Staff Picks

Category: Historical Fiction

Find your new favorite reads with this collection of top titles curated by our expert librarians.

Atmosphere

Taylor Jenkins Reid

"an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits"

Trust

"This is the story at the center of Harold Vanner's novel Bonds, which everyone in 1938 New York seems to have read. But it isn't the only version."

Five Decembers

"December 1941. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever."

Isola

Allegra Goodman

"Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival"

Hitler's Canary

Hitler's Canary

"Although he comes from a family of theater people who don't get involved in politics, ten-year-old Bamse and his Jewish friend Anton join Bamse's brother and participate in the Danish Resistance"

The Women

"The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten."

Anna Karenina

"Acclaimed by many as the world's greatest novel, Anna Karenina provides a vast panorama of contemporary life in Russia and of humanity in general."

The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana

The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana

"Having suffered a complete loss of memory regarding every aspect of his identity, Yambo withdraws to a family home outside of Milan, where he sorts through boxes of old records"

The Mighty Red

"In this stunning novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces and the tragic impact of big business"

This Is Happiness

This Is Happiness

"Change is coming to Faha, a small Irish parish that hasn't changed in a thousand years."

The Winter Soldier

The Winter Soldier

"Vienna, 1914. Lucius is a twenty-two-year-old medical student when World War I explodes across Europe. Enraptured by romantic tales of battlefield surgery, he enlists..."

The Pillars of the Earth

The Pillars of the Earth

"The story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk who is driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known"

The Palace of Illusions

The Palace of Illusions

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

"A REIMAGINING OF THE WORLD-FAMOUS INDIAN EPIC, THE MAHABHARAT—TOLD FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF AN AMAZING WOMAN."

The Women

"centers on a young nurse whose life is changed by the Vietnam War"

In the Distance

In the Distance

"The story recounts the life of Håkan, a Swedish emigrant who is separated from his brother on their journey to the United States in the mid-19th century."

The Covenant of Water

The Covenant of Water

Abraham Verghese

"a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret"

Go As A River

"Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage"

After This

Alice McDermott

"a vivid portrait of an American family in the middle decades of the twentieth century"

The Outcasts of Time

The Outcasts of Time

"Two brothers escape the Black Death by skipping forward in time, experiencing six centuries of change in six days."

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

"Follows a community as they work together to save a young deaf Black boy, Dodo, from unjust institutionalization in 1930s America."

- Gloria & Laura

The Seed Keeper

The Seed Keeper

"A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most."

Weyward

"Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world."

Learned By Heart

Learned By Heart

"A heartbreakingly gorgeous novel based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply, and dangerously in love at boarding school in 19th century York"

The Paris Dressmaker

The Paris Dressmaker

"Based on true accounts of how Parisiennes resisted the Nazi occupation in World War II—from fashion houses to the city streets—comes a story of two courageous women who risked everything to fight"

The Invisible Hour

The Invisible Hour

"One brilliant June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her."

The Book of Everlasting Things

The Book of Everlasting Things

Aanchal Malhotra

"A lush, sweeping debut novel in the vein of All the Light We Cannot See, about a Hindu perfumer and a Muslim calligrapher, who fall in love against the backdrop of Partition"

Great Circle

Maggie Shipstead

"An enjoyable historical fiction with great and nuanced characters, especially strong women."

The Engineer's Wife

The Engineer's Wife

Tracey Enerson Wood

"Spanning 1864--1884, Wood's impeccably researched debut narrates the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge from the viewpoint of a woman central to its creation."

The Rose Code

As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes.

The Last Green Valley

The Last Green Valley

Mark T. Sullivan

A compelling and inspiring story of heroism and courage in the dark days at the end of World War II.