It’s a wonder anyone tries to write historical fiction. You have to bring the past to life without resorting to lectures, stiff dialogue or tedious exposition. To be really good, you also have to avoid clichéd characters and stock situations, while not making the slightest misstep in historical fact. Mark Grisham (brother of Charlottesville author […]
Once upon a time, a dark-eyed, merry girl grew up in a city walled-in and defended from hot-blooded tribesmen. She bought trinkets at the bazaar and marveled at whirling dervishes. During a great war, she hid within the cloister of a harem and, peeping through the lattice, saw her own people marched in as slaves […]
Most people no longer expect much from a transcontinental flight: a movie, a snack, maybe a little deep vein thrombosis. But Peter Russell, the hero of James Collins’ Beginner’s Greek, is a romantic—he expects to meet “the perfect woman” on his New York-to-L.A. flight. Improbably, he does. His seatmate, Holly, thinks he’s pretty nice, too, […]