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Historical Fiction
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New and recommended historical fiction titles.
Updated February 8, 2024
RPL Staff
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Every rising sun
Ahmed, Jamila
Paper Book
Before she was the legendary Persian queen who spun a thousand tales, Shaherazade was a girl who saw something she shouldn't have.She told the king.She thought she was doing what was right.She couldn't have imagined what was to come.The Seljuk Empire is on fire and...
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The wind knows my name : a novel
Allende, Isabel
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * "The lives of a Jewish boy escaping Nazi-occupied Europe and a mother and daughter fleeing twenty-first-century El Salvador intersect in this ambitious, intricate novel about war and immigration" (People), from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea and...
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Shrines of gaiety
Atkinson, Kate
Paper Book
'Atkinson on her finest form. A marvel of plate-spinning narrative knowhow, a peak performance of consummate control.' OBSERVER 'This is the perfect novel for uncertain times.' THE TIMES 'I can think of few writers other than Dickens...
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The house is on fire
Beanland, Rachel
Paper Book
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The first ladies
Benedict, Marie
Paper Book
The InstantNew York TimesBestseller! A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune-an unlikely friendship that changed the world, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the Good...
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Hour of the witch a novel
Bohjalian, Chris
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * From the acclaimed author of The Flight Attendant: "Historical fiction at its best.... The book is a thriller in structure, and a real page-turner, the ending both unexpected and satisfying" (Diana Gabaldon, bestselling author of the...
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The porcelain moon : a novel of France, the Great War, and forbidden love
Chang, Janie
Paper Book
From the critically acclaimed author of The Library of Legends comes a vividly rendered novel set in WWI France about two young women--one Chinese, one French--whose lives intersect with unexpected, potentially dangerous consequences. "East meets West in World War I...
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The secret lives of country gentlemen
Charles, KJ
Paper Book
Abandoned by his father, Gareth Inglis grew up lonely, prickly, and well-used to disappointment. Still, he longs for a connection. When he meets a charming stranger, he falls head over heels-until everything goes wrong and he's left alone again. Then Gareth's father dies, turning the shabby London...
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Our last days in Barcelona
Cleeton, Chanel
Paper Book
Barcelona, 1964. Following their exile from Cuba after the revolution, Isabel Perez goes to Spain in search of her sister Beatriz who's disappeared in Barcelona. Barcelona, 1936. Alicia Perez weathers the unrest brewing in Spain with her daughter Isabel after a difficult voyage from their home in...
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The spectacular : a novel
Davis, Fiona
Paper Book
New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion is over the moon to have been selected to be one of the Rockettes, Radio City Music Hall's glamorous precision dancing troupe. It's an honour to perform in the world's most spectacular theatre, an art deco masterpiece. But with four shows a day as well...
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Beyond the door of no return
Diop, David
Paper Book
From the author of the International Booker Prize-winning At Night All Blood is Black: a moving and immersive adventure story set in eighteenth century SenegalParis, 1806. Michel Adanson is dying. The last word to escape his lips is a woman's name: Maram. Who was she? Why, in the...
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Learned by heart
Donoghue, Emma
Paper Book
"A wrenching love story" (Chris Bohjalian, The Washington Post) based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply, and dangerously in love at boarding school in 19th century York, from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder. Drawing on years of...
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Woman of light : a novel
Fajardo-Anstine, Kali
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A "dazzling, cinematic, intimate, lyrical" (Roxane Gay) epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina ...
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Booth
Fowler, Karen Joy
Paper Book
A major new novel from million-copy bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
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The heiress : the revelations of Anne de Bourgh
Greeley, Molly
Paper Book
"Greeley's storytelling is intricate, masterly, and delightfully imaginative. Highly recommended."--Library Journal (starred review) In this gorgeously written and spellbinding historical novel based on Pride and Prejudice, the author of The Clergyman's Wife combines the knowing eye...
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Tidelands
Gregory, Philippa
Paper Book
This New York Times bestseller from "one of the great storytellers of our time" (San Francisco Book Review) turns from the glamour of the royal courts to tell the story of an ordinary woman, Alinor, living in a dangerous time for a woman to be different. A...
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The vaster wilds
Groff, Lauren
Paper Book
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Exhilarating' GUARDIAN 'Her writing has a timeless quality' THE TIMES '[Has] a visionary quality' OBSERVER A profound and explosive novel about a spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to survive
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Hula : A Novel
Hakes, Jasmin Iolani
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Summer by Harper's Bazaar and ELLE * Audiofile Magazine Earphones Award Winner * HONOLULU Magazine's Book of the Year About Hawai`i "Stunning . . . An intricately built novel that spans decades, moving in and out of a collective voice, while...
