Uncle Tom, Topsy, Sambo, Simon Legree, little Eva: their names are American bywords, and all of them are characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe's remarkable novel of the pre-Civil War South. Uncle Tom's Cabin was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate indictment of slavery and for its presentation of Tom, "a man of humanity," as the first black hero in American fiction. Labeled racist and condescending by some contemporary critics, it remains a shocking,...

Nestled into the cliffs in southern Italy's Amalfi coast, Positano is an artist's vision, with rows of brightly hued houses perched above the sea and picturesque staircases meandering up and down the hillside. Santina, still a striking woman despite old age and the illness that saps her last strength, is spending her final days at her home, Villa San Vito. The magnificent eighteenth-century palazzo is very different from the tiny house in which she...

Determined to set the historical record straight, and clear her conscience, Temperance Flowerdew-the wife of Virginia's first two governors-puts quill to paper, recounting the hardships that nearly brought the Jamestown colony to its knees, and the extraordinary sacrifice of her servant girl, Lily. When she steps aboard the Falcon in 1609, Temperance Flowerdew is not only setting sail from England to the distant shores of America, she's embarking...

An unlikely friendship develops between a plantation mistress, Hannelore Blessing, and a slave girl, Livie, as they undertake a harrowing journey amidst the rising tension of the Civil War and whispers of the Underground Railroad.

"To escape an arranged marriage, Annalise Marony finds a way out of her plight by becoming a Handmaiden of the Order of the Solace. Raised in the faith but long fallen away in its practice, Annalise is determined to play the part of a dedicated novitiate for as long as it takes to nullify her betrothal. But not just anyone is accepted into the Order, and Annalise finds herself thwarted at every turn, particularly by a man who deliberately misleads...