One of the most remarkable things about books is the way they are able to transport the reader someplace else. You can sail ships on the high seas and visit other planets and fantasy realms. What’s wonderful about historical fiction is that it doesn’t just take you to another place, but to another point in history. You can enjoy period details and learn more about what it was like to be alive during a different era.
Here are 10 historical fiction books that will transport you to another time.
1) Atonement by Ian McEwan
In the summer of 1935 in England, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis misconstrues the flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, Cecelia’s childhood friend and a servant’s son. Briony’s misunderstanding brings about a crime that will irrevocably change all their lives. The novel follows the crime’s repercussions through the violence and chaos of World War II and the end of the twentieth century.
This story will take you through the time before, during, and after World War II. It grapples with class, love, family, and jealousy in a way that is perfectly timeless. Briony’s perspective is fascinating, as are the other characters.
2) The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
This novel is set in South Carolina in 1964 and tells the story of Lily Owens, who has a fuzzy memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When her Black nanny Rosaleen insults three of the most racist folks in town, Lily skips town with her. They run to Tiburon, South Carolina where they’re taken in by three Black beekeeping sisters. This town holds the secret to her mother’s past.
The Secret Life of Bees features an eccentric central cast of characters that you can’t help but love. Lily’s process of learning more about her mother and past is moving to watch, as is her relationship with the three sisters. It’s a novel about mothers, daughters, and finding family in unexpected places.
3) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
This novel tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family in 1800s Columbia. The patriarch of the Buendía family—José Arcadio Buendía—founded Macondo, a fictitious town. It tells the rise and fall and birth and death of Macondo through the Buendía family.
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, this expansive work is one of the twentieth century’s most acclaimed novels. Filled to the brim with compelling, vibrant characters, it deserves all the praise it gets. The writing is also beautifully lyrical.
4) The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
In 1939 Germany, Liesel Meminger is a foster child who has a penchant for stealing books. Her foster father teaches her to read and she shares her stolen books with the neighborhood during bombing raids. She also shares the books with the Jewish man hiding in her basement.
This young adult historical fiction novel is a #1 New York Times bestseller and one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 YA Books of All Time. Liesel has the type of unassailable hope that will inspire readers. The book also features a grim sort of humor.
5) The Help by Kathryn Stockett
It’s 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi where Black maid Aibileen has always taken orders quietly. But lately, it’s getting harder to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has always been outspoken but now she must keep quiet about her employer’s shocking secrets. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college and is full of ambition, but in the eyes of the other white society ladies, she’s a husband-less failure. These three women join together to write a tell-all book about what it’s like to work as a Black maid in the South that could change their lives forever, as well as life in their small town.
The characters—particularly Aibileen and Minny—leap off the page as warm, three-dimensional human beings. The period and setting are depicted beautifully with honesty and humor. It’s a compulsively readable book that you’ll find you’ve finished in just a matter of hours.
6) The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
In 1327 Italy, Benedictines in a wealthy Italian abbey are heresy suspects. Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When there are seven sudden, bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. He collects evidence, interprets symbols and coded manuscripts, and wanders through the eerie labyrinth of the abbey.
This absorbing piece of literature is part historical fiction and part well-plotted mystery. Brother William is an intriguing character full of wry humor and fierce curiosity. The book’s labyrinthine library at its heart is a marvelous setting and you will be eager to follow Brother William through to this mystery’s end.
7) Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Set in 1660s Delft, this novel tells the imagined story of the young woman who inspired one of Johannes Vermeer’s most celebrated paintings. It explores the relationship between sixteen-year-old servant Griet, the subject of the painting, and the famed Dutch painter.
Griet’s keen perspective brings this bygone era to life. This is a great novel for art lovers—particularly those who are enamored of Vermeer and his arguably most famous painting. The novel has an interesting cast of characters, including Vermeer’s endlessly pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law.
8) Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is at a Greenwich Village jazz bar on the last night of 1937 when she meets Tinker Grey, a handsome banker. This chance encounter and its surprising consequences propel Katey into New York high society. There she won’t have much to rely on other than her own wit and mettle.
This book will make you feel as though you are walking down the sidewalks of old New York. Much like the show Mad Men does with the 60s, this novel showcases how cool and stylish New York was in the 30s. Through it all, you follow Katey, a strong and witty female lead who will feel like a friend.
9) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
This novel is the first in a series of three and is told through the voice of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s. It explores his community’s resistance to British colonialism and it covers the European presence on the continent in general.
20 million copies of Things Fall Apart have been sold and it’s been translated into 57 languages. It provides a vivid picture of what life was like in a pre-colonial African village. It also shows the tragic losses that are incurred under the threat of imperialism.
10) Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
In Vergil’s The Aeneid, Aeneas fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, and the two are destined to form an empire. In Lavinia, we get Lavinia’s side of the story, set in ancient Italy, where she grows up knowing freedom and peace until suitors start showing up. Her mother picks out a suitor for her to marry, but omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner. When a fleet of Trojan ships comes sailing up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her fate into her own hands.
Ursula K. Le Guin was a master of speculative fiction, and her writing is no less powerful than one would expect in this work of historical fiction. Lavinia is a fascinating character—very much the daughter of her wise father and mad mother. This novel gives a voice to a minor but very important character in The Aeneid and tells us her story.
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