Search query: simon the fiddler by paulette jiles

Product: The Girl from Oto (The Miramonde Series Book 1)
Description: Two women, separated by 500 years. Linked by a powerful mystery...
The secrets of the past are irresistible—and dangerous.
1500: Born during a time wracked by war and plague, Renaissance-era artist Mira grows up in a Pyrenees convent believing she is an orphan. When tragedy strikes, Mira learns the devastating truth about her own origins. But does she have the strength to face those who would destroy her?
2015: Centuries later, art scholar Zari unearths traces of a mysterious young woman named Mira in two 16th-century portraits. Obsessed, Zari tracks Mira through the great cities of Europe to the pilgrim's route of Camino de Santiago—and is stunned by what she finds. Will her discovery be enough to bring Mira's story to life?
A captivating story and an intriguing mystery, The Girl from Oto is an unforgettable novel of obsession, passion, and human resilience.
Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah, Ken Follett, and Anthony Doerr.

Author Interview:
Q: Why did you write The Girl from Oto?
A: During travels with my family through Europe in 2010-11, I was thrilled by museum visits but my two young daughters were not. I wished more of the art they saw was relevant to them. We wandered through great halls of medieval and Renaissance-era paintings, and I mourned the lack of female artists. Meanwhile, my girls stared at portraits of frozen-in-time people in their gilt frames and were unmoved. I wished we knew more about the stories behind those portraits.
Then I visited Oxford University and saw a 500-year-old painting of a mysterious woman, attributed to female portrait artist Caterina van Hemessen. I was floored. So there were women painters in those days! I began to dig into history, and the idea for The Girl from Oto was born. I would bring one of those mysterious old portraits to life, and I would create a place in history for its maker. Along the way I learned that women have always been artists. Their work was often attributed to men or kept anonymous, but it exists. And more and more of these women are being rescued from history's shadows.
Q: What is the significance of the Camino de Santiago in the story?
A: The action in Mira's story takes place in the Pyrenees mountains along the pilgrim's route of Camino de Santiago (also known as the Way of St. James or St. Jacques). From the middle ages onward, this also happened to be a major trade route between what is now Spain and the rest of Europe. The mountain communities evolved with the constant presence of traveling pilgrims, itinerant merchants and artisans, smugglers, refugees, and nomadic shepherds. This created a dramatic brew of tensions, culture clashes, religious differences, unlikely alliances, the spread of disease, and a constant flow of news. Add into the mix the looming presence of the mountains themselves, and it's a writer's dream come true!
Q: How many books are in the series?
A: The Miramonde Series is a trilogy. The Girl from Oto is Book 1, Mira's Way is Book 2, and A Place in the World is Book 3. There is also a prequel novella to the series, The Promise, and a collection of short stories called Gift of Gold.
Q: What kind of reader likes your writing?
A: Fans of Pillars of the Earth tend to like my story. People who love history, art, travel, romance, and mystery will enjoy The Girl from Oto.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: Lighthouse Island: A Novel (P.S.)
Description: Paulette Jiles, the bestselling author of the highly praised novels The Color of Lightning, Stormy Weather, and Enemy Women, pushes into new territory with Lighthouse Island—a captivating and atmospheric story set in the far future—a literary dystopian tale resonant with love and hope.

In the coming centuries the world's population has exploded. The earth is crowded with cities, animals are nearly all extinct, and drought is so widespread that water is rationed. There are no maps, no borders, no numbered years, and no freedom, except for an elite few.

It is a harsh world for an orphan like Nadia Stepan. Growing up, she dreams of a green vacation spot called Lighthouse Island, in a place called the Pacific Northwest.

When an opportunity for escape arises, Nadia embarks on a dangerous and sometimes comic adventure. Along the way she meets a man who changes the course of her life: James Orotov, a mapmaker and demolition expert. Together, they evade arrest and head north toward a place of wild beauty that lies beyond the megapolis—Lighthouse Island.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: The Ragged Edge of Night
Description: For fans of All the Light We Cannot See, Beneath a Scarlet Sky, and The Nightingale comes an emotionally gripping, beautifully written historical novel about extraordinary hope, redemption, and one man’s search for light during the darkest times of World War II.

Germany, 1942. Franciscan friar Anton Starzmann is stripped of his place in the world when his school is seized by the Nazis. He relocates to a small German hamlet to wed Elisabeth Herter, a widow who seeks a marriage - in name only - to a man who can help raise her three children. Anton seeks something too - atonement for failing to protect his young students from the wrath of the Nazis. But neither he nor Elisabeth expects their lives to be shaken once again by the inescapable rumble of war.

As Anton struggles to adapt to the roles of husband and father, he learns of the Red Orchestra, an underground network of resisters plotting to assassinate Hitler. Despite Elisabeth’s reservations, Anton joins this army of shadows. But when the SS discovers his schemes, Anton will embark on a final act of defiance that may cost him his life - even if it means saying goodbye to the family he has come to love more than he ever believed possible.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: The Color of Lightning: A Novel
Description: “Meticulously researched and beautifully crafted.... This is glorious work.” — Washington Post

“A gripping, deeply relevant book.” — New York Times Book Review

From Paulette Jiles, author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Enemy Women and Stormy Weather, comes a stirring work of fiction set on the untamed Texas frontier in the aftermath of the Civil War. One of only twelve books longlisted for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize—one of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards—The Color of Lightning is a beautifully rendered and unforgettable re-examination of one of the darkest periods in U.S. history.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: American Dirt (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel
Description: #1 New York Times Bestseller
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK
“Extraordinary.”
—Stephen King
“This book is not simply the great American novel; it’s the great novel of las Americas. It’s the great world novel! This is the international story of our times. Masterful.”
—Sandra Cisneros
También de este lado hay sueños. On this side, too, there are dreams.
Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.
Even though she knows they’ll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy—two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.
Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves riding la bestia—trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier’s reach doesn’t extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?
American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed. It is a literary achievement filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page. It is one of the most important books for our times.
Already being hailed as "a Grapes of Wrath for our times" and "a new American classic," Jeanine Cummins's American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: Simon the Fiddler: A Novel
Description: The critically acclaimed, bestselling author of News of the World and Enemy Women returns to Texas in this atmospheric story, set at the end of the Civil War, about an itinerant fiddle player, a ragtag band of musicians with whom he travels trying to make a living, and the charming young Irish lass who steals his heart.

