1900’s A to L
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Place of Setting | Author | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Armenia | Marcom, Micheline Aharonian | Three Apples Fell from Heaven | Armenian genocide |
Australia | Bitto, Emily | The Strays | Unconventional artists during the Depression |
Austria | Lippi, Rosina | Homestead | Linked short stories — peasant women on dairy farms |
Brazil | Batalha, Martha | The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao | Housewife and her family in 1940s Rio de Janeiro. |
Brazil | Peebles, Frances de Pontes | The Air You Breathe | Love affair between two women |
Brazil | Peebles, Frances de Pontes | The Seamstress | A seamstress is kidnapped in the 1930s. |
Canada | Atwood, Margaret | The Blind Assassin | Winner of the Booker Prize. A science fiction novel-with-a-novel. |
Canada | Snyder, Carrie | Girl Runner | The story of a fictional Olympic athlete in 1928 |
Canada | Vreeland, Susan | The Forest Lover | Based on the life of painter Emily Carr |
Canada | Watt, Alison | Dazzle Patterns | A disabled young woman in Nova Scotia must come to terms with her life during World War I. |
Chile | Allende, Isabel | A Long Petal of the Sea | A Spanish widow emigrates to Chile. |
China | Chang, Janie | Three Souls | A dead woman must make amends for her life |
China | Fleischman, Lisa Huang | Dream of the Walled City | Based on the life of Jade Virtue Liang, feminist and political activist |
China | Kao, Karen | The Dancing Girl and the Turtle | Orphan girl journeys to Shanghai |
China | Lord, Bette Bao | Spring Moon | Chinese history through the eyes of an upper-class woman |
China | Min, Anchee | Becoming Madame Mao | Based on the wife of Mao Zedong, who was an actress before she became a brutal dictator |
China | Min, Anchee | Pearl of China | Based on the life of Pearl S. Buck, daughter of Christian missionaries who grew up in China |
China | Tan, Amy | The Bonesetter’s Daughter | Remote Chinese village in the 1920s |
China | Tan, Amy | The Valley of Amazement | Three generations of women |
China | Tsukiyama, Gail | Women of the Silk | Women silk workers in rural China |
China | Wang Anyi | The Song of Everlasting Sorrow | A young woman grows up in Shanghai |
China | Zijian, Chi | The Last Quarter of the Moon | An old tribal woman reflects on her life |
China and United States | See, Lisa | Shanghai Girls | In 1937, two Chinese sisters are sold to Chinese-American husbands |
Easter Island (Chile) | Vanderbes, Jennifer | Easter Island | Parallel stories of two women 60 years apart |
England | Alison, Rosie | The Very Thought of You | Child relocated to a Yorkshire estate during World War II |
England | Atkinson, Kate | Life After Life | A woman has the ability to re-start her life |
England | Carter, Michaela | Leonora in the Morning Light | Based on the life of painter Leonora Carrington |
England | Chevalier, Tracy | A Single Thread | Embroidery circle helps woman heal after World War I |
England | Evans, Lissa | Their Finest | Writer for propaganda films during World War II |
England | Florence, Elinor | Bird’s Eye View | Canadian woman Air Force spy during World War II |
England | Gandar, Susan | We’ve Come To Take You Home | Two 15-year-old girls, one in modern times and one during World War I |
England | LaForge, Jane Rosenberg | The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War | A teacher befriends a vagrant |
England | McGlasson, Claire | The Rapture | Cult centered on a “divine” woman in 1920s |
England | McMahon, Katharine | The Crimson Rooms | A female lawyer during World War I |
England | Parmar, Priya | Vanessa and Her Sister | Based on the lives of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell |
England | Pietroni, Anna Lawrence | Ruby’s Spoon | A mysterious woman comes to a small town in 1933 |
England | Simonson, Helen | The Summer Before the War | 1914 – first female Latin teacher in a small village |
England | Stratford, Sarah-Jane | Radio Girls | Women at BBC Radio in the 1920’s |
England | Waters, Sarah | The Night Watch | The lives of three woman and a man intersect in 1940’s London |
England | Waters, Sarah | The Paying Guests | Lodgers change the lives of a mother and daughter in 1920’s London |
Estonia | Oksanen, Sofi | Purge | Two women’s secrets are revealed against a background of the Soviet occupation of Estonia |
Ethiopia | Ghermandi, Gabriela | Queen of Flowers and Pearls | The Italian occupation of Ethiopia as told by a young woman |
Finland | Dunmore, Helen | House of Orphans | Two best friends grow up and lead contrasting lives |
