Today in History (August 24)

1847 Charlotte Brontë sends the manuscript of her novel "Jane Eyre" to publisher Smith, Elder and Co., in London under her pen name "Currer Bell" (UK)

It is a bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.

2021 The Women of Troy by Pat Barker published (UK)

Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles's slave, now belonging to his companion Alcimus, quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can, with Priam's aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.

2021 The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

It explores the history of an African-American family in the American South, from the time before the American Civil War and slavery, through the Civil Rights Movement, to the present.

• Winner of The National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
• Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
• Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction
• Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction
• Nominee for the NAACP Image Award

2023 What I Know About You by Éric Chacour is published

A heartbreaking tale of a family and an impossible love, torn apart by secrets and traditions in late-twentieth-century Cairo.

• Longlisted for Canada Reads 2025
• Shortlisted for The 2024 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Prize
• Shortlisted for The 2024 Giller Prize
• Shortlisted for The 2024 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers

2023 Lazy City by Rachel Connolly is published

Following the death of her best friend, Erin has to get out of London. Returning home to Belfast, an au pair job provides a partial refuge from her grief and her volatile relationship with her mother.