Historical Fiction Books

Historical fiction is a genre in which a fictional story takes place in a past setting. There are three main components that make up historical fiction:

A new imagining of the past set in a real place in time.
A mix of actual events and ones from the author’s imagination as they fill in the gaps.
Characters that are of pure fiction of based on real people (or both).

In historical fiction books, the time period plays an important part in telling the story during which it is set. You can see how big a role setting plays in historical fiction in books like Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend or Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet.

And not all historical fiction has to take place centuries ago. Historical fiction books like The River We Remember takes place in 1958 and Daisy Jones & The Six takes place in the 1970s. Yet these books, like those that stretch back to Elizabethan England are meticulously researched and have the power to transport you to another place and time. Historical fiction comes in all genres, from historical romance and thrillers to mystery, fantasy and more!

Revisit the myth of Perseus in the feminist retelling, The Shadow of Perseus, or explore a story inspired by true events like Lady Tan’s Circle of Women or The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Explore the Tichborne Trials through the lens of Zadie Smith’s The Fraud or let Victor LaValle take you to a horrifying homestead in Lone Women.

You can also explore works from favorite historical fiction authors like Ken Follett, Hilary Mantel, Diana Gabaldon and more.

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