Stories Retold

Reimagine fairy tales, myths, legends, even history and biographies with these fascinating novels!

Updated January 5, 2026
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The bear and the nightingale : a novel
Arden, Katherine
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A wild and willful young woman finds herself at the center of a tale of spirits, ancient evils, and the mysterious winter-king Frost--in the lyrical first novel of the Winternight Trilogy. "A beautiful deep-winter story, full of magic and monsters and the...
Hag-seed : William Shakespeare's The Tempest retold
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The beloved author of The Handmaid's Tale reimagines Shakespeare's final, great play, The Tempest, in a gripping and emotionally rich novel of passion and revenge.   "A marvel of gorgeous yet...
A man called Ove : a novel
Backman, Fredrik
Paper Book
"You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll feel new sympathy for the curmudgeons in your life." --People The #1 New York Times bestseller about the grumpy old man next door that's an uplifting exploration of the unreliability of first impressions and a reminder that life...
Longbourn
Baker, Jo
Paper Book
* Pride and Prejudice was only half the story *   If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she'd most likely be a sight more careful with them.   In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs...
The children's blizzard : a novel
Benjamin, Melanie
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator's Wife comes a story of courage on the prairie, inspired by the devastating storm that struck the Great Plains in 1888, threatening the lives of hundreds of immigrant homesteaders, especially schoolchildren. ...
Alice I have been : a novel
Benjamin, Melanie
Paper Book
Few works of literature are as universally beloved asAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole–and the grown woman whose story is no less...
The city of brass
Chakraborty, S. A.
Paper Book
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Library Journal | Vulture | The Verge | SYFYWire Step into The City of Brass, the spellbinding debut from S. A. Chakraborty, an imaginative alchemy of The Golem and the Jinni, The Grace of Kings,...
Ready player one
Cline, Ernest.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. "Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix."--USA Today * "As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates."--Entertainment...
The book of lost things
Connolly, John
Paper Book
The bestselling author of The Black Angel offers a creative coming-of-age story about one boys journey into adulthood, combining dramatic themes with edge-of-your-seat suspense and a fantastical imagination.
The winter king : a novel of Arthur
Cornwell, Bernard
Paper Book
With The Winter King, the first volume of his magnificent Warlord Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell turns to the story he was born to write: the mythic saga of King Arthur. Now a major television show. The tale begins in Dark Age Britain, a land where Arthur has been...
The noble servant
Dickerson, Melanie
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Melanie Dickerson beautifully re-imagines "The Goose Girl" by the Brothers Grimm into a medieval tale of adventure, loss, and love. "When it comes to happily-ever-afters, Melanie Dickerson is the undisputed queen of fairy-tale romance, and...
William Shakespeare's Star Wars : verily, a new hope
Doescher, Ian.
Paper Book
May the verse be with you! Inspired by one of the greatest creative minds in the English language--and William Shakespeare--here is an officially licensed retelling of George Lucas's epic Star Wars in the style of the immortal Bard of Avon. The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith)...
Beastly beauty
Donnelly, Jennifer
Paper Book
*"A dreamy, sublimely written tale." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review From New York Times bestselling, award-winning author Jennifer Donnelly comes a revolutionary, gender-swapped retelling of Beauty and the Beast that will forever change...
Ladies of the house : a novel
Edmondson, Lauren
Paper Book
Set in high-society Georgetown, an irresistible family drama about two sisters and the public scandal that just may lead them to rewrite the rules... "A stellar novel that celebrates sisterhood and the way women can step out of flawed men's shadows. I delighted in every...
James : a novel
Everett, Percival
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view * In development as a feature film to be...
Neverwhere
Gaiman, Neil
CD
Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and...
American gods : a novel
Gaiman, Neil.
Paper Book
Since it was first published, American Gods became an instant classic. Now discover the mystery and majesty of American Gods in this beautiful reissue of the Author's Preferred Text edition. Featuring a new preface by Neil Gaiman in honor of the novel's 20th...
