Surprisingly timely historical fiction

Inspired by a surprising find in a library, today’s featured story is from author Amanda Skenandore. She is an award winning historical fiction writer and a registered nurse. Her debut novel, Between Earth and Sky, was the winner of the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List for Best Historical Fiction Novel of the Year. Her latest novel The Second Life of Mirielle West is set one hundred years ago in America’s only leper colony. We talk about The Carville Leper Home and how the patients quarantined there long ago gave Amanda perspective on the current health crisis.  Her essential thing is evident in her storytelling, and her ideas about what historical fiction writers might be exploring a hundred years from now intrigued and surprised me.  She shared a great picture of herself at the Carville site doing book research in 2019.  Her narrator, Nicole Poole, is a classically trained actor with equal passions for literature and improvisation. She has toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been a member of the critically acclaimed Walter Thompson Orchestra for over fifteen years, and recently became a member of the Parisian groups SPOUMJ and Anitya. She is honored to have been recognized for her narration by an AudioFile Earphones Award, a Publisher’s Weekly Listen-Up Award, and nomination for an Audie Award. Thanks for listening!