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This other Eden : a novel
Harding, Paul
Paper Book
In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. Over a century later, the Honeys' descendants and a diverse group of neighbors are desperately poor, isolated, and often hungry, but nevertheless protected from the...
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The Paris daughter
Harmel, Kristin
Paper Book
Instant New York Times bestseller! From the bestselling author of the "heart-stopping tale of survival and heroism" (People) The Book of Lost Names comes a gripping historical novel about two mothers who must make unthinkable choices in the face of the...
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Weyward
Hart, Emilia
Paper Book
*As seen on BBC's BETWEEN THE COVERS * A #2 Times bestseller * A New York Times bestseller OVER 500,000 COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE PRE-ORDER EMILIA HART'S STUNNING NEW BOOK THE SIRENS NOW
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The world and all that it holds
Hemon, Aleksandar
Paper Book
As the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in Sarajevo one June day in 1914, Rafael Pinto is busy crushing herbs and grinding tablets behind the counter at the pharmacy he inherited from his father. It's not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna, but...
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A lady's guide to fortune-hunting
Irwin, Sophie
Paper Book
Kitty Talbot needs a fortune. Or rather, she needs a husband who has a fortune. Left with her father's massive debts, she has only twelve weeks to save her family from ruin.
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Loot
James, Tania
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION * A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero's quest, a love story, the story of a young artist coming of age, and an exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and...
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The love songs of W.E.B. Du Bois : a novel
Jeffers, HonoreÌe Fanonne
Ebook
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Yellow wife : a novel
Johnson, Sadeqa
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and Christian Science Monitor "A fully immersive, intricately crafted story inspired by the pages of history. In Pheby, Sadeqa Johnson has created a woman whose struggle to survive and to protect the ones she loves will have readers turning...
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The prophets : a novel
Jones, Robert, Jr.
Paper Book
Best Book of the Year NPR * The Washington Post * Boston Globe * TIME * USA Today * Entertainment Weekly * Real Simple * Parade * Buzzfeed * Electric Literature * LitHub * BookRiot * PopSugar * Goop * Library Journal * BookBub...
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The vanished days
Kearsley, Susanna
Paper Book
"I've loved every one of Susanna's books! Bedrock research and a butterfly's delicate touch with characters--historical fiction that sucks you in and won't let go!" --Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander From international bestselling author Susanna Kearsley...
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No one prayed over their graves
Khalīfah, Khālid
Paper Book
A sweeping tale of life and death, set in the Syrian capital at the turn of the twentieth century.
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The river we remember : a novel
Krueger, William Kent
Paper Book
AN EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by a shocking murder, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling novel, an instant New York Times bestseller and "a work of art" (The Denver Post). On Memorial Day...
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The keeper of hidden books
Martin, Madeline
Paper Book
A heartwarming story about the power of books to bring us together, inspired by the true story of the underground library in WWII Warsaw, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop In London. " All her life, Zofia has found comfort in two things: books and...
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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
McBride, James
Paper Book
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the...
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Our hideous progeny
McGill, C. E.
Paper Book
'Compelling and utterly absorbing... an artfully crafted debut' SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN, author of PANDORA 'A gripping Gothic tale of grief and ambition, passion and intrigue' JESS KIDD, author of THE NIGHT SHIP 'A wonderful book; dark, passionate, multi-layered' JOANNE...
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Alchemy of a blackbird : a novel
McMillan, Claire
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of 2023 by Book Riot For fans of The Age of Light and Z comes a "beguiling novel of artistic ambition, perseverance, and friendship" (Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author) based on the true story of the 20th-century...
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Death and the conjuror
Mead, Tom
CD
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Velvet was the night
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia
Paper Book
1970s Mexico City: while student protests and political unrest consume the city, Maite seeks escape from her humdrum life in the stories of passion and danger filling the latest issue of Secret Romance. She is deeply envious of her neighbour, a beautiful art student apparently living the life...
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The ship of brides
Moyes, Jojo
Paper Book
Sydney, Australia, 1946. Four women join 650 other war brides on a voyage to England aboard HMS Victoria, which still carries arms, aircraft, and a thousand naval officers. Rules are strictly enforced, from the captain down to the lowliest young deckhand. But the men and the brides will find their...
