My Wishlist: 7 Buku Historical Fiction yang Ingin Kubaca

Assalamualaikum, apa kabar? Sudah lama nggak posting Wishful Wednesday, ya. Karena tahun ini cukup banyak baca buku historical fiction (belum lebih dari lima, sih, tetapi menurut saya sudah banyak, hehehe) dan banyak menonton film bertema historical juga (ada yang fiksi, ada yang diangkat dari kisah nyata), saya mau sharing tentang buku-buku historical fiction yang ingin saya baca. Apa sajakah itu?

1.       Year of Wonders oleh Geraldine Brooks

Setelah baca People of the Book, rasanya mau baca buku-bukunya Geraldine Brooks lagi. Dari beberapa buku yang telah dia terbitkan, saya paling tertarik dengan Year of Wonders, tentang wabah hitam yang melanda kawasan Eropa pada abad 15.

When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a 'year of wonders'.

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history.

2. The Forgotten Garden oleh Kate Morton

Saya pernah direkomendasikan buku- Kate Morton oleh Goodreads, lupa gara-gara baca buku apa. Akhirnya, jadi penasaran dan cari tahu tentang penulis tersebut yang ternyata sudah menerbitkan banyak buku. Tetapi, yang paling bikin penasaran sih The Forgotten Garden.

A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery. The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton.

Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra’s life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.

Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace—the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century—Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself.

3.       Out of the Easy oleh Ruta Sepetys

Sama seperti Geraldine Brooks, setelah terpikat dengan karya-karya Ruta Sepetys, saya jadi mau baca lagi buku-bukunya yang lain. Nah, yang sudah diterbitkan ada Out of the Easy dan Fountain of Silence. Tetapi, mau baca Out of the Easy yang terbit lebih dulu, deh.

“It's 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.

Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny.”

 

4.       The Nightingale oleh Kristin Hannah

Saya punya ketertarikan tersendiri kepada tema Perang Dunia II dan banyak yang memuji buku ini sehingga saya semakin penasaran. Selain itu, The Nightingale sudah diterjemahkan ke Bahasa Indonesia. Jadi, tinggal menunggu kesempatan baik untuk membawa pulang buku ini. 

France, 1939
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real--and deadly—consequences.

5.       The Historian oleh Elizabeth Kostova

Sempat lihat buku ini waktu jalan-jalan di Pasar Kenari. Ternyata sudah ada versi terjemahnya. Bukunya hardcover dan harganya lumayan, hehehe. Ada juga buku bekasnya yang berbahasa Inggris di lapak yang lain. Yang bekas harganya lumayan murah, sih, tetapi saya pikir-pikir ulang, buku setebal itu pakai bahasa Inggris, apa saya bakal baca? Yah, jadi cuma bisa berharap nanti ada rezeki untuk beli yang edisi bahasa Indonesia.

“Late one night, exploring her father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to "My dear and unfortunate successor". Her discovery plunges her into a world she never dreamed of – a labyrinth where the secrets of her father’s past and her mother’s mysterious fate connect to an evil hidden in the depths of history.”

Buku ini juga banyak dipuji di Goodreads. Bikin penasaran juga. Entah sudah diterjemahkan atau belum ke bahasa Indonesia. Kalau belum, mudah-mudahan ada penerbit yang mau menerjemahkan dan saya mampu membeli bukunya, hehehe.

6. Sarah’s Key oleh Tatiana de Rosnay

Buku lama yang dulu sempat wara-wiri di kalangan blogger buku. Akan tetapi, sampai sekarang saya belum pernah membacanya. Sudah diangkat ke layar lebar juga. Tipe ceritanya mirip-mirip The Forgotten Garden dan The Historian. Sosok di masa kini yang menemukan sesuatu yang berkaitan dengan masa lalu.

 

“Paris, July 1942: Ten-year-old Sarah is brutally arrested with her family in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, the most notorious act of French collaboration with the Nazis. but before the police come to take them, Sarah locks her younger brother, Michel, in their favorite hiding place, a cupboard in the family's apartment. She keeps the key, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's sixtieth anniversary, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist, is asked by her Paris-based American magazine to write an article about this black day in France's past. Julia has lived in Paris for nearly twenty-five years, married a Frenchman, and she is shocked both by her ignorance about the event and the silence that still surrounds it. In the course of her investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connects her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from the terrible days spent shut in at the Vel' d'Hiv' to the camps and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

Writing about the fate of her country with a pitiless clarity, Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and denial surrounding this painful episode in French history.”

7. Girl with Pearl Earrings oleh Tracy Chevalier

Dulu pernah baca karya Tracy Chevalier yang lain, judulnya The Lady with Unicorn. Lumayan suka dengan buku tersebut. Jadi, Penasaran dengan buku yang ini yang sepertinya lebih ngehits dan sudah diangkat ke layar lebar juga.

“With precisely 35 canvases to his credit, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer represents one of the great enigmas of 17th-century art. The meager facts of his biography have been gleaned from a handful of legal documents. Yet Vermeer's extraordinary paintings of domestic life, with their subtle play of light and texture, have come to define the Dutch golden age. His portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has exerted a particular fascination for centuries - and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's second novel of the same title.

Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant--and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model.”

Ternyata banyak juga ya buku historical fiction yang jadi wishlist saya. Saya belum tahu apakah The Forgotten Garden, Year of Wonders, dan Out of the Easy sudah pernah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia. Selain buku-buku itu, semua sudah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia, tetapi kebanyakan terbitan lama. Hanya The Nightingale yang terbilang masih baru. Yah, mudah-mudahan saja saya berjodoh dengan semua buku-buku di atas.

Bagaimana denganmu? Ada buku bertema historical fiction yang ingin dimiliki juga? Atau malah tidak tertarik dengan genre historical fiction? Hehehe….