Featured historical fiction picks

Surrounded by artists, writers and dancers during the Harlem Renaissance in 1922, nine-year-old Claudie Wells longs to be good at something and sets out to find her true talent.

Set in Ireland and inspired by the true story of the fight for contraception access in the 1970s, this novel is told through the perspectives of Maura, Bernie and modern-day Saoirse, who meets Maura decades later.

In a Brussels apartment building, an architect and his art-student daughter, an art dealer and his 18-year-old son, a seamstress, a maid, a widowed colonel and others must navigate fear, shifting allegiances and daily life just before and during the Nazi occupation.

Promised safety outside of San Francisco, twelve-year-old Mei Mei travels by herself to Eureka, California where she navigates increasing violence against her community leading up to the expulsion of Chinese immigrants in 1885.

Louisa, a 10-year-old girl, survives a mysterious beach incident in Japan where her Korean-born father, Serk, disappears. Together, Louisa and her American-born mother navigate this tragedy over decades.

This feminist historical retelling reframes the infamous Egyptian queen not as a villainous seductress, but as a brilliant, nuanced ruler fighting for her throne.

In 1939, Nayeli Cruz a young runaway, becomes Frida Kahlo's cook and, over time, they form a close bond as she gets pulled into Frida's world. In the present day, Cruz's granddaughter discovers a painting and uncovers a hidden, artistic secret decades later.

Set against the backdrop of the Great Migration, a Southern girl attends an elite girls boarding school in the North and must find the courage to be herself and to dream of a brighter future.

When her beloved grandmother passes away, 14-year-old Lulu is drawn to the glamorous stranger who crashed the funeral. Their unexpected kinship picks at the secrets of Lulu's family and a curse that reverberates across generations.

Chicago, 1924: Emily and her husband, Henry, leave Chicago for the Kansas prairie, though she hates leaving her sister. In 1932, when tragedy strikes, their orphaned niece Dorothy lands on their doorstep.

Amidst the backdrop of Nazi Germany during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, gymnast Evie is recruited to help rob the Nazis. With lives on the line and her family's future at stake, she has to choose between following her Olympic dreams and standing up to evil.

Set in 16th century Korea, this queer, feminist reimagining of the Fox Maiden legend from Korean mythology follows Kai Song, who is determined to be a warrior as she must come to terms with her true identity and take control of her destiny after learning a deadly secret.

A gripping story about a brother and sister, emancipated from slavery but still searching for true freedom, and their odyssey across the deserts of Mexico to finally reunite, all while escaping a former master still intent on their bondage.

In 1939 North Carolina, an all-Black baseball team "trespasses" on the whites-only baseball field, and the resulting racial outrage can only be resolved on the mound.

When Lily realizes she has feelings for a girl in her math class, it threatens Lily's oldest friendships and even her father's citizenship status. Eventually, Lily must decide if owning her truth is worth everything she has ever known.

A disillusioned Italian World War 1 flying ace is living with a curse that turns him into a pig. He now works as a bounty hunter facing sky pirates and a brash American rival.

"Knives Out" meets "Downton Abbey!" Secrets, murder and mayhem collide as an unlikely sleuthing duo-- an under-butler and a foul-mouthed octogenarian-- hunt a killer in a manor sealed against the end of the world.

A down-on-his-luck con artist targets a small-town boardinghouse owner for marriage and money. When the owner's niece discovers the plot, she demands to join the scheme, twisting the con into a web of greed, secrets and unexpected attraction.

The extraordinary story of Jessie Redmon Fauset whose exhilarating world of friends, rivals and passions all combined to create the magic that was the Harlem Renaissance.

This literary mystery alternates between Dr. Agnes Linstrom, a forensic anthropologist investigating a 2,000-year-old bog body in 2018 England, and the first-person story of that body-- an ambitious Iron Age druid.

When Nikki visits her estranged grandmother in western North Carolina, she uncovers a hidden legacy tied to a forgotten kingdom of freed people, unraveling her family's secrets and her own identity while fighting to protect their endangered heritage.

From adolescence, Florence Nightingale was determined to fulfill her life's calling to serve the sick and suffering.

It's 1889, barely 25 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don't get to own.. So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free.

Eighteen-year-old Angélique, a talented young seamstress from a working-class background, seeks vengeance on the factory owner who destroyed her family, all while navigating a cutthroat competition for a coveted position in Paris' fashion world.

Silas, a trans, autistic boy in Victorian London who can see ghosts, is sent to a sinister finishing school.