New Historical Fiction To Read in 2025

An immersive, sultry, heart-pounding historical reimagining of the Robin Hood ballads, told through the piercing eyes of one of his spies.

Set on Ireland’s west coast in the 1970s and 80s, a captivating debut novel about a baby boy who is discovered on the beach beside a small fishing town, as told by the locals who fall under the boy’s transfixing spell.

The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club pick.

A woman learns the astonishing truth of her family’s ties to a vanished American Kingdom in this riveting new novel from the New York Times bestselling, NAACP Image Award-winning author of Take My Hand. Inspired by true events, Happy Land is a transporting multi-generational novel about the stories that shape up and the dazzling courage it takes to dream.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel delivers an exciting and moving historical novel about a courageous wife and mother hiding in occupied France. In Far From Home, Danielle Steel captures the devastation of World War II with a sweeping story of family love that transcends impossible odds.

A prismatic, mind-bending epic about the splintering of a family into different worlds. The violence of war has fractured the universe for the Altermans, a Jewish family from Vienna. Moving across decades, and across the world, the novel finds the Altermans alone in their separate futures, haunted by the loss of their loved ones, each certain that they are the sole survivor of their family. Spellbinding and profound, Rooms for Vanishing is a singular work that explores how — amid profound loss and the madness of grief — ghosts are made momentarily real.

From Pulitzer finalist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and bestselling author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell: A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.

A sweeping historical novel in the vein of Hilary Mantel and Maggie O’Farrell set during the time of the Tudors’ ascent. The Pretender tells the story of Lambert Simnel, who was raised in obscurity as a peasant boy to protect his safety, believed to be the heir to the throne occupied by Richard III, and briefly crowned, at the age of ten, as King Edward VI, one of the last of the Plantagenets.

A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this breathtaking saga, an epic story of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam. Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

In this spellbinding historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and The House of the Spirits, a young writer journeys to South America to uncover the truth about her father — and herself.

From the New York Times bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones, an unforgettable story of hardship and hope, courage and resilience, that follows one young woman’s journey through war-torn Italy.

A thrilling reimagining of the world of Charles Dickens, as seen through the eyes of the infamous Jacob Fagin, London’s most gifted pickpocket, liar, and rogue. Colorfully written and wickedly funny, Allison Epstein breathes fresh life into the teeming streets of Dickensian London — reclaiming one of Victorian literature’s most notorious villains in an unforgettable new adventure.

Two sisters living on Martha’s Vineyard during World War II find hope in the power of storytelling when they start a wartime book club for women — a spectacular novel inspired by true events from the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls.

In this Civil War love story, inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, the wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she’s willing to risk for the life of a stranger, from the New York Times bestselling author of such acclaimed historical fiction as Hour of the Witch and The Sandcastle Girls.

1956, Malibu, California: With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats. Then one early morning Melanie spots Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that she doesn’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone? Something is not right on Paradise Circle …

Following the unlikely friendship of four women in the first female class at Oxford, their unshakeable bond in the face of male contempt, and in their coming of age in a world forever changed by World War I, a captivating debut about sisterhood, determination, and courage.

She found the literary voices that would inspire the world … The extraordinary story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance, written by Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian.

A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

Shiv Advani is an eighteen-year-old growing up in India. But he is no ordinary young man. Shiv has been personally chosen by Mahatma Gandhi to come to England, learn their laws, and then return home and help drive the British out of India. But as anyone who has ever lived in a British colony can tell you, “the English problem” is multifaceted. Soon the people Shiv sought to be liberated from will be the people he desperately wants to be a part of. Set against the backdrop of the Indian independence movement, with appearances by historical figures such as Virginia and Leonard Woolf and Mahatma Gandhi, The English Problem is so self-assured and ambitious, it is hard to believe it is a debut.