The Buzz...About Books

Alternative history is a genre where the author speculates about how the course of history would have changed if there had been a different outcome to a historical event. 

These books have been winners or nominees of The Sidewise Award for Alternative History.

The Cassandra Project by Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick
• eBook
Lots of conspiracies exist about the moon landing but what if Apollo 11 was not the first human-staffed landing? Why would the US government conspire to keep a secret that big?

The Darkest Hour by Tony Schumacher
• eBook
• Talking Book (Restricted to Print Disabled patrons)
In this book, the British have been defeated in World War II and Nazis have occupied Great Britain. John Henry Rossett is a former police investigator who finds himself working for the SS. His job is to round up Jews for deportation. When he stumbles upon a Jewish orphan in hiding, he has a crisis of conscience. Instead of turning the boy in, he takes the child and runs -- pursued by Nazis and the Nazi resistance. Who, if anyone, can Rossett trust?

Dominion by C.J. Sansom
• eBook
Set in 1952, 12 years after a British peace treaty with Germany, the population is divided into two factions -- collaborators and resistors. Although Britain is not occupied, Germany exerts power over everything in society. Civil servant David Fitzgerald, secretly Jewish, is a spy for the resistance. He is given the assignment of helping a scientist with a powerful secret escape from the mental hospital where he is imprisoned.

Farthing by Jo Walton
• eBook
It is 1949, eight years after Britain negotiated a peace treaty with Germany. A weekend in the country with society's elite turns bad when one of the guests, who had brokered the peace treaty, is murdered. A Star of David pinned on the body leads investigators to suspect the only Jewish guest at the party -- who is married to the hosts' daughter. The first book in the Small Change Trilogy.

Joe Steele by Harry Turtledove
• eAudiobook
• eBook
What if Joseph Stalin's parents had emigrated to the United States before he was born? What impact would that have on history? Following The Great Depression, "Joe Steele" emerges on the US political scene. There are two candidates for the Democratic presidential nominee -- Frankin Delano Roosevelt and Joe Steele. After a mysterious house fire claims the life of FDR, Steele runs and is elected President. As Steele introduces more government control, his opponents are forced into work camps. The events are told from the perspective of two brothers, one a Steele aide and the other a journalist.

V-S Day: A Novel of Alternative History by Allen Steel
• eBook
What if the race for space was not between the United States and Russia but between the US and Germany? In 1941, Nazi scientists are developing a rocket in order to attack New York and keep the United States from entering the war. When the American government learns of the plan, it sparks a race for new powerful weapons.

The Windsor Faction by DJ Taylor
What if Wallis Simpson had died before Edward's abdication? Edward remains on the throne during the Phoney War of 1939 and fearing the agony of the first war will be repeated, he decides to actively engage the Germans in peace talks.

The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
A detective story set in Sitka, Alaska, a city which was used as a refugee settlement for European Jews fleeing World War II Europe. Now 60 years later, the refugees have created their own Yiddish speaking community in the north but Sitka was only meant to be a temporary settlement and its days are numbered. Homicide detective Meyer Landsman doesn't worry too much about the upcoming reversion. He has his hands full with the murder of his neighbour, a chess prodigy.