Boston Book Festival 2019

In their recent novels, these three authors combine historical research with their storytelling skills to shed new light on some of the defining moments of the twentieth century. Julie Berry elevates Lovely War to the realm of myth, as Greek gods Apollo, Aphrodite, and Ares grapple over the fates of four mortals enmeshed in the First World War. Among the many starred reviews received by the novel is one from Kirkus Reviews, which calls the novel “An unforgettable romance so Olympian in scope, human at its core, and lyrical in its prose that it must be divinely inspired.” World War II is the focus of Kip Wilson’s debut novel White Rose, which uses free verse narrative to capture the inner struggles and courage of young members of a Nazi resistance movement. In a starred review, Kirkus called White Rose an “intense, bone-chilling reading experience.” Finally, Susan Kaplan Carlton’s In the Neighborhood of True takes readers to 1950s-era Atlanta, where a Northern transplant must navigate anti-Semitic sentiments while also making sense of her own romantic desires while, according to Publishers Weekly’s starred review, “the humidity and tension ris[e] with each chapter.” Helping us travel back in time is moderator James Kennedy, founder of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival and author of the novel The Order of Odd-Fish.