Stardust
Gaiman, Neil
Paper Book
From #1 New York Timesbestselling author Neil Gaiman comes a remarkable quest into the dark and miraculous--in pursuit of love and the utterly impossible. Catch a fallen star . . . Tristran thorn promised to bring back a fallen star. So he sets out on a journey to fulfill the...
Immortal longings
Gong, Chloe
Ebook
A NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER Chloe Gong's adult epic fantasy debut, inspired by Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, is a "smart, imaginative, and brutal" (Wesley Chu, New York Times bestselling author of The War Arts Saga) collision of...
Abraham Lincoln : vampire hunter
Grahame-Smith, Seth.
Paper Book
Indiana. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness." "My baby boy..." she whispers before dying. ...
The wife upstairs
Hawkins, Rachel
Paper Book
Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller "Compulsively readable...a gothic thriller laced with arsenic." --EW One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021: CNN * Newsweek * Vulture * PopSugar...
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...
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...
Miss Austen
Hornby, Gill
Paper Book
A #1 International Bestseller "A deeply imagined and deeply moving novel. Reading it made me happy and weepy in equally copious amounts." --Karen Joy Fowler "You can't help feeling that Jane would have approved." --The Guardian For...
The water outlaws
Huang, S. L.
Paper Book
A Best-Of Pick for Vulture | The Washington Post | Publishers Weekly | Men's Health | IGN | Polygon | Goodreads | Amazon | Nerd Daily | WeAreBookish | Paste | Books, Bones & Buffy | The...
The snow child : a novel
Ivey, Eowyn.
Paper Book
In this magical debut, a couple's lives are changed forever by the arrival of a little girl, wild and secretive, on their snowy doorstep. Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart -- he...
Unmarriageable : a novel
Kamal, Soniah
Paper Book
"This inventive retelling of Pride and Prejudice charms."--People   "A fun, page-turning romp and a thought-provoking look at the class-obsessed strata of Pakistani society."--NPR Alys Binat has sworn never to marry--until an encounter...
The salt grows heavy
Khaw, Cassandra
Paper Book
"Khaw's poetic prose and stylish approach to gore make it a blood-soaked, unforgettable gem." --The New York Times From Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth, comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and...
The beekeeper's apprentice, or, On the segregation of the queen
King, Laurie R.
Paper Book
An Agatha Award Best Novel Nominee Named One of the Century's Best 100 Mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association FromNew York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King comes the book that introduced us to the ingenious Mary Russell...
A sorceress comes to call
Kingfisher, T.
Paper Book
Named a Best Fantasy Book of the Year by NPR, Elle, and Paste A Goodreads Best Fantasy Choice Award Nominee From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes A Sorceress ...
What moves the dead
Kingfisher, T.
Paper Book
An Instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller A Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Finalist A Goodreads Best Horror Choice Award Nominee A gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" from Hugo, Locus, &...
Orphan train : a novel
Kline, Christina Baker
Paper Book
Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they...
In the lives of puppets
Klune, TJ
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND INDIE BESTSELLER! New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune invites you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts. Most Anticipated...
Beasts of extraordinary circumstance
Lang, Ruth Emmie
Paper Book
"Exquisite and adventurous" --Bustle, "11 New Fiction Books You Need" "Told with brains and heart" --Michelle Gable, New York Times bestselling author of A Paris Apartment "Bristles with charm and curiosity" --Winston Groom, New York Times...
I was Anastasia : a novel
Lawhon, Ariel
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An enthralling feat of historical suspense that unravels the extraordinary twists and turns in Anna Anderson's fifty-year battle to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov. Is she the Russian Grand Duchess or the thief of another woman's legacy? ...
Hester : a novel
Lico Albanese, Laurie
Paper Book
Named a Most Anticipated Book for Fall 2022 by Goodreads * Washington Post * New York Post * BuzzFeed * PopSugar * Business Insider * An October 2022 Indie Next List Pick * An October 2022 LibraryReads Pick "A hauntingly beautiful-...
