New Historical Fiction To Read This Year

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes “a sweeping tale about little known history” (People): The women pioneers who fought to protect children caught in the storm of land barons hungry for power and oil wealth.

A powerful, sweeping historical novel about a courageous woman in World War II Germany, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel. In Only the Brave, Steel vividly captures the devastating effects of war alongside beautiful moments of compassion and courage.

From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time. “Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf … you won’t regret it” (Arundhati Roy).

A young woman wins the role of a lifetime in a film about a legendary heroine — but the real drama is behind the scenes in this sumptuous historical epic from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

A propulsive, extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters’ harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China, by debut author Eve J. Chung, based on her family story.

“An enthralling tale of a secret resistance movement run by Black women in pre-Civil War New Orleans” (Time). The American Daughters is a novel of hope and triumph that reminds us what is possible when a community bands together to fight for their freedom.

A “sweeping” (Entertainment Weekly) novel of America’s forgotten leading lady, the central figure of a movement that defined a nation — from the New York Times bestselling author of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post.

From the bestselling historical novelist, a rich, transporting story that follows a family of glassmakers from the height of Renaissance-era Italy to the present day. Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is as inventive as it is spellbinding: A mesmerizing portrait of a woman, a family, and a city as everlasting as their glass.

Olga Tokarczuk’s latest masterwork, set in a sanitarium on the eve of World War I, probes the horrors that lie beneath our most hallowed ideas.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

Lady Jennifer Arden and Ben Ellis know that a match between them is out of the question. Yet their hearts yearn for the impossible. Discover a new heartwarming story from New York Times bestselling author and beloved “queen of Regency romance” Mary Balogh.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Boy Erased, an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the love story between two men in Puritan New England.

A bold, feminist debut novel, reimagining Mary, Queen of Scots’s darkest hour, when she was held hostage in a remote Scottish castle with a handful of loyal women while plotting a daring escape to reclaim her country and her freedom.

An endless war. A blood-soaked battlefield. A band of brothers. The epic sequel to Essex Dogs, continuing the New York Times bestselling historian’s trilogy of novels following the fortunes of ten ordinary soldiers during the Hundred Years War.

A young Southern woman sets out of a journey of self-discovery as the infamous 1925 Scopes Trial tests her faith and her marriage in this moving novel from the author of Time After Time and The Irresistible Henry House.

A stunning collection of interconnected stories set in New England, exploring how the past is often misunderstood and how history, family, heartache, and desire can echo over centuries.

How far would you go? How much would you risk? Poignant and lyrical, A Wild and Heavenly Place is an ode to the Pacific Northwest, to those courageous enough to chase the American Dream, and to a love so powerful it endures beyond distance, beyond hope.

Rich with unforgettable characters, gorgeously drawn, and full of captivating historical drama, Eleanore of Avignon is the story of a healer who risks her life, her freedom, and everything she holds dear to protect her beloved city from the encroaching Black Death.

Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: Six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.

“A dark and heady dream of a book” (Alix E. Harrow) about a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years previous.

A housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia — “a gripping novel about standing up to impossible odds” (People, Best New Books).

In this ingenious, sweeping novel, Phillip B. Williams introduces us to an enigmatic woman named Saint, a fearsome conjurer who, in the 1830s, annihilates plantations all over Arkansas to rescue the people enslaved there. She brings those she has freed to a haven of her own creation: A town just north of St. Louis, magically concealed from outsiders, named Ours. From a writer of singular voice and vision, a mesmerizing epic that reimagines the past to explore the true nature of freedom.

An absorbing, exceptionally moving novel that traces the arc of a man’s life, an ordinary life made exceptional by the fact that he has loved and has been loved in turn. Piercing, fleet-flooted, and undeniably resonant, here is a novel from a singularly gifted writer about how we tell stories and write history, how individuals play a counterpoint to big movements, how no single life is without consequence.

When a rich Black debutante enlists the help of a low-level speakeasy manager to identify the head of an underground crime syndicate, the two are thrust into the dangerous world of Prohibition-era Chicago.