Best Historical Fiction Books of all TimeUnpublished

Share

The Sunday Times No.1 Bestseller The sequel to Jessie Burton's million-copy bestseller The Miniaturist, The House of Fortune returns to Nella's mysterious family in historic 18th-century Amsterdam for a story of fate and fortune. 'Elegant,...

An old adage says there are really only two stories: a man goes on a voyage, and a stranger arrives in town. This is the third: a woman breaks the rules . . .Set in a thinly disguised sixteenth-century England, Megan Campisi's The Sin Eater is a wonderfully rich story of treason and treachery; of...

Every slave plantation is a house of spies and intrigue. No slave walks a straight line or has a single story - deep within their hearts is rebellion. But against whom? Hiram Walker is a man with a gift and a curse. He was born between worlds- his father a white plantation master, his...

One of The New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction -- Longlisted for the Booker Prize The Sunday Times Bestseller -- One of Barack Obama's Favourite Books of the Year 'Massively enjoyable' - The Sunday...

An eleven-year-old girl stops eating, but remains miraculously alive and well. A nurse, sent to investigate whether she is a fraud, meets a journalist hungry for a story. Set in the Irish Midlands in the 1850s, The Wonder - inspired by numerous European and North American cases of 'fasting girls'...

From master storyteller Ken Follett, The Evening and the Morning is a historical epic that ends where The Pillars of the Earth begins. A Time of Conflict It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. The king's grip on the country is fragile and chaos reigns. A young...

A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett's classic historical masterpiece.The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven...

Tired from a grim war in America, Ross Poldark returns to his land and his family. But the joyful homecoming he has anticipated turns sour, for his father is dead, his estate is derelict and the girl he loves is engaged to his cousin.But his sympathy for the destitute miners and farmers of the...

A haunting fable that tells a story of the Holocaust, and the remarkable acts of kindness which people are capable of. 'A magnificent small book to read urgently' - Libération Once upon a time in an enormous forest there lived a poor woodcutter and...

'A powerful, stirring, wind-swept tale set in Depression-era America that makes your heart break and soar in equal measure.' - Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library The Four Winds, an instant New York Times number one bestseller and Richard and Judy...

The Bestselling Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick Soon to be a major motion picture, The Nightingale has captured the hearts of millions of readers becoming a number one bestseller across the world. It is a heart-breakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the...

The gripping new novel from Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mercies.'Exceptionally brilliant. Immersive, sensual, compelling, ambitious' - Marian Keyes'Intriguing, haunting . . . raw, beautiful' - Jennifer Saint, author of AriadneStrasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a...

The Sunday Times Bestseller and BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick. For readers of Circe and The Handmaid's Tale, Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Mercies is a story about a love that could prove as dangerous as it is powerful. Winter, 1617...

In Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes - the Women's Prize-shortlisted author of A Thousand Ships - brings the infamous Medusa to life as you have never seen her before . . .'So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our flight, our strength. They fear us, so they call us monsters.'Medusa is the sole...

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction Powerfully told from an all-female perspective, in A Thousand Ships, classicist and author of Divine Might, Natalie Haynes retells the story of the Trojan War - putting the women, girls and goddesses at the centre...

When you have grown up as I have, there is no security in not knowing things, in avoiding the ugliest truths because they can't be faced . . . Because that is what happened the last time, and that is why my siblings and I have grown up in a cursed house, children of cursed parents . . . Jocasta is...

'An incredibly important book . . . a beautifully crafted, compelling story . . . which will undoubtedly break your heart but also make it sing' - Mike GayleTwo children trapped in the same attic, almost a century apart, bound by a secret.1907: Twelve-year-old Celestine spends most of his time...

Discover Toni Morrison's most iconic work in this Pulitzer-prize winning novel that exemplifies her powerful and important place in contemporary American literature. 'An American masterpiece' AS Byatt It is the mid-1800s and as slavery looks to be coming to...

'If you haven't read Kate Morton before, do yourself a favour' - Graham Norton, broadcaster and bestselling author of Home Stretch A breathtaking mystery of love, lies and a cold case come back to life, Homecoming is an immersive, twisting epic from the...

Set across Paris, Amsterdam, and London, Kate Mosse is back for the second novel in The Joubert Family Chronicles, as the family find themselves caught up in the St Bartholomew's Day massacre.August 1572: Minou Joubert and her family are in Paris for a Royal Wedding, an alliance...

The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller An immersive, historical fantasy set in 14th-century China, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is a queer tale of love, loss, betrayal and triumph. 'Magnificent in every way' - Samantha Shannon, author of...

Filled with drama and battle, tragedy and romance, Sharon Penman's The Land Beyond the Sea tells the epic tale of a clash of cultures that will resonate with readers today.1172. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as Outremer - the land beyond the sea.A young realm, Outremer was baptized in blood...

Summer, 1549. Two years after the death of Henry VIII, England is sliding into chaos... the economy is in collapse, inflation rages and rebellion is stirring among the peasantry.Since the old King's death, Matthew Shardlake has been working as a lawyer in the service of Henry's younger daughter, the...

The Sunday Times Bestseller 'The Lamplighters is a whodunnit, horror novel, ghost story and fantastically gripping psychological investigation rolled into one.' - Guardian Cornwall, 1972. Three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse,...

'RaMell Ross's transcendentally moving and frightening film' (Guardian, New York Film Festival) on UK cinema release 8th November 2025 WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020 WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2020Winner...