A court of mist and fury
Maas, Sarah J.
Paper Book
The # 1New York Timesbestselling sequel to Sarah J. Maas' spellbindingACourt of Thorns and Roses. Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court--but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and...
A court of thorns and roses
Maas, Sarah J.
Paper Book
THE INSTANTNEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLER Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R.R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down! When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like...
A lion among men
Maguire, Gregory.
Paper Book
Return to a darker Oz with Gregory Maguire. In A Lion Among Men, the third volume in Maguire's acclaimed, New York Times bestselling series The Wicked Years, a fuller, more complex Cowardly Lion is brought to life and gets to tell his remarkable tale. It is a story of oppression and fear in a...
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West : a novel
Maguire, Gregory
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller and basis for the Tony-winning hit musical, and smash hit movie series starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande With millions of copies in print around the world, Gregory Maguire's Wicked is established not only as a commentary...
A game of thrones
Martin, George R. R.
Paper Book
NOW THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES--THE MASTERPIECE THAT BECAME A CULTURAL PHENOMENON   Here is the first book in the landmark series that has redefined imaginative fiction and become a modern masterpiece. A GAME OF THRONES  
Emma : a modern retelling
McCall Smith, Alexander
Paper Book
The best-selling author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series deftly escorts Jane Austen's beloved, meddlesome heroine into the twenty-first century in this delightfully inventive retelling.   The summer after university, Emma Woodhouse returns home to the village of Highbury...
Northanger Abbey
McDermid, Val
Paper Book
Internationally best-selling crime writer Val McDermid has riveted millions of readers worldwide with her acutely suspenseful, psychologically complex, seamlessly plotted thrillers. In Northanger Abbey, she delivers her own, witty, updated take on Austen’s classic novel about a...
Darling girl : a novel of Peter Pan
Michalski, Liz
Paper Book
Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy - yes, that Wendy. She's running a successful skincare company, her son Jack is happy and healthy, and the tragedy of her past is well behind her... until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade,...
Circe : a novel
Miller, Madeline
Paper Book
This #1 New York Times bestseller is a "bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story" that brilliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of The Odyssey (Alexandra Alter, TheNew York Times). In the house of Helios,...
The song of Achilles
Miller, Madeline.
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller "At once a scholar's homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art....A book I could not put down." --Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House A thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the...
Caroline : Little House, revisited
Miller, Sarah Elizabeth
Paper Book
USA Today Bestseller! One of Refinery29's Best Reads of September In this novel authorized by the Little House Heritage Trust, Sarah Miller vividly recreates the beauty, hardship, and joys of the frontier in a dazzling work of historical fiction, a captivating story that...
The night circus : a novel
Morgenstern, Erin.
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves,...
Ithaca
North, Claire
Paper Book
'Claire North brings a powerful, fresh and unflinching voice to ancient myth - darkly fascinating, raw and breathtaking' Jennifer Saint, author of Sunday Times bestseller Ariadne ***A Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Year***
Spinning silver
Novik, Naomi
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "One of the year's strongest fantasy novels" (NPR), an imaginative retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale from the bestselling author of Uprooted.NEBULA AND HUGO AWARD FINALIST * NAMED ONE OF PASTE'S...
Uprooted
Novik, Naomi
Paper Book
NEBULA AWARD WINNER * HUGO AWARD FINALIST * "If you want a fantasy with strong characters and brilliantly original variations on ancient stories, try Uprooted!"--Rick Riordan "Breathtaking . . . a tale that is both elegantly grand and earthily humble, familiar as a...
Gingerbread
Oyeyemi, Helen
Paper Book
"Exhilarating...A wildly imagined, head-spinning, deeply intelligent novel." - The New York Times Book Review "[W]ildly inventive...[Helen Oyeyemi's] prose is not without its playful bite." -Vogue  The prize-winning, bestselling author of ...
