Best sellers and historical novel: 15 recommended books for World Book Day 2023

2023-04-21 08:00:44

He Day of the book it is much more than a date on the calendar. It is a day in which the passion for reading, knowledge and creativity. Since the beginning of time, books have been a source of inspiration for humanity, a window to the world around us and an invaluable tool for learning and reflection. In an increasingly digital world, World Book Day, which is celebrated this Sunday April 23, reminds us of the importance of printed words and the transformative power they have in our lives.

But, this industry has not remained anchored in the past and has also sought the how to adapt to new technologies and the digital world with the irruption of e-books, which allow you to enjoy reading in a very efficient way and with some advantages. But, the most book lovers continue to delight in the pleasure of turning the pages and its inimitable smell.

On this important day, squares, parks and different enclaves of the main cities of the country are wrapped in a very special atmosphere in which different activities are carried out. book fairs where discounts and promotions are offered, meetings with writers, gatherings, public readings of literary works or activities in libraries and bookstores are some of the events that can be enjoyed on this day.

Another of the most common actions on this day is to have a special detail with the people we love. Giving books and roses is a very typical tradition in Catalonia increasingly widespread throughout the rest of the country. And it is that, literature is a door to unknown worlds and a way of traveling in time and space without leaving home. And if there are two genres that do it especially well, they are the best sellers and historical novels.

In the first case, we find works that have conquered the hearts of millions of people around the world thanks to their ability to hook the reader from the first page. In the second we travel to the past and learn about history through fascinating characters and exciting plots.

If you want to give away any of these works, thenWe offer you several options:

Best sellers for Book Day 2023

1. The crystal cuckoo | Xavier Castillo.

Cora Merlo, a first-year resident doctor, suffers a sudden heart attack that forces her to have a heart transplant. Still convalescing, the young woman is visited by a strange woman with an enigmatic offer: to spend a few days in Steelville, a small inland town, to learn about the life of her son Charles, the donor of her heart.

Cora thus delves into a home full of secrets, into a mystery that spans twenty years and into a hermetic town where, just on the day of her arrival, a baby disappears in a public park.

2. Waiting for the deluge | Dolores Redondo

A savage serial killer. A search to the last beat. A city threatened by a deluge.

Between 1968 and 1969, the murderer the press would call Bible John killed three women in Glasgow. He was never identified and the case is still ongoing today.

3. Spy and traitor | Ben Macintyre

Ben Macintyre, a master of spy literature, manages to offer us a true image of the performance of the secret services during the Cold War.

This is the story, for the first time told in all its truth, of Oleg Gordievski, who became a senior officer in the Soviet KGB while also acting as an informant for British MI6: the man who, with his warnings to British governments, and the US managed to prevent an atomic holocaust from breaking out in 1985 and helped hasten the end of the Cold War.

4. In the shade | Prince Harry Duke of Sussex

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is a husband, father, philanthropist, army veteran, and mental health and environmental activist. He resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his family and three dogs.

It was one of the most heartbreaking images of the 20th century: two children, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world looks on with sorrow…and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales was laid to rest, billions of people wondered what these princes must be thinking and feeling and what direction their lives would take next.

5. How (not) I wrote our story | Elizabeth Benavent

Elsa Benavides is a successful writer with a creative crisis and an obsession: to kill the character that catapulted her to success. But the solution to her problems does not involve electrocuting Valentina with a cell phone in the bathtub. It is the tip of the iceberg of a deeper wound.

Determined to flee to embrace writing again, she runs into Darío, a musician recently arrived from Paris who is also her neighbor. She thus begins a new story in which Elsa is the protagonist. Will she be able to tell everything?

6. The Angel of the City | Eva Garcia Saenz de Urturi

In a Venice shrouded in mystery, Inspector Kraken faces the most complex crossroads of his life: solving the past or betting on the future.

7. Where everything shines | alice kellen

Nicki Aldrich and River Jackson have been inseparable since they came into the world within forty-seven minutes of each other. She did it covered in pixie dust. Him as if he were a flaming meteor. The small coastal town where they grew up became the setting for their bike rides, afternoons in the treehouse, and first loves, secrets, and doubts.

