Historical Fiction

1. Outlander- Diana Gabaldon

   What if your future lay in the past?
   1946, and Claire Randall goes to the Scottish Highlands with her husband Frank. It's a second honeymoon, a chance to re-establish their loving marriage. But one afternoon, Claire walks through a circle of standing stones and vanishes into 1743, where the first person she meets is a British army officer - her husband's six-times great-grandfather.
   Unfortunately, Black Jack Randall is not the man his descendant is, and while trying to escape him, Claire falls into the hands of a gang of Scottish outlaws, and finds herse ...Read More

2. The Pillars of the Earth- Ken Follett

   Oprah's Book Club Selection
   The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect-a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.

   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 historical masterpiece ...Read More

3. Gone with the Wind- Margaret Mitchell

   Since its original publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind-winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the bestselling novels of all time-has been heralded by readers everywhere as The Great American Novel.
   Widely considered The Great American Novel, and often remembered for its epic film version, Gone With the Wind explores the depth of human passions with an intensity as bold as its setting in the red hills of Georgia. A superb piece of storytelling, it vividly depicts the drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
   This is the tale of Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled, manipulative daughter of a wealthy pl ...Read More

4. Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden

   A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.
   Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read
   Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and ...Read More

5. The Other Boleyn Girl- Philippa Gregory

   The #1 New York Times bestseller from "the queen of royal fiction" (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory is a rich, compelling novel of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue surrounding the Tudor court of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and the infamous Boleyn family.
   When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of the handsome and charming Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to wane, and soon she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. ...Read More

6. The Book Thief- Markus Zusak

   It's 1939 in Molching, Germany, and horror is everywhere. Nazi rule has divided the nation into those who are brutalized and those who are merely oppressed. Hunger, fear, and isolation reign. There are stories here, and who better to tell them than Death? Gathering souls, Death observes the many mysteries of human nature. How can people be cruel and kind, sad and joyful, bitter and beautiful, loving and inhumane...all at the same time? Death is especially struck by young Liesel Meminger, a nine-year old girl who faces loss, abandonment, and hopelessness. Yet Liesel finds refuge from her nightmares with her foster mother, who always seems to make the right decision, even in the face of so muc ...Read More

7. The Thorn Birds- Colleen McCullough

   One of the most beloved novels of all time, The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough's sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback, returns to enthrall a new generation.

   The Thorn Birds is a chronicle of three generations of Clearys—an indomitable clan of ranchers carving lives from a beautiful, hard land while contending with the bitterness, frailty, and secrets that penetrate their family. It is a poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit. Most of all, it is the story of the Clearys' only daughter, Meggie, and the haunted priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart—and the intense joining of two hearts and souls over a lifetime, a relationship that dangerously oversteps sacred boundaries of ethics and dogma....Read More

8. The Red Tent- Anita Diamant

   Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past. Deeply affecting, The ...Read More

9. Girl with a Pearl Earring- Tracy Chevalier

   Tracy Chevalier transports readers to a bygone time and place in this richly-imagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings.

   History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius . . . even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil ...Read More

10. The Historian- Elizabeth Kostova

    Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of-a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known-and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Genera ...Read More

See all the books and more recommendations at  https://www.meetnewbooks.com/find-books/historical-fiction

Need More ideas for your next book?
contemporary-romance   magical-realism   epic-fantasy   urban-fantasy   memoirs   whodunnit   ww2   vampires   alternate-history   coming-of-age   crime-mystery   dogs   dreamlike   dystopian   enemies-to-lovers   epistolary   litrpg   paranormal-romance   rom-com   scifi   space-opera   steampunk   steamy   thrillers   time-travel   zombies