Boy, snow, bird : a novel
Oyeyemi, Helen.
Paper Book
As seen on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, where it was described as "gloriously unsettling... evoking Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Angela Carter, Edgar Allan Poe, Gabriel García Márquez, Chris Abani and even Emily Dickinson," and already one of the year's most...
Forgotten Kingdom : A Novel
Pike, Signe.
Ebook
From the author of The Lost Queen, hailed as "Outlander meets Camelot" (Kirsty Logan, the author of The Gloaming) and "The Mists of Avalon for a new generation" (Linnea Hartsuyker, the author of The...
The lost queen : a novel
Pike, Signe
Paper Book
Compared to Outlander and The Mists of Avalon, this thrilling first novel of a debut trilogy reveals the untold story of Languoreth--a forgotten queen of sixth-century Scotland--twin sister of the man who inspired the legend of Merlin. I write because I...
Manslaughter Park
Price, Tirzah
Paper Book
In this queer retelling of the classic novel and third book in Tirzah Price's Jane Austen Murder Mystery series, Mansfield Park is the center of a deadly accident (or is it). Perfect for fans of the Lady Janies and Stalking Jack the Ripper. Aspiring artist Fanny Price is an...
Neon gods
Robert, Katee
Paper Book
He was supposed to be a myth. But from the moment I crossed the River Styx and fell under his dark spell...he was, quite simply, mine. A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Hades and Persephone that's as sinful as it is sweet. Society darling Persephone...
Ariadne
Saint, Jennifer
Paper Book
A mesmerizing debut novel for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe. Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid's stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present...
Eligible : a novel
Sittenfeld, Curtis.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Wonderfully tender and hilariously funny, Eligible both honors and updates Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Tackling gender, class, courtship, and family, Curtis Sittenfeld reaffirms herself as one of the most dazzling authors writing today....
Lore Olympus. Volume one
Smythe, Rachel (Comics artist)
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love--witness what the gods do after dark in this stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of the best-known stories in Greek mythology, featuring a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel...
A study in scarlet women
Thomas, Sherry
Paper Book
"I cannot recommend this series enough."--#1 New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas turns the Victorian detective story upside-down by reimagining Sherlock Holmes as a woman in the...
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court
Twain, Mark
Paper Book
This novel tells the story of Hank Morgan, the quintessential self-reliant New Englander who brings to King Arthur’s Age of Chivalry the “great and beneficent” miracles of nineteenth-century engineering and American ingenuity. Through the collision of past and present, Twain...
Vinegar girl : The taming of the shrew retold
Tyler, Anne
Paper Book
Pulitzer Prize winner and American master Anne Tyler brings us an inspired, witty and irresistible contemporary take on one of Shakespeare's most beloved comedies   Kate Battista feels stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity,...
House of names : a novel
Tóibín, Colm
Paper Book
* A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of the Year * Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, St. Louis Dispatch From the thrilling imagination of bestselling, award-winning Colm Tóibín comes a retelling of the story...
The Christmas journey
VanLiere, Donna
Paper Book
The eighty-mile journey of a common carpenter and a simple peasant girl is one of the most powerful stories in history. As books go out of print and stories fade from memory, the journey of Joseph and Mary and her delivery inside a common barn continues to bless and inspire hope in people around...
Big Jim and the white boy : an American classic reimagined
Walker, David
Paper Book
A thrilling graphic novel reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that follows Jim, an enslaved man on a journey towards freedom, and his sidekick, Huck, in the antebellum South--from the team behind the Eisner Award-winning The Black Panther Party. WINNER...
The once and future king
White, T. H.
Paper Book
T. H. White's masterful retelling of the saga of King Arthur is a fantasy classic as legendary as Excalibur and Camelot, and a poignant story of adventure, romance, and magic that has enchanted readers for generations.   Once upon a time, a young boy called "Wart" was...

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