5 Historical Fiction Books Reinvigorating the Genre

Let’s start with a supernatural twist on historical fiction. In Nell Stevens’ debut novel, BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE, we meet fourteen-year-old Blanca, who died in the year 1473 at a monastery in Valldemossa, near Mallorca. Now a ghost haunting the Charterhouse, as it is known, she passes the time spying on monks, tormenting them, and observing the other townsfolk too. And, after 365 years, silently watching lives experienced around her, she’s startled to find new tenants at the Charterhouse: none other than French writer George Sand, who comes with her Polish lover, the composer Chopin, as well as her two children. Blanca is enthralled, and almost immediately attracted to Sand’s masculine sensibility, though the locals seem repelled by her. What follows is a poignant (and one-sided) love story, with Blanca, the teenage ghost, longing for the living writer, who doesn’t even know she exists. The plot only thickens as George and her family find themselves in trouble with the villagers, with Blanca able to watch only and reflect upon her own time alive, including the circumstances of her death. Provocative, touching, and wholly original, BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE is a powerfully creative story by an award-winning author.

Some authors are almost expected to amaze us, and Gayl Jones is one such writer. Considered one of the great literary authors of the 20th century, Jones has returned, 22 years since her last work, to deliver an epic novel. PALMARES is the story of a Black slave girl born into a Portuguese plantation. It is there, in the 17th century, with the help of a white priest and her grandmother, that Almeyda learns to read and write—in a number of languages. Educated and sharp-witted, Almeyda is sold and resold to different plantations. On the way she encounters various characters, including a mad lexicographer, a British travel writer, and a captivating Muslim named Martim, whom she falls in love with. Eventually the two escape their respective plantations and make it to a fugitive slave settlement known as Palmares. But when the settlement is sacked, Martim is lost to chaos and Almeyda is left to pick up the pieces. Infused with her unique brand of mythology and magical realism, Jones’ new work imagines anew the historical novel.

Barker’s masterpiece is the story of a doomed young woman, and her lonely existence in a seemingly endlessly painful mid-20th century world. Unable to garner the affection of her mother (or physically absent father), Janet relies on literature to keep her company. That is, until she is additionally relegated to an ancestral castle, leaving her with only her Latin and Greek readings, the quiet natural landscape, and her entertaining (and alcoholic) aunt. Just as obvious as Janet’s crippling isolation and victimization is the author’s seething indictment of Scottish life and the cruelty of Caledonia. By the time Janet meets her fate—an almost “welcome” death by murder—the reader cannot help but feel a sense of relief for the woman whose life has been nothing short of agony. Darkly humorous and lyrically written, O CALEDONIA is a striking take on historical fiction, with one of the most unforgettable protagonists of contemporary literature. If that plot wasn’t evidence enough of O CALEDONIA’s worthiness on this list, please note that the new edition of this book includes an introduction from Maggie O’Farrell, author of HAMNET.

What makes Liza Wieland’s book, PARIS, 7 A.M., unique is its steadfast relationship to history, mainly in the meticulously kept journals of poet Elizabeth Bishop, and in the author’s imaginative writing of the journal’s unwritten parts. For 1937, the year that Bishop didn’t fully chronicle, Wieland has imagined a completely fictional adventure to throw Bishop and the company she keeps into. Seeking to escape the predictability of life as she’s known it at Vassar College, Bishop and her college roommates travel to France before the second World War in search of inspiration. What they find is an underground world of rebellion in which Bishop aids in rescuing Jewish “orphans” in order to have them baptized as Catholics so as to spare them the impending doom that their parents will face. Daring and wonderfully imaginative, PARIS, 7 A.M. is a portrait of one of the most influential 20th-century poets and the three life-changing weeks that would, as the author would have you believe, influence her life and work as we’ve come to know it.

THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY, a bold new work of historical fiction, spans hundreds of years and generations of a family’s lineage to explore the pain and trauma throughout, all in hopes of learning how to break a vicious cycle. It’s the year 2045 and Dorothy Moy, a former poet laureate, has always suffered from depression. But when her young daughter begins to show signs of the same affliction—while also herself “remembering” scenes from the past—she springs into action. The treatment options include an experimental technique that connects Dorothy with all the Moy women before her, including a nurse in China in 1942, a schoolgirl in 1927 England, a tech entrepreneur in 2014, and the first Chinese woman in America way back in the 1830s. The futuristic procedure allows Dorothy to reflect on her family’s past and the pain each generational daughter seems to share. There is also another through line: a stranger in each era searching for a Moy woman…and for her love. For those seeking to explore the ties that bind (and to time travel at the same time), THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY is an affecting novel that focuses on understanding a family’s collective pain and the hope that can come out of it.