Staff Picks

Category: Historical Fiction

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

Melissa F.

"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."

Matt

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"

Matt

"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"

Matt

This Is Happiness

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

Andy

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..."

Melissa F.

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"

Crisanne

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."

Melissa F.

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

Carli

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."

Melissa F.

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"

Melissa F.

"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"

Andy

Alice McDermott

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

Andy

The Outcasts of Time

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

Gloria & Laura

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

Joanna

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."

Laura & Jill

"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."

Maggie

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"

Melissa S.

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"

Alison

The Invisible Hour

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

Crisanne

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"

Joanna

Maggie Shipstead

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

Jeannie

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."

Alice

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.

Dawn

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.

Jeannie

The Children's Book

This is a story that spans the Victorian era through World War I about a children’s author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the lives of her family and loved ones.

Alice

West with Giraffes

An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America.

Andy

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. This chronicles the life of Thomas Cromwell, and the narrative is focalised through him.

Alice

Hamnet: A Novel of The Plague

Maggie O'Farrell

A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a hypnotic recreation of the story that inspired one of the greatest masterpieces of all time.