This month we’ve picked three books from Marie’s list of favorites in which a minor character becomes the focus of the story.

The Red Tent~Anita Diamant
“The story of Dinah, a tragic character from the Bible whose great love, a prince, is killed by her brother, leaving her alone and pregnant. The novel traces her life from childhood to death, in the process examining sexual and religious practices of the day, and what it meant to be a woman.”

The Other Boleyn Girl~Phillipa Gregory
“Before Henry VIII ever considered making Anne Boleyn his wife, her older sister, Mary, was his mistress. Historical novelist Gregory (Virgin Earth) uses the perspective of this “other Boleyn girl” to reveal the rivalries and intrigues swirling through England.”

March~Geraldine Brooks
“In Brooks’s well-researched interpretation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Mr. March also remains a shadowy figure for the girls who wait patiently for his letters. They keep a stiff upper lip, answering his stiff, evasive, flowery letters with cheering accounts of the plays they perform and the charity they provide, hiding their own civilian privations. Readers, however, are treated to the real March, based loosely upon the character of Alcott’s own father.”