However, as the years go by, River dreams of escaping from that lost corner where everything revolves around traditional lobster fishing and Nicki longs to find her place in the world. But what happens when nothing goes as planned? Is it possible to choose two different paths and, despite everything, find yourself at the end of the journey?

8. La secta | Camilla Läckberg, Henrik Fexeus

Investigator Mina Dabiri and her colleagues from the Stockholm Police Homicide department are being put to the test again: a child has disappeared from a playground and the case shares many similarities with a previous kidnapping that ended tragically.

Two years after the dramatic events that brought their lives together, Mina will once again turn to mentalist Vincent Walder to resolve an investigation that, this time, will involve her in a very personal way.

9. Back home | Kate Morton

Christmas Eve 1959, Adelaide Heights, Australia. At the end of a hot day, outside the Turner family mansion, a delivery man makes a shocking discovery. A police investigation begins and the small town of Tambilla is rocked by one of the most baffling and heartbreaking murder cases in South Australian history.

Historical novels for World Book Day 2023

10. Castles of fire | Ignacio Martinez de Pison

Madrid, 1939-1945. Many struggle to get ahead in a city marked by hunger, penury and the black market. Like Eloy, a crippled young man who tries to save his imprisoned brother from death row; Alicia, a movie theater ticket saleswoman who loses her job for following her heart; Basilio, a university professor who is facing a purification process; the Falangist Matías, who traffics in confiscated objects, or Valentín, capable of any vileness in order to purge his previous militancy. Seamstresses, students, policemen: lives of ordinary people in extraordinary times.

fire castles It is a novel that contains more truth than many history books and that transmits the pulse of a time in which fear almost wiped out hope that naturally made its way through devastation. A time of reconstruction in which the war has ended only for a few but in which no one is safe, neither those who rose at the feet of the dictator nor those who fought to overthrow him.

11. In the name of the stone | Cristina Fantini

Milan, year 1385. The powerful lord of Milan, Count Gian Galeazzo Visconti, approves the project that the archbishop of the city proposes to him, to build a huge cathedral to replace the church of Santa Maria Maggiore and which will become a symbol of his greatness. To do this, Visconti surrounds himself with the best architects and builders, the only ones capable of carrying out such an ambitious work. Among this army of master builders, craftsmen and artists are Alberto and Pietro, the twins born from the clandestine love between the young Costanza Frisone and Marchetto, a builder’s apprentice. The children, separated at birth, will be reunited by a unique and unavoidable destiny: to contribute to one of the most impressive works in memory, raised at the cost of secrets, effort, suffering and love.

12. The night traveler | Armando Lucas Correa

From the best-selling author ‘The German Girl’ comes this moving novel in which four generations of women experience love, loss, war and hope in a story that spans from the rise of Nazism in Germany to the Cuban Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

13. When there’s no one left | Esther Lopez Barcelo

Ofelia has just lost her father and, after receiving the news, returns to her hometown. Once there, she not only finds herself with her childhood home, but also with a family past that she was unaware of. At her funeral, a mysterious Frenchman has appeared who turns out to know much more about her father than she ever did.

It will be then that Ofelia wonders who her parents really were, whom she always saw as a humble railway worker and a concierge of a stately building.

What you are about to discover could completely disrupt your perception of life, your family and the history of our country.

14. The Champagne Princess | Anette Fabiani

Reims, 1858. When Jeanne Pommery is unexpectedly widowed, her late husband’s rivals prepare to destroy his wine business. But she Jeanne decides to continue running the business on her own, despite knowing that she will have to fight to prevail in a world of ruthless men. She seeks the help of Barbe-Nicole Cliquot, who, after the death of her own husband, created a wine empire with just a handful of vineyards. Jeanne learns a lot from the old woman, who witnessed the French Revolution when she was a child and survived against all odds. Finally Jeanne manages to conquer the market with a new brand of brut champagne. But war and turmoil threaten to destroy her hard-earned success.

15. The shadow of the impostor | Alberto Caliani

Turin, 16th century. This is a story about corrupt men pursuing a noble end, and noble men committing atrocities.

It is also a tale of madness and superstition; of a relentless inquisitor and a young engineer ahead of his time; of a father and a son who hate and need each other; of an unscrupulous hustler who will discover that he is worth more than he himself thinks; of a teenager who runs from herself until she finds herself on the brink of death, and of a mysterious invisible killer who lurks in the shadows.