Helen Plum Library

Award-winning historical fiction set in 16th-century Venice

Benjamin Franklin Digital Award

IPPY Award for Best Adult Fiction E-book

National Indie Excellence Award Finalist

Eric Hoffer Award Finalist

Shortlisted for the da Vinci Eye Prize
From the author of Made in Italy comes a tale of artisanal tradition and family bonds set in one of the world's most magnificent settings: Renaissance

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As Nazi planes dominated the British sky, 18-year-old Lily Verner made a terrible mistake that she's spent decades trying to forget. But now an unexpected event pulls her back to the 1940s British countryside and her family's textile mill

One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky-and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then-through a combination of hard work and serendipity-she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from...

"The Helena is an art deco apartment building that has witnessed the changing face of South Miami Beach for seventy years, observing the lives housed within. Among those who have called apartment 2B home across the decades are a Cuban concert pianist who performs in a nursing home; the widow of an intelligence officer raising her young daughter alone; a man waiting on a green card marriage to run its course so that he can divorce his wife and marry...

For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland's majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ... about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ... and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of...

"When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading "Go to Paris." But Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a childhood trauma, and her mother's negligent parenting style, have kept her strictly confined to her comfort zone, even in adulthood. When her boss encourages her to time off, Stella resigns herself to honor her mother's wishes, even if a spontaneous trip to Paris is the...

"Nilda Carlson longs to better her community--and herself. When her ideas to help other immigrants meet resistance, she finds enjoyment in her piano lessons with the handsome schoolteacher, Fritz. But when a stylish young woman steals his attention, can she compete with such a sophisticated beauty?"--

"A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune--an unlikely friendship that changed the world, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian. The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist...

Eighteen-year-old Salama Kassab, a pharmacy student volunteering at the hospital in Homs, is desperate to find passage on a refugee boat for herself and her pregnant best friend, but first she must learn to see the events around her for what they are--not a war, but a revolution

"When U.S. troops occupy Germany, friends Jakob and Emmanuelle are saved from the terrible fate of so many in the camps. With the help of sponsors, they make their way to New York. In order not to be separated, they allow their friendship to blossom into love and marriage, and start a new life on the Lower East Side, working at grueling, poorly paid jobs. Decades later, through talent, faith, fortune, and relentless hard work, Jakob has achieved success...