For too many of us, history can quickly become little more than a mind-numbing series of dates and facts that we study in school and then promptly forget. Something that is divorced from our own lives and experiences.
But in the hands of these 10 talented authors, the past becomes a living, breathing thing—one that we can inhabit and experience, at least until we turn that last page.
From colonial America to WWII Singapore, the books below take us into the past, and tell incredible stories along the way.
This list fulfills a prompt in our 2024 Summer Reading Challenge! Learn more and join here.
Faythe of North Hinkapee
When Faythe’s sister Chloe becomes a victim of a brutal attack by some of the most prominent men in the colonial American town of North Hinkapee, Faythe flees into the woods and begins an adventure that will bring her into contact with a wide array of memorable characters including a silver-tongued lawyer, an aging swordsman, a reformed courtesan, and many more.
Winner of the 2024 Summer PenCraft Seasonal Book Awards for Best Historical Fiction, Literary Titan calls Faythe of North Hinkapee “gripping” and perfect for “anyone interested in colonial America, gender roles, or compelling historical fiction.”
Birdcage Walk
Lizzie Fawkes grew up among Radicals who eagerly awaited the French Revolution. However, her marriage to land developer John Diner Tredevant puts her in a very different, and much more precarious position.
Even as revolution looms on the horizon, Lizzie’s own story takes a darker and more dangerous turn in this “page turner” by Helen Dunmore, who has “always been fantastic on the complexity of people’s motivations and the secret reasons they act as they do” (New York Times Book Review).
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
Named one of the Top 10 First Novels of the Year by Booklist and one of the Best Books of the Fall by People magazine, Imogen Hermes Gowar’s “dazzling debut novel” (Sunday Express) introduces readers to Jonah Hancock, a prosperous merchant in 18th-century London whose life is upended when the captain of one of his boats trades it for what he claims is a dead mermaid.
Suddenly thrust into high society, Jonah finds himself enamored with Angelica Neal, the most captivating woman he has ever met in this book that Vogue hails as “undoubtedly the start of a major career for this young writer.”
All Our Shimmering Skies
“A spellbinding saga of survival and transformation in WWII Australia” (Publishers Weekly), this “work of shimmering originality and energy” (Sydney Morning Herald) from the internationally bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe follows Molly Hook, an orphan of the war who embarks upon a journey into Australia’s vast Northern Territory in search of a backcountry sorcerer who she believes laid a curse on her family. The result is a “majestic and riveting tale of curses and the true meaning of treasure” (Booklist) that you won’t want to put down.
Citadel
In the walled city of Carcassonne, the women of a French Resistance group code-named Citadel fight against their Nazi oppressors—not only to drive them from France, but to keep them from an ancient secret that may turn the tide of the war.
“Strong female protagonists, a fascinating historical backdrop, a bittersweet romance, and the integration of mystical elements” (Booklist) all intertwine in this “compelling mix of romance and historical fiction that succeeds as an epic tale of mystery and adventure” (Library Journal).
And After the Fire
This “virtuoso” novel “swells with life’s great themes—love and death, family and faith—and the insistent, dark music of loss” (USA Today). Heavily researched, Lauren Belfer’s tale of a lost Bach cantata “spans centuries and continents, touching finally on the Holocaust and serving as a paean to Bach’s music” (Booklist).
From the streets of Berlin in 1783 to the ruins of Germany at the end of the Second World War to New York City in 2010, this “remarkably suspenseful story” (Kirkus Reviews) tells the history of one piece of music, and the lives that it altered forever.
The King's Witch
Named a Best Summer Debut by Library Journal, this book by Tudor historian Tracy Borman features “everything you would want to read in a novel, ranging from palatial royals and intrigues to betrayals to a love story” (Washington Book Review).
Frances Gorges used her knowledge of flowers and herbs to nurse an ailing Queen Elizabeth, but she would prefer to stay far from the court of her successor, King James. Forced into court intrigues, however, Fraces becomes caught up in the burgeoning Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in this “incredibly detailed and vivid narrative” (Library Journal).
How We Disappeared
In World War II Singapore, events were set into motion which changed countless lives forever. Among them were seventeen-year-old Wang Di, forced into sexual slavery as a “comfort woman” for Japanese troops.
Drawn partly from the stories of the author’s own family, this “deeply affecting” (Financial Times) book tells a “story about memory, trauma, and ultimately love” (New York Times) that readers won’t soon forget.
Henna House
“A welcome glimpse into this historical moment and little-known culture” (Booklist), Henna House begins in Yemen in 1920, as it tells the story of Adela Damari, a young Jewish woman whose future is threatened by the local law which states that Jewish children are adopted by Muslim families if their parents die.
With her father’s failing health, Adela finds herself experiencing new elements of her own culture as aunts and uncles come to stay with the family and the world around her changes inexorably with the tides of history.
