Linda is an accomplished author and lecturer, in both Young Adult and adult fiction. She served on the 2003 jury for the Governor-General's Literary Award and has twice been chosen finalist for the CBC Literary Awards.

Linda is the award winning author of several Young Adult novels, and is an internationally best selling author of adult historical fiction. She is currently working on her fourth novel, set in Morrocco in the 1930's. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

In A Far Country (2008)
Told in first person, narrated by Pree, in India (1850's). Pree is raised in a Christian hospital mission that is run by the Reverand and Mrs. Fincastle, English missionaries who are a bit eccentric.
Also at the mission is half-native Indian, Agnes and her son, Kai, and assorted other types (it's a bit ragtag, as no one -- not the British and not the natives -- is really that interested in the mission). Kai is a few years older than Pree and they are childhood friends. It is dramatically discovered that Agnes and Rev Fincastle are having an affair (Mrs Fincastle has a few idiosyncrasies, to put it mildly), and it is then revealed that Agnes and Rev F are half brother and sister, (the same father, an Englishman, who was in India years before) and that Kai is their child. This stress of this revelation leads to Rev F's death which provokes the already half mad Mrs F to practise "sati" (burning alive of a widow in rural Indian custom), and Kai to run away, leaving Pree and Agnes to live in the mission as outcasts, as the village learns of what transpired, and keeps their distance.

Rights Sold
United Kingdom & Commonwealth - Headline; German - Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag GmbH; Dutch - Unieboek NV; Polish - Swiat Ksiazki Sp. z.o.o.

The Moonlit Cage (2005)
Set in 1850s Afghanistan, and moving from there to India and London, Linda Holeman's second novel is an epic story of one woman's escape from persecution, and search for a better life. Darya is the beautiful, passionate fugitive escaping a vicious husband and the wrath of her remote Afghani village. When she stumbles across a mysterious young stranger in the mountains whilst escaping from her husband she is captivated - and falls in love. But David, the young man she meets, is not perhaps the answer she seeks for David's story began long ago, and both he and Darya will have to overcome many obstacles in their search for happiness.

Rights Sold
Headline Books, UK and Commonwealth; Bertelsmann, Germany; Plon, France; Uniboek, Netherlands; Crown Publishers, U.S.

"Holeman's talent is evident in her attention to detail and mood. THE MOONLIT CAGE is a well-paced, creative and addictive novel, with enough substance and depth to engage the cynic and the romantic alike."
-Winnipeg Free Press

"This sweeping 1850s saga... contains most of the elements necessary to provoke thoughtful discussion: suspense, intrigue, passion, lust and extreme hate peppered with violence, combined with exotic travel and the beauty and grime of several different cultures, makes this a compelling and exciting read....This is definitely a book you want to talk about."
- Globe & Mail, Canada

"Holeman explores the fate of a willful Muslim girl in this exotic and expansive coming-of-age historical tale...fans will appreciate the vivid rendering of tribal life and the sobering look at what it means to live where it's believed "men are created to enjoy; women to give enjoyment to them."
- Publisher's Weekly, USA

"...we were absorbed by main character Darya's timeless (and placeless) struggle for independence as much as we were captivated by its descriptions of the lush landscape and diverse cultures...But, perhaps most important, our heroine must find herself before she discovers true love, and for that, Holeman had us holding our breath until the very end."
- Marie Claire Magazine, USA

"It is a thought-provoking book and gives an insight to the different cultures and the way women are perceived and treated so lots to discuss in reading groups. Overall this is an excellent, well-written, moving novel that I would recommend to anyone."
- New Books Magazine, UK

"A marvellous evocation of the times, this is absolutely absorbing."
- Woman's Day, Australia

"...another sweeping saga (from Holeman) full of wickedly courageous women, singing Rumi and cutting open pomegranates and reliving exotic memories..."
- The Telegraph, Calcutta, India

"Breaking free from the golden cage...the tale of a young girl coping with life in a traditional milieu is engrossing as well as brutal."
- Deccan Herald, India

"The Moonlit Cage is...richly textured, magnificently written and filled with imaginative characters."
- Book Review South Africa

The Linnet Bird (2004)
In a departure from YA, Linda’s latest work, The Linnet Bird is a dramatic work of adult historical fiction, an impossible-to-put-down story of one woman’s re-invention, set in the underworld of 19th century Liverpool and the rigid society of Colonial India.

Although a Canadian, Linda has long had a fascination with the lives of British women in the 19th century. While researching this book, she delved deeper and deeper into the complicated world the British “memsahibs” were forced to live in during the time of British rule in India. “There are layers and layers of duplicity and snobbery, of heartbreak and hope within the societal enclaves the British women made for themselves amidst the beauty and squalor of this new home. There were women who embraced the differences they found, and those who tried to pretend these differences did not exist by hiding behind a false “little England” that they carved out of the chaotic and mysterious background of India. I personally find a deep sense of wonder and admiration for the women who found a way to survive within these challenges.”

Rights Sold
UK and Commonwealth, including Canada - Headline Books; U.S. - Crown Publishers;
Netherlands - Uniboek BV; Germany - Club Premiere Bertelsmann & Goldmann Publishers; France - Librairie Plon SA & France Loisirs Book Club & J'ai Lu Publishers; Spain - Random House Mondadori; Poland - Bertelsmann; Portugal - Bertrand Editora & Circulo Leitores; Norway - Damm Publishers; Greece - Oceanida Publishers; Serbia - Magnet Publishing; Russia - Hemiro Limited; Denmark - Borgens Forlag; Sweden - Richters Forlag;