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Dust child
Nguyễn, Phan Quế Mai
Paper Book
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My father's house
O'Connor, Joseph
Paper Book
September 1943- German forces occupy Rome. SS officer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. The war's outcome is far from certain. An Irish priest, Hugh O'Flaherty, dedicates himself to helping those escaping from the Nazis. His home is Vatican City, the world's smallest state, a neutral,...
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Hamnet
O'Farrell, Maggie
Paper Book
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A history of burning : a novel
Oza, Janika
Paper Book
FOUR GENERATIONS. THREE SISTERS. ONE DIVIDED NATION. 'A remarkable debut . . . haunting, symphonic' New York Times Pirbhai is only thirteen when he is taken across the sea to East Africa on a vague promise of work. He grows up fast, and...
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Did you hear about Kitty Karr? : a novel
Paul, Crystal Smith
Paper Book
REESE'S BOOK CLUB MAY 2023 PICK BOOK OF THE MONTH MAY 2023 PICK A multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen,...
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The London Seance Society
Penner, Sarah
Paper Book
Amid the shrouded parlors of Victorian London, two daring women hunt for truth and justice in the perilous art of conjuring the dead. 1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D...
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The diamond eye a novel
Quinn, Kate
Paper Book
Don't miss the thrilling new novel from Kate Quinn, The Briar Club, coming July 9th! New York Times Bestseller The bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history's deadliest female sniper. Based...
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The last rose of Shanghai
Randel, Weina Dai
Paper Book
In Japanese-occupied Shanghai, two people from different cultures are drawn together by fate and the freedom of music... 1940. Aiyi Shao is a young heiress and the owner of a formerly popular and glamorous Shanghai nightclub. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out...
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Go as a river
Read, Shelley
Paper Book
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After Sappho
Schwartz, Selby Wynn
Paper Book
What did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got by just being born. It's 1895. Amid laundry and bruises, Rina Pierangeli Faccio gives birth to the child of the man who raped her-the man she has been forced to marry. Unbroken, she determines to change...
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Loyalty
Scottoline, Lisa
Paper Book
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The queer principles of Kit Webb : a novel
Sebastian, Cat
Ebook
"The Queer Principles of Kit Webb kept me up all night! I simply couldn't put it down."-- Tessa Dare, New York Times bestselling author "Sharp, smart, and oh-so-swoony, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb reminds me that Cat Sebastian is an author at the absolute...
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Lady Tan's circle of women : a novel
See, Lisa
Paper Book
*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!* From "one of those special writers capable of delivering both poetry and plot" (The New York Times Book Review) an immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woman physician in 15th-century China--perfect for fans of...
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Beyond that, the sea
Spence-Ash, Laura
Paper Book
"Spence-Ash has written the novel in eight points of view, but each character is utterly three-dimensional and distinct. This debut novel captivated me from start to finish." --Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton Series A sweeping, tenderhearted love story,...
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Memphis : a novel
Stringfellow, Tara M.
Paper Book
'Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come . . . A stellar debut' Jacqueline Woodson, bestselling author of Red at the BoneJoan can't change her family's past.But she can create her future.Joan was only a child the last time she visited Memphis. She...
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The house of doors
Tan, Twan Eng
Paper Book
The third novel from the Booker-shortlisted author exploring love, betrayal and morality in 1920s Penang
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The Brightest Star : A Historical Novel Based on the True Story of Anna May Wong
Tsukiyama, Gail
Paper Book
A LIBRARYREADS PICK AND BEST BOOK CLUB PICK OF 2023 "A writer of astonishing grace, delicacy, and feeling."--Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay "A beautiful, haunting book."--Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times...
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The covenant of water : a novel
Verghese, Abraham
Paper Book
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in...
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Hang the moon : a novel
Walls, Jeannette
Paper Book
"A rollicking tale." --The Washington Post *"Propulsive." --Associated Press * "Wild, smart, energetic." --Los Angeles Times * "Brilliant and effervescent." --NPR From the #1 bestselling author of The Glass Castle, the instant New York Times bestseller a...
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Let us descend a novel
Ward, Jesmyn
Paper Book
From Jesmyn Ward--the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow--comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War. "'Let...
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Black cake
Wilkerson, Charmaine
Paper Book
Eleanor Bennett won't let her own death get in the way of the truth. When her estranged children - Byron and Benny - reunite for her funeral, they discover a puzzling inheritance. First, a voice recording in which everything they ever knew about their family is upended. Their mother tells a...
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