Random House: Smartphone-Free Reads
These historical fiction novels feature unlikely friendships, dangerous adventures—and not a single cell phone!
YESTERDAY’S ADVENTURES
From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes an uplifting, irresistible novel about two women on a life-changing adventure, where they must risk everything, break all the rules, and discover their best selves—together.
It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. READ MORE »
Order Miss Benson’s Beetle
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“A gorgeous, Technicolor take on America in the middle of the 20th century.”—Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Nickel Boys
From the award-winning, bestselling author of Chang & Eng and Half a Life, a new novel about Lucille Ball—a thrilling love story starring Hollywood’s first true media mogul. READ MORE »Order The Queen of Tuesday Penguin Random House ▸
A mother and daughter with a shared talent for healing—and for the conjuring of curses—are at the heart of this dazzling first novel.
LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
“Lush, irresistible . . . It took me into the hearts of women I could otherwise never know. I was transported.”—Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of White Houses and Away READ MORE »Order Conjure Women Penguin Random House ▸
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
• OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK
From the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom. READ MORE »In paperback on November 17, available to preorder now.Order The Water Dancer Penguin Random House ▸
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“A brilliant historical novel; part Cormac McCarthy and part Raymond Chandler.”—Philipp Meyer, author of The Son
An Irishman in 19th-century England is forced to take sides when his nephew joins the bloody underground movement for independence in this propulsive novel from the acclaimed author of The North Water. READ MORE »
Order The Abstainer Penguin Random House ▸ 
Chapter 1Manchester, November 22, 1867Midnight. There are field guns on Stanley Street, and timber barricades at every bridge and junction. Bright flames from a dozen watch fires glint orange off the black and boatless Irwell. Inside the Town Hall on King Street, James O’Connor knocks the rain from his bowler, unbuttons his top coat, and hangs them both on the iron hooks by the recreation room door. Sanders and Malone, and four or five others, are sleeping on palliasses in one corner.
The rest are sitting about at tables playing whist, gabbing, or reading the Courier. The place has the homely barracks-tang of stewed tea and Navy Cut; there is a rack of Indian clubs and medicine balls gathering dust by the left-hand wall, and a billiard table covered over with planking in the center. Fazackerley, the duty sergeant, notices him and nods.“Anything?”O’Connor shakes his head.“There’ll be someone shows himself eventually,” Fazackerley says. “Some daft bastard full of ale. There’s always one. You wait and see.”O’Connor pulls a chair across and sits himself down.
Fazackerley half-fills a dented metal teapot with scalding water from the urn and swirls it twice.“I’m the only Irishman awake this side of Kingstown,” O’Connor tells him. “All the others are safe in their beds doing as the priests advised and staying well away.”“I thought your Fenian boys didn’t pay too much attention to the monsignors.”“They pay attention when it suits them,” he says. “Much like the rest of us.”
Fazackerley nods, allows himself a smile. His face is a bristled mass of lines and planes, his eyebrows are unkempt, and his graying hair is scant and greasy. If it wasn’t for the incongruent brightness of his pale blue eyes—more like the eyes of a newborn babe or a china doll than of a man past fifty—he might look exhausted, gone-to-seed, but, as it is, he presents, even at rest, an impression of half-amused readiness, vigor even. CONTINUE READING
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