In March 1865, the long and bitter War between the States is winding down. Till now, twenty-three-year-old Simon Boudlin has evaded military duty thanks to his slight stature, youthful appearance, and utter lack of compunction about bending the truth. But following a barroom brawl in Victoria, Texas, Simon finds himself conscripted, however belatedly, into the Confederate Army. Luckily his talent with a fiddle gets him a comparatively easy position in a regimental band.

Weeks later, on the eve of the Confederate surrender, Simon and his bandmates are called to play for officers and their families from both sides of the conflict. There the quick-thinking, audacious fiddler can’t help but notice the lovely Doris Mary Dillon, an indentured girl from Ireland, who is governess to a Union colonel’s daughter.

After the surrender, Simon and Doris go their separate ways. He will travel around Texas seeking fame and fortune as a musician. She must accompany the colonel’s family to finish her three years of service. But Simon cannot forget the fair Irish maiden, and vows that someday he will find her again.

Incandescent in its beauty, told in Paulette Jiles’s trademark spare yet lilting style, Simon the Fiddler is a captivating, bittersweet tale of the chances a devoted man will take, and the lengths he will go to fulfill his heart’s yearning.

"Jiles’ sparse but lyrical writing is a joy to read. . . . Lose yourself in this entertaining tale.” — Associated Press
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: Northern Wolf (Northern Wolf Series Book 1)
Description: A broken man will be forged in the flames of war...

It is late 1862, and the United States has been ripped apart by civil war for over a year with no end in sight. The war is a distant thought to Johannes Wolf, a young German immigrant with a crippled leg keeping him off the muster lists.

Desperately dredging the gutters for recruits, Wolf cons his way into the depleted, demoralized, and poorly run Union army, and is promptly placed in the undesirable F Company of the 13th Michigan Cavalry.

Wolf's company find themselves riding with Custer and the Michigan Brigade on a collision course with master horseman J.E.B. Stuart and the Army of Northern Virginia in a small town in Pennsylvania, called Gettysburg.

Will they stand tall against the knights of the South and prove themselves worthy? Or will they fall beneath screaming bullets and sweeping blades, becoming more bloody fodder for a lost cause?

Northern Wolf is a thrilling, historical page-turner packed with detailed passages of battle, the horrors of war, and the struggle to discover oneself. Fans of Bernard Cornwell, Jeff Shaara, Simon Scarrow, and Steven Pressfield will be captivated by this powerful new series. Start the adventure today!
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: Stormy Weather: A Novel
Description: From Paulette Jiles, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Enemy Women, comes a poignant and unforgettable story of hardship, sacrifice, and strength in a tragic time—and of a desperate dream born of an undying faith in the arrival of a better day

Oil is king of East Texas during the darkest years of the Great Depression. The Stoddard girls—responsible Mayme, whip-smart tomboy Jeanine, and bookish Bea—know no life but an itinerant one, trailing their father from town to town as he searches for work on the pipelines and derricks; that is, when he's not spending his meager earnings at gambling joints, race tracks, and dance halls. And in every small town in which the windblown family settles, mother Elizabeth does her level best to make each sparse, temporary house they inhabit a home.

But the fall of 1937 ushers in a year of devastating drought and dust storms, and the family's fortunes sink further than they ever anticipated when a questionable "accident" leaves Elizabeth and her girls alone to confront the cruelest hardships of these hardest of times. With no choice left to them, they return to the abandoned family farm.

It is Jeanine, proud and stubborn, who single-mindedly devotes herself to rebuilding the farm and their lives. But hard work and good intentions won't make ends meet or pay the back taxes they owe on their land. In desperation, the Stoddard women place their last hopes for salvation in a wildcat oil well that eats up what little they have left . . . and on the back of late patriarch Jack's one true legacy, a dangerous racehorse named Smoky Joe. And Jeanine, the fatherless "daddy's girl," must decide if she will gamble it all . . . on love.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel
Brand: Penguin Books
Color: Multicolor
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma-Kola: A Manual of Etiquette for Ladies Crossing Canada by Train
Brand: Brand: Raincoast Books, Polestar
Used Book in Good Condition
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: Fallen Land: A Novel
Brand: ST MARTINS
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: Norwegian by Night (2) (A Sheldon Horowitz Novel)
Brand: Mariner Books
Mariner Books
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier
Brand: Griffin
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies
Brand: Dey Street Books
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: News of the World
Brand: William Morrow & Company
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: Enemy Women: A Novel
Description: For the Colleys of southeastern Missouri, the War between the States is a plague that threatens devastation, despite the family’s avowed neutrality. For eighteen-year-old Adair Colley, it is a nightmare that tears apart her family and forces her and her sisters to flee. The treachery of a fellow traveler, however, brings about her arrest, and she is caged with the criminal and deranged in a filthy women’s prison.

But young Adair finds that love can live even in a place of horror and despair. Her interrogator, a Union major, falls in love with her and vows to return for her when the fighting is over. Before he leaves for battle, he bestows upon her a precious gift: freedom.

Now an escaped "enemy woman," Adair must make her harrowing way south buoyed by a promise . . . seeking a home and a family that may be nothing more than a memory.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S