Best Historical Fiction Books

“Dazzling . . . In this extremely creepy book, Hayder’s third, the diabolically gifted British author spins a fascinating mystery from the legacy of Japanese atrocities during World War II.”—Entertainment Weekly“A haunting, lyrical, disturbing, important, suspenseful,…

I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.In True History of…

Arguably Zane Grey's most popular novel and a forerunner of the western genre, Riders of the Purple Sage tells the story of a Mormon woman caught between the persecution of religious zealots and several "Gentile" gunmen seeking to lend her a helping hand.

Before the New York Times bestselling success of Defending Jacob, William Landay wrote this widely acclaimed second novel of crime and suspense, which was named a Favorite Crime Novel of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and several other newspapers. Boston, 1963.

?. . . I wonder how the book got to Guernsey Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.?January, 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book…

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind_x0097_she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales.

Beverly, Right Here opens with a decisive, kinetic moment—Beverly driving away—and then settles into a measured, character-focused account of what leaving looks like in practice. What works best is its patient attention to motive and small emotional shifts: the book rewards readers who like close observation of a single life. The main limitation is pace and repetition; long, reflective stretches and interior detail can feel slow or circuitous, so it’s best for readers who appreciate mood over plot.

In the last days of World War II, German forces are sent to occupy the Italian hill town, Santa Vittoria, and claim its great treasure: one million bottles of the Santa Vittoria wine that is its lifeblood.

"A stranger could drive through Miguel Street and just say 'Slum!' because he could see no more." But to its residents this derelict corner of Trinidad's capital is a complete world, where everybody is quite different from everybody else.

"An amazing achievement. . . A compulsively readable novel, so canny and weird and surfeited with the reality of human capacity and ingenuity that I am stymied for comparison.

Jeff Bussey walked briskly up the rutted wagon road toward Fort Leavenworth on his way to join the Union volunteers. It was 1861 in Linn County, Kansas, and Jeff was elated at the prospect of fighting for the North at last.In the Indian country south of Kansas there was dread in…

Intelligent and compassionate, this brilliant debut novel is "at once unique and universal" (Amy Tan). After witnessing the slaughter of her family and many of her people, a young Armenian woman emigrates to America, where she inadvertently infuses her only daughter with a…

Tien Pao and piglet he names "GloryoftheRepublic" after baby sister "BeautyoftheRepublic" drift free in storm downriver back to Japanese territory. Following tiny mountain trails back to parents, he meets American aviator. Guerillas sneak them free.

A stunning story of love, sexual obsession, treachery, and tragedy, about an artist and her most famous muse in Paris between the World Wars.Paris, 1927.

In these two delightful historymysteries, seven boys in Ancient Rome solve strange crimes . . . thanks to some help from their cranky teacher, a little bit of logic, and a lot of amusing misadventure.Yes, Rufus wrote CAIUS IS A DUMBBELL on his tablet at school, but no, he did…

Jack and Annie are ready for their next Fantasy, adventure in the bestselling middlegrade series_x0097_the Magic Tree House!

Queen Briseis has been stolen from her conquered homeland and given as a concubine to a foreign warrior. The warrior is Achilles: famed hero, loathed enemy, ruthless butcher, darkly troubled spirit.

Ranofer struggles to thwart the plottings of his evil brother, Gebu, so he can become master goldsmith like their father in this exciting tale of ancient Egyptian mystery and intrigue.

Brilliantly weaving impeccable historical research with stirring storytelling, Edward Rutherfurd explores our shared Celtic roots in a magnificent epic of Ireland spanning eleven centuries.

Denis Johnson's Train Dreams is an epic in miniature, one of his most evocative and poignant fictions. It is the story of Robert Grainier, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth centuryan ordinary man in extraordinary times.

