Skip to main content
W
Wright Memorial Public Library
All Lists
Genre Guides
Best Historical Fiction Books of all Time
Unpublished
Share
Pan MacMillan selected their
50 Best Historical Books of all Time
.
Updated August 8, 2023
C
Cabarrus County Public Library
A list cannot be published until it has at least four items.
List was unpublished.
List was published.
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
The house of fortune : a novel
Burton, Jessie
Paper Book
Alive with the magic of Amsterdam, the enchanting new historical novel from the author of the sensational New York Times bestseller The Miniaturist, which has sold more than two million copies. In 1705 Amsterdam, Thea Brandt is coming of age, trying to grapple...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Sin eater : a novel
Campisi, Megan
Audiobook
"For fans of The Handmaid's Tale...a debut novel with a dark setting and an unforgettable heroine...is a riveting depiction of hard-won female empowerment" (The Washington Post). The Sin Eater walks among us, unseen, unheard Sins of our flesh become sins...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The water dancer : a novel
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * From the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom. "This potent book about America's...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Trust
Di?az, Herna?n
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE "Buzzy and...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The red tent
Diamant, Anita.
Paper Book
Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Haven
Donoghue, Emma
Paper Book
In this beautiful story of adventure and survival from the New York Times bestselling author of Room, three men vow to leave the world behind them as they set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them. In seventh...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The wonder a novel
Donoghue, Emma
Paper Book
Now a Netflix film starring Florence Pugh: In this "old-school page turner" (Stephen King, New York Times Book Review) by the bestselling author of Room, an English nurse is brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle--a girl said to have survived...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The evening and the morning
Follett, Ken
Paper Book
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, a thrilling and addictive new novel--a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth--set in England at the dawn of a new era: the Middle Ages It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The pillars of the earth
Follett, Ken
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Bestseller Oprah's Book Club Selection The "extraordinary . . . monumental masterpiece" (Booklist) that changed the course of Ken Follett's already phenomenal career--and begins where its prequel, The Evening and the Morning<...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Ross Poldark : a novel of Cornwall, 1783-1787
Graham, Winston
Paper Book
As Seen on Masterpiece(tm) on PBS®: Book 1 of the beloved Poldark series In the first novel in Winston Graham's hit series, a weary Ross Poldark returns to England from war, looking forward to a joyful homecoming with his beloved Elizabeth. But instead he discovers his father has died, his...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The most precious of cargoes : a tale
Grumberg, Jean-Claude
Ebook
Set during the height of World War II, a powerful and unsettling tale about a woodcutter and his wife, who finds a mysterious parcel thrown from a passing train.Once upon a time in an enormous forest lived a woodcutter and his wife. The woodcutter is very poor and a war rages around...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The four winds
Hannah, Kristin
Paper Book
"The Bestselling Hardcover Novel of the Year."--Publishers Weekly From the number-one bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes a powerful American epic about love and heroism and hope, set during the Great Depression, a time when the...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The nightingale
Hannah, Kristin.
Paper Book
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France . . . but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The mercies : a novel
Hargrave, Kiran Millwood
Paper Book
After the men in an Arctic Norwegian town are wiped out, the women must survive a sinister threat in this "perfectly told" 1600s parable of "a world gone mad" (Adriana Trigiani). Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Stone blind : a novel
Haynes, Natalie
Paper Book
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023 "Haynes is master of her trade . . . She succeeds in breathing warm life into some of our oldest stories."--Telegraph (UK) The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
A thousand ships : a novel
Haynes, Natalie
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER An NPR Best Book of the Year "Gorgeous.... With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War."--Madeline Miller, author of Circe Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The Children of Jocasta
Haynes, Natalie.
Ebook
"[A] dark, elegant novel" of two women in ancient Greece, based on the great tragedies of Sophocles (Publishers Weekly).Thebes is a city in mourning, still reeling from a devastating plague that invaded every home and left the survivors devastated and fearful. This is the Thebes...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The attic child : a novel
Jaye, Lola
Paper Book
A hauntingly powerful and emotionally charged novel about family secrets, love and loss, identity and belonging. Two children trapped in the same attic, almost a century apart, bound by a shared secret. Early 1900s London: Taken from his homeland, twelve-year-old...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Dead man's walk : a novel
McMurtry, Larry.
Paper Book
In Dead Man's Walk, the prequel to the bestselling books, Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo, McMurtry dazzles readers once more with the early adventures of two of the most memorable heroes in contemporary fiction--Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call. National ads/media.
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Beloved : a novel
Morrison, Toni.
Paper Book
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Toni Morrison's Beloved is a spellbinding and dazzlingly innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past. One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio,...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Homecoming : a novel
Morton, Kate
Paper Book
The highly anticipated new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Clockmaker's Daughter, a sweeping novel that begins with a shocking crime, the effects of which echo across continents and generations Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
She who became the sun
Parker-Chan, Shelley
Paper Book
Two-time British Fantasy Award Winner Astounding Award Winner Lambda Literary Award Finalist Hugo Award Finalist Locus Award Finalist A Dragon Award Finalist Otherwise Award Finalist "Magnificent in every...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Mrs. Porter calling : a novel
Pearce, A. J.
Ebook
From the author of the bestselling "jaunty, heartbreaking winner" (People) Dear Mrs. Bird, a charming and irresistible novel featuring aspiring journalist Emmy Lake as she navigates life, love, and friendship in London during World War II--perfect for fans of The Paris Library<...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Yours cheerfully : a novel
Pearce, A. J.
Paper Book
From the author of the "jaunty, heartbreaking winner" (People) and international bestseller Dear Mrs. Bird comes a charming and uplifting novel set in London during World War II about a plucky young journalist and her adventures as wartime advice columnist. ...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The land beyond the sea
Penman, Sharon Kay
Ebook
From the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Sharon Kay Penman comes the story of the reign of King Baldwin IV and the Kingdom of Jerusalem's defense against Saladin's famous army. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as Outremer, is the land far beyond...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The librarian of Auschwitz
Rubio, Salva
Paper Book
Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this graphic novel tells the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust. Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Tombland
Sansom, C. J.
Paper Book
During the political upheaval of Tudor-era England, the lawyer Matthew Shardlake must decide where his loyalties lie in "one of the best ongoing mystery series" for fans of Hilary Mantel (Christian Science Monitor). LONGLISTED FOR THE SIR...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The lamplighters
Stonex, Emma
Ebook
"Transported me effortlessly...Haunting, harrowing and heartbreaking, this is a novel that will stay with you." --Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push "A ghost story and fantastically gripping psychological investigation rolled into one. It...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The nickel boys : a novel
Whitehead, Colson
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. * "One of the most gifted novelists...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or
log in here.