Ten Historical Fiction Novels to Add to Your Reading List
Whether you’re a seasoned reader of historical fiction or just looking to explore a new genre, these ten novels promise the compelling narratives and interesting characters that every reader desires. From the immigrant struggles of a German family coming to America at the turn of the 20th century, to four young men testing the bounds of friendship in rural Nebraska in the 1950’s, there’s something here to fit everyone’s taste. Take a closer look at these ten remarkable books and discover the stories waiting to be told.
The Italian Party by Christina Lynch
What would you do if you discovered the person you just married was not at all who you thought they were? That’s exactly the dilemma that American newlyweds Scottie and Michael face as they navigate an unfamiliar culture in a country on the other side of the world. It’s the height of the Cold War in the Italian town of Siena, and husband and wife have relocated thousands of miles to this Tuscan town to sell tractors to the locals, but they both soon find themselves embroiled in mystery and intrigue, some of which is of their own making.
All the Pretty Places by Joy Callaway
This “novel of the gilded age” centers around Sadie, whose father owns a landscape nursery, and who wants Sadie to find herself a wealthy suitor and get married. Sadie, however, has other plans – she wants to continue working in the family business, and someday take it over. To complicate matters further, Sadie’s former love Sam and her father’s former employee reemerges after leaving the business on bad terms. Together they become wrapped up in trying to help the less fortunate in town, as well as explore whether their love can be rekindled.
The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris
At Alcatraz Prison in 1937, a prison guard’s daughter goes missing, and convicted bank robber Tommy Capello knows the truth about her whereabouts. Two decades earlier in Ireland, Shanley Keagan ekes out a living as an aspiring vaudevillian in Dublin pubs while dreaming of leaving his dingy existence behind and finding his real father in America. The author weaves these two stories together as only she can, delivering a beloved novel about family and friendship , fate and second chances.
The Night Traveler by Armando Lucas Correa
From Berlin to Havana and back again, “The Night Traveler” follows the lives of four generations of women over five decades. From the rise of the Nazi power in the early 1930’s, to the Cuban Revolution in the fifties, and the fall of the Berlin in the 1980’s, the author crafts a heartbreaking narrative about motherly love and sacrifice in a world that can be cruel and unpredictable. It’s a rich historical family saga that will pull you in keep you wanting more.
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
From the same author who wrote “A Gentleman in Moscow”, this novel takes place in the 1950s and centers around Emmett Watson, a young man who has just been released from the work farm where he served a year for involuntary manslaughter. His plans to head west with his eight-year-old brother and start their lives fresh in a new city are derailed when two of his escaped work farm buddies show up with other ideas. What follows is a journey of love and friendship and discovery – and the closer you get to the end, the more you realize it’s just the sort of book you don’t ever want to finish.
Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood
This fictionalization of a true crime story will leave you heartbroken and questioning everything you ever knew or thought about the innocence of the 1950’s in America. When eleven-year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth’s in Nebraska, she’s abducted by 52 year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, who convinces Sally that he’s an FBI agent who can have her arrested if she doesn’t do what he says. What follows is a two-year abuse-filled hell that young Sally could never have imagined, as the two travel across the country.
Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner
Rosie is a 16-year-old girl who grew up on the California vineyard where her parents worked all her life, but when they are killed in an accident, she’s left all alone. The vineyard’s owners take her in, but when she ends up pregnant, she is banished and sent to a home for unwed mothers. Meanwhile, Helen, the sister of the vineyard owner has been living in Austria for years, and after the end of WWII she decides to move back to California. She’s shocked to discover what’s happened to Rosie, and sets out to find her and make things right. Get ready for lots of tears on this one!
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
This lovely novel jumps back and forth from the mid-80’s to the 1940’s, when Japanese-American families were sent to internment camps during World War II. Keiko Okabe was the daughter of one of these families, living in Seattle, and a schoolmate of Henry Lee, the Chinese American boy who she loved. In the “present day” of the 1980’s, Henry is a widower who’d been caring for his dying wife, but when the story returns to the war years of Henry’s youth, we’re immersed in a story of friendship and young love and heartbreak.
Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird
Dance marathons of the 1930’s are the backdrop for this wonderfully-crafted novel filled with unforgettable characters struggling to survive in the midst of the Great Depression. Evie Grace Devlin is one of those people for whom nothing ever seems to go right, and after being refused her well-deserved nursing pin, she ends up at a dance hall in Galveston, nursing marathon participants. “Last Dance on the Starlight Pier” is a story about friendship and perseverance and learning to make the best of bad situations, and the author gives us someone we can root for in Evie.
A Good American by Alex George
You can’t have a list of historical novels without at least one good immigrant story, and Alex George delivers with “A Good American”. The novel follows Frederick and Jette, a couple from Germany who come to America in 1904, settling in the town of Beatrice, Missouri. In this small town where they don’t speak a word of English, they learn to make their way despite all the challenges that being in a foreign country thousands of miles from home can bring. Frederick and Jette are just the beginning, though, in this family saga that spans generations and is truly a gem of a read.