First published in 2006, Jo Walton's Farthing was hailed as a masterpiece, a darkly romantic thriller set in an alternate postwar England sliding into fascism.Eight years after they overthrew Churchill and led Britain into a separate peace with Hitler, the uppercrust families of…

Alternately hilarious and heartwarming, this beloved comingofage novel from the Australian outback brings together unforgettable characters with clarity and truth, all told in a unique young woman's voice.

Set in the wilds near Cornwall's seatossed coastline, The House on the Strand concerns a young man's experiments with hallucinogenic drugs and his travels back and forth in time to the mysteries of 14th century England.

It's the summer of 1879, and Annie Fuller, a young San Francisco widow, is in trouble. Annie's husband squandered her fortune before committing suicide five years earlier, and one of his creditors is now threatening to take the boardinghouse she owns to pay off a debt.

Three special relationships are set against the backdrop of a glut on the 1987 Chinese garlic market, which causes the crumbling of many Paradise County livelihoods and a rebellion against corrupt Communist officials. By the author of Red Sorghum. 12,500 first printing.

Alice Payne returns in the thrilling sequel to Kate Heartfield's Alice Payne Arrives.After abducting Arthur of Brittany from his own time in 1203, thereby creating the mystery that partly prompted the visit in the first place, Alice and her team discover that they have…

New in PaperbackThis 1979 classic tells the darkly humorous story of I.C. Trumpelman, a man whose fancy determines the fate of others. Chosen as the head of a Judenrat, Trumpelman thrives on the power granted him and creates an authoritarian regime of his own within the ghetto.

A tormented and humiliated mixedrace Australian man reaches his breaking point and takes terrifying revenge on his abusers in this critically acclaimed novel based on actual events.In Australia at the turn of the twentieth century, Jimmie Blacksmith is desperate to figure out…

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocketsized gift editions of much loved classic titles.

There are few picture books written about the Civil War, and none are as powerful as this one. This story, about how a young black soldier rescues a white soldier, opens young readers' eyes to the injustices of slavery and the senselessness of war.

A 2019 Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner! It's been five years since the Sweep disappeared. Orphaned and alone, Nan Sparrow had no other choice but to work for a ruthless chimney sweep named Wilkie Crudd. She spends her days sweeping out chimneys.

Italy, 1943 ? Germany occupies much of the country, placing the Jewish population in grave danger during World War II. As children, Eva Rosselli and Angelo Bianco were raised like family but divided by circumstance and religion.

The Massacre of Glencoe happened at 5am on 13th February 1692 when thirtyeight members of the Macdonald clan were killed by soldiers who had enjoyed the clan's hospitality for the previous ten days. Many more died from exposure in the mountains.

Major Jack Novak has never failed to meet a challengeuntil he meets army nurse Lieutenant Ruth Doherty. When Jack lands in the army hospital after a plane crash, he makes winning Ruth's heart a top priority mission. But he has his work cut out for him.

Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a nowclassic novel about two women: Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age, and grayheaded Mrs. Threadgoode, who is telling her life story.

Into the FourStory Mistake, an oddlooking house with a confused architectural history, move the Melendy family Mona, Rush, Randy, Oliver, Father, and Cuffy, the housekeeper.

London is poised on the brink of World War II. Timid, scrawny Willie Beech the abused child of a single mother is evacuated to the English countryside. At first, he is terrified of everything, of the country sounds and sights, even of Mr.

This new edition of the epic Strumpet City marks the centenary of the 1913 Lockout. It has been chosen as Dublin City Libraries' One City, One Book for 2013.

A story about the fight for equal rights in America's favorite arena: the baseball field! Every boy in the neighborhood knows Katy Gordon is their best pitcher, even though she's a girl. But when she tries out for Little League, it's a whole different story.

The New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two elevenyearolds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours?

The Fated Sky continued the grand sweep of alternate history begun in The Calculating Stars. It is 1961, and the International Aerospace Coalition has established a colony on the moon.

