12 Fascinating Historical Novels That Will Transport You to Another Time

October 11 2016
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Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. When done right, it can transport us to another time and teach us about eras that are often overlooked in history books. In the historical novels listed below, the authors bring us back in time to show fascinating events and time periods that, while significant in human history, are rarely seen in other stories. Here are some of my all-time favorites of the genre.

Daughter of Fortune
by Isabel Allende

We’ve all heard of the California Gold Rush of 1849, but this gripping novel views the time period through the unique perspective of a Chilean immigrant. Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California and, as she finds her place in a society of gold fever, single men, and prostitutes, her journey becomes one of self-discovery.

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Daughter of Fortune
Isabel Allende

We’ve all heard of the California Gold Rush of 1849, but this gripping novel views the time period through the unique perspective of a Chilean immigrant. Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California and, as she finds her place in a society of gold fever, single men, and prostitutes, her journey becomes one of self-discovery.

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Moloka'i
by Alan Brennert

From 1866 to 1969, those diagnosed with leprosy in Hawaii were quarantined to leper colonies on the island of Moloka’i. This deeply moving novel follows Rachel Kalama, a 7-year-old whose life is torn away from her when a rose-colored mark appears on her skin and she is sent to Moloka’i.

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Moloka'i
Alan Brennert

From 1866 to 1969, those diagnosed with leprosy in Hawaii were quarantined to leper colonies on the island of Moloka’i. This deeply moving novel follows Rachel Kalama, a 7-year-old whose life is torn away from her when a rose-colored mark appears on her skin and she is sent to Moloka’i.

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MENTIONED IN:

12 Fascinating Historical Novels That Will Transport You to Another Time

By Erin Madison | October 11, 2016

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The Alienist
by Caleb Carr

In 1896, psychology was still viewed with extreme skepticism. But in Caleb Carr’s masterful novel, a psychologist, or “alienist,” is called in to help the New York Police Department, under Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, with their investigation of a young boy’s murder.

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The Alienist
Caleb Carr

Fast-paced and gripping, infused with a historian's exactitude, The Alienist conjures up the Gilded Age and its untarnished underside: verminous tenements and opulent mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. Here is a New York during an age when questioning society's belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and mortal consequences.

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The Heretic's Daughter
by Kathleen Kent

This one is for those who love THE CRUCIBLE and are always on the hunt for another perspective on the Salem witch trials. THE HERETIC’S DAUGHTER chronicles the story of Martha Carrier, one of the first women to be accused, tried, and hanged for being a witch in Salem, told from the perspective of her daughter.

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The Heretic's Daughter
Kathleen Kent

This one is for those who love THE CRUCIBLE and are always on the hunt for another perspective on the Salem witch trials. THE HERETIC’S DAUGHTER chronicles the story of Martha Carrier, one of the first women to be accused, tried, and hanged for being a witch in Salem, told from the perspective of her daughter.

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MENTIONED IN:

12 Fascinating Historical Novels That Will Transport You to Another Time

By Erin Madison | October 11, 2016

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Barkskins
by Annie Proulx

BARKSKINS sweeps readers around the globe from America to Europe to New Zealand in an epic story about the decimation of the world’s forests. Told from the perspective of two wood-cutters and their descendants over the course of 300 years, the characters face incredible challenges, including the revenge of rivals, accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, and cultural annihilation.

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Barkskins
Annie Proulx

BARKSKINS sweeps readers around the globe from America to Europe to New Zealand in an epic story about the decimation of the world’s forests. Told from the perspective of two wood-cutters and their descendants over the course of 300 years, the characters face incredible challenges, including the revenge of rivals, accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, and cultural annihilation.

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Small Island
by Andrea Levy

A stunning portrait of life in 1948 London told from the point of view of two Jamaican immigrants, their white landlady, and her husband, who has just returned from combat. SMALL ISLAND is an immigrant story that shows race relations in mid-century London as it rebuilds from war.

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Small Island
Andrea Levy

The interlocking stories of Bernard, a timid British man, his wife, Queenie, and Jamaican immigrants, Hortense and Gilbert. A courageous novel that tells, with tender emotion and sparkling wit, the cost of lost opportunities and the price of love. Benedict is heartbreaking as the stumbling Bernard in the BBC/PBS series. You just want to shake him and hug him at the same time.

