust legend, in which Germany sells its soul to the Devil...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book classics -
![The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, Mikolaj Dutsch]()
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, Mikolaj Dutsch
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe Street of Crocodiles in the Polish city of Drogobych is a street of memories and dreams where recollections of Bruno Schulz's uncommon boyhood and of the eerie side of his merchant family's life are evoked in a startling blend of the real and the fantastic... -
![Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan, Annie Tucker]()
Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan, Annie Tucker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe epic novel Beauty Is a Wound combines history, satire, family tragedy, legend, humor, and romance in a sweeping polyphony. The beautiful Indo prostitute Dewi Ayu and her four daughters are beset by incest, murder, bestiality, rape, insanity, monstrosity, and the often vengeful undead...Categorized as:
drama family ghosts historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century -
![Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard]()
Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a deep strength greater than all the events that surround him.Shanghai, 1941 — a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
![In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner]()
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDisplaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure -
![The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser]()
The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn the eve of her wedding in 1978, Shay Garrett peers into the antique mirror in her family's longtime home, the famous Victorian Gingerbread House on Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, and falls unconscious only to wake in the body of her own grandmother Brandy on the eve of her wedding—in 1900. The virginal Brandy, in turn, awakes in Shay's body to discover herself pregnant... -
![The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier]()
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBy chance, John and Jean--one English, the other French--meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance to each other is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, Jean has stolen his identity and disappeared...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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![Three Souls by Janie Chang]()
Three Souls by Janie Chang
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAn absorbing novel of romance and revolution, loyalty and family, sacrifice and undying loveWe have three souls, or so I'd been told. But only in death could I confirm this ... So begins the haunting and captivating tale, set in 1935 China, of the ghost of a young woman named Leiyin, who watches her own funeral from above and wonders why she is being denied entry to the afterlife...Categorized as:
drama family ghosts historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century -
![Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite]()
Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsONCE A PERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER. Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late... -
![Agnes Cecilia by Maria Gripe]()
Agnes Cecilia by Maria Gripe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAfter experiencing several inexplicable incidents, lonely Nora receives a strangely lifelike doll, which leads her to discover long-hidden secrets about her family... -
![The Lost Ones by Anita Frank]()
The Lost Ones by Anita Frank
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSome houses are never at peace. England, 1917 Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham welcomes the opportunity to stay with her pregnant sister, Madeleine, at her imposing country mansion, Greyswick – but she arrives to discover a house of unease and her sister gripped by fear and suspicion... -
![The Boy Who Saw In Colours by Lauren Robinson]()
The Boy Who Saw In Colours by Lauren Robinson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings**REPUBLISHED VERSION COMING SUMMER, 2021**WINNER OF LITERARY TITAN'S GOLD BOOK AWARD FOR FICTIONNOMINEE OF BIBA AWARD FOR 2020LONG-LISTED FOR SABA BOOK AWARDSSHORT-LISTED FOR INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2020What if colours could speak?Berlin, 1939, and as a nation holds its breath, Josef, a young boy whose family fall victim to the "moustached man," turns once again to the colours for guidance... -
![By Night under the Stone Bridge by Leo Perutz]()
By Night under the Stone Bridge by Leo Perutz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSixteenth-century Prague provides the setting for the story of the forbidden love between emperor Rudolf II and Esther, the wife of an influential financier, and of the efforts of the city's Great Rabbi to right a situation angering...Categorized as:
historical-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book classics early-modern fiction
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