A Midnight Clear reads like an intimate, small-cast war fable: spare, character-focused prose that keeps action minimal while squeezing tension from oddball interactions among six GIs isolated in a chateau on Christmas Eve. Main value lies in human detail—the idle rituals, dark humor, and fragile camaraderie that expose moral uncertainty and the absurdity of orders. Main limitation is pacing and repetition: readers seeking spectacle or steady plot momentum will find long passages of reflection and quiet scenes that slow the narrative.

From bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes an irresistible new novel. When Caroline Sears receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated. It is 1970 and there seems to be little that can be done.

A young lad awakens on an island, alone and brutally injured, with no memory of his past.Captain Declan Ross searched for riches that will free him and his headstrong daughter, Anne, from the piracy business forever . . .

Deep within the remote backlands of nineteenthcentury Brazil lies Canudos, home to all the damned of the earth: prostitutes, bandits, beggars, and every kind of outcast. It is a place where history and civilization have been wiped away.

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity.

It's November, 1922. In a valley in Egypt the tomb of a long dead pharaoh is about to be discovered. The world watches and waits for news with bated breath. Thirteenyearold Lilian Kaye, who lives in a flat above a shop in London, is eagerly following the story.

1814 promises to be another eventful season, but not, this author believes, for Anthony Bridgerton, London's most elusive bachelor, who has shown no indication that he plans to marry.And in truth, why should he When it comes to playing the consummate rake, nobody does it…

Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family, and the power of literature to bring us together, perfect for fans of The Lilac Girls and The Paris Wife.

A Newbery and Sibert Honor Book! A riveting and often chilling story of Germany's powerful Hitler Youth. A PB edition in an accessible new novelsized reformat for Scholastic Focus!In this Newbery Honor and Sibert Honor awardwinning book, Susan Campbell Bartoletti explores the…

Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master, the husband who commissioned her, dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York in…

Lisa Kleypas offers a sensual historical romance that opens with Phoebe, a young widow, and the prickly West Ravenel — a man from her past she expects to loathe. The center is a slow-burn of attraction against strict social rules, gossip, and the taint of old grievances; most of the pleasure is in the emotional push-pull and period details. Limitation: if you prefer restrained prose, modern relational realism, or subtle emotional restraint, the constant sexual tension and occasional melodrama may grate.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, an enthralling historical saga that recreates the danger, romance, and sacrifice of an era and brings to life one courageous, passionate AmericanMildred Fish Harnackand her circle of women friends who waged…

It is the nowclassic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each.

Can a former privateer and a determined heiress find lost treasure in 1725Pasts collide in New Orleans when a treasure goes missingOne hundred years after her mother's family came to the New World on the Mayflower, Maribel Cordova has landed in New Orleans to seek the man who…

Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.

In the vein of Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a mesmerizing debut set against the backdrop of the devastating violence of 1990's Colombia about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them bothThe Santiago…

Now an HBO Film!?If one had to identify the single most influential shaping force in modern Black literary history, one would probably have to point to Wright and the publication of Native Son.? ? Henry Louis Gates Jr.Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail.

Miss Pettigrew, an approachingmiddleage governess, was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn.

Soon to be a TV Series on AMC starring Pierce Brosnan and cowritten by Philipp Meyer.Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling epic, a saga of land, blood, and power that follows the rise of one unforgettable Texas family from the Comanche raids of…

Adventure! History! Pirate Diary reveals life on the high seas in the eighteenth century_x0097_through the eyes of a nineyearold boy.Curious about life on a pirate ship Climb aboard this account of adventure on the high seas as told by a feisty nineyearold carpenter's…

Take a journey through time and genres and discover a past where queer figures live, love and shape the world around them.

From Edward Rutherfurd, the grand master of the historical novel, comes a dazzling epic about the magnificent city of Paris. Moving back and forth in time, the story unfolds through intimate and thrilling tales of selfdiscovery, divided loyalty, and longkept secrets.

Nineteenthcentury American pioneer life was introduced to thousands of young readers by Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House books.