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The Long Song
by Andrea Levy

This follow-up to SMALL ISLAND takes readers to Jamaica as the Baptist War rages and slavery comes to a violent and chaotic end on the island. Miss July, a slave, and Mrs. Caroline Mortimer, a recently transplanted English widow, watch the world transform around them from one of Jamaica’s sugar plantations.

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The Long Song
Andrea Levy

This follow-up to SMALL ISLAND takes readers to Jamaica as the Baptist War rages and slavery comes to a violent and chaotic end on the island. Miss July, a slave, and Mrs. Caroline Mortimer, a recently transplanted English widow, watch the world transform around them from one of Jamaica’s sugar plantations.

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MENTIONED IN:

12 Fascinating Historical Novels That Will Transport You to Another Time

By Erin Madison | October 11, 2016

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Necessary Lies
by Diane Chamberlain

From 1933 to 1973, the Eugenics Board of North Carolina authorized the sterilization of “mentally defective or feeble-minded” women, often without their consent or through coercion. In this heart-wrenching novel, a new social worker is forced to make this painful decision for her clients, while a young tenant on a tobacco farm tries to hold her splintering family together.

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Necessary Lies
Diane Chamberlain

From 1933 to 1973, the Eugenics Board of North Carolina authorized the sterilization of “mentally defective or feeble-minded” women, often without their consent or through coercion. In this heart-wrenching novel, a new social worker is forced to make this painful decision for her clients, while a young tenant on a tobacco farm tries to hold her splintering family together.

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Empress
by Shan Sa

The spellbinding story of one of China’s most controversial historical figures: the first and only female Emperor of China. Empress Wu emerged in the seventh century during the Tang dynasty and ushered in a golden age in China, rising from obscurity in the Forbidden City to her place of high power.

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Empress
Shan Sa

The spellbinding story of one of China’s most controversial historical figures: the first and only female Emperor of China. Empress Wu emerged in the seventh century during the Tang dynasty and ushered in a golden age in China, rising from obscurity in the Forbidden City to her place of high power.

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MENTIONED IN:

12 Fascinating Historical Novels That Will Transport You to Another Time

By Erin Madison | October 11, 2016

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The Taming of the Queen
by Philippa Gregory

Throughout her many historical novels, Philippa Gregory illuminates all of King Henry VIII’s queens. In this story, his final queen, Kateryn Parr, holds her own as an independent woman, but in her attempt to save the Protestants, she finds herself accused of heresy, punishable by death by fire.

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The Taming of the Queen
Philippa Gregory

Throughout her many historical novels, Philippa Gregory illuminates all of King Henry VIII’s queens. In this story, his final queen, Kateryn Parr, holds her own as an independent woman, but in her attempt to save the Protestants, she finds herself accused of heresy, punishable by death by fire.

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Circling the Sun
by Paula McLain

Set in Kenya in the 1920s, this captivating novel illustrates the life of Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator who becomes caught in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, who wrote the classic memoir OUT OF AFRICA under the pen name Isak Dinesen.

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Circling the Sun
Paula McLain

Set in Kenya in the 1920s, this captivating novel illustrates the life of Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator who becomes caught in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, who wrote the classic memoir OUT OF AFRICA under the pen name Isak Dinesen.

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Flight of the Sparrow
by Amy Belding Brown

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1676. When Native Americans capture Mary Rowlandson, she finds herself sold into the service of a powerful female tribal leader. Battling cold, hunger, and exhaustion, Mary witnesses harrowing brutality but also unexpected kindness as she begins to question the life she once knew.

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Flight of the Sparrow
Amy Belding Brown

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1676. When Native Americans capture Mary Rowlandson, she finds herself sold into the service of a powerful female tribal leader. Battling cold, hunger, and exhaustion, Mary witnesses harrowing brutality but also unexpected kindness as she begins to question the life she once knew.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo

MENTIONED IN:

12 Fascinating Historical Novels That Will Transport You to Another Time

By Erin Madison | October 11, 2016

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