Historical Fiction
A mix of eras, stories, settings and characters in these historical novels chosen by our librarians. (Updated June 2020)
-
A Long Petal of the Sea
A sweeping saga, told in graceful language, about two young people – an army doctor and a sheep-herder – who flee the Spanish Civil War and immigrate to Chile, where they begin new lives.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View A Long Petal of the Sea -
Conjure Women
A haunting novel that begins during the Civil War and sweeps across generations to tell the stories of two enslaved women, their master’s daughter, and the bonds between them.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Conjure Women -
A Thousand Moons
In the aftermath of the American Civil War, an orphaned Lakota girl grows up in rural Tennessee with two ex-soldiers and former slaves. This is a heart-wrenching story told in lyrical language.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View A Thousand Moons -
The Library of Legends
As Japanese bombs begin falling on China in 1937, university faculty and students set off on a long trek to carry both themselves and a rare collection of folklore and mythology books to safety.
Format: eBook
View The Library of Legends -
The Night Tiger
Myth, mystery and romance all intertwine in this sweeping, layered novel set in rural Malaysia under British colonial rule in the 1930s.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Night Tiger -
The Water Dancer
Using gorgeous language and a touch of fantasy, this novel tells the moving story of a boy born into slavery on a Virginia plantation who struggles to achieve freedom for himself and his loved ones.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Water Dancer -
Africaville
This family saga spans most of the 20th century, charting the course of three generations of descendants of the founders of a community of former slaves in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Africaville -
Book of the Little Axe
In 1830, a young man in the Crow Nation (in what is now Montana) journeys with his mother to Trinidad – the homeland she fled in 1796 – to uncover difficult truths.
Format: eBook
View Book of the Little Axe -
The Mercies
This dark novel is set in 1600s Scandinavia. When the men in a remote fishing village all die at sea, the women are left to struggle against natural forces as well as charges of witchcraft.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Mercies