Finland | Liksom, Rosa | The Colonel’s Wife | Wife of a cruel Nazi colonel |
France | Avery, Ellis | The Last Nude | 1927 — based on the life of Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka |
France | Clayton, Meg Waite | The Race for Paris | Two women journalists cover World War II |
France | Dewitt, Abigail | News of Our Loved Ones | Two generations of a French family during and after World War II |
France and other countries | Diener, Maryam | Exquisite Corpse | Five surrealist artists |
France | Girard, Anne | Madame Picasso | Based on the life of Eva Gouel |
France | Gray, Amelia | Isadora | Dancer Isadora Duncan struggles to come to terms with her children’s deaths |
France | Hannah, Kristin | The Nightingale | Two women struggle to survive in German-occupied France during World War II |
France | Hoffman, Alice | The World That We Knew | Three women flee the Holocaust |
France | Janeczek, Helena | The Girl with the Leica | Fictionalized biography of photojournalist Gerda Taro |
France and United States | Jones, Sherry | Josephine Baker’s Last Dance | Based on the life of Josephine Baker, African-American dancer |
France | Lee, Yiyun | The Book of Goose | Teenage friendship |
France | Roberts, Michele | Ignorance | Two friends survive the Nazi occupation of France |
France | Wieland, Liza | Paris, 7 A.M. | One year in the life of poet Elizabeth Bishop |
France | Wein, Elizabeth | Code Name Verity | A British woman spy is captured by the Nazis during World War II |
Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) | Amend, Allison | Enchanted Islands | Undercover intelligence officers during World War II |
Germany | Belfer, Lauren | And After the Fire | Woman harpsichordist and a mysterious music score. |
Germany | d’Eramo, Luce | Deviation | A young woman’s experiences with Nazis during WWII |
Germany | Enzensberger, Theresia | Blueprint | Woman architecture student during Bauhaus movement |
Germany | Hansen, Dorte | This House Is Mine | A 5-year-old war refugee grows up |
Germany | Hegi, Ursula | Stones from the River | A dwarf shelters Jewish families during the Nazi era |
Germany | Jenoff, Pam | The Orphan’s Tale | Two women hide a Jewish baby in a traveling circus |
Germany | Postorino, Rosella | At the Wolf’s Table | Young woman conscripted to be Hitler’s food taster |
Germany | Shattuck, Jessica | The Women in the Castle | Two war widows find shelter in a Bavarian castle |
Germany | Teitelman, Judith | Guesthouse for Ganesha | Seamstress experiences divine visions and escapes Holocaust |
Germany, France, Poland | Kelly, Martha Hall | Lilac Girls | Three women in World War II Europe |
Ghana | Mills, Marilyn Heward | Cloth Girl | The lives of two women – one black, one white – become intertwined. |
Guatemala | Kerney, Kelly | Hard Red Spring | Guatemalan history through the eyes of four women |
Iceland | Eggerz, Solveig | Seal Woman | A German city woman goes to work on a farm in Iceland |
India | Enjeti, Anjali | The Parted Earth | A teen is separated from her boyfriend during India’s partition. |
India | Massey, Sujata | The Sleeping Dictionary | A maid works for India’s freedom from the British |
India | Rao, Shobha | An Unrestored Woman | Stories set during the Partition of India and Pakistan |
India | Razak, Melody | Moth | Teenager caught in violence of Partition |
India | Wheeler, Kate | When Mountains Walked | Two parallel love affairs (one in 1940’s India, and one in present day Peru) |
Iran | Darznik, Jasmin | Song of a Captive Bird | Based on the life of poet Forugh Farrokzhad |
Iran | Diener, Maryam | Beyond Black There Is No Colour | Another novel based on the life of poet Forugh Farrokzhad |
Iran | Hozar, Nazanine | Aria | Abandoned girl grows up in pre-revolutionary Iran |
Ireland and the United States | Carey, Lisa | The Stolen Child | American woman visits ancestral Irish island |
Israel | Pradelski, Minka | Here Comes Mrs. Kugelman | Two Holocaust survivors reminisce |
Italy | Valmorbida, Elise | The Madonna of the Mountains | A woman struggles to protect her family during Fascist era |
Japan | Kutsukake, Lynne | The Translation of Love | The American occupation of Japan after World War II |
Japan | Perezagua, Marina | The Story of H | Survivors of the atomic bomb |
Kenya | McLain, Paula | Circling the Sun | Based on the life of aviator Beryl Markham |
Korea | Kim, Eugenia | The Calligrapher’s Daughter | A young woman grows up in Japan-occupied Korea |
Korea/Japan | Lee, Min Jin | Pachinko | A family who migrates from Korea to Japan. |
Korea | See, Lisa | The Island of Sea Women | Two young women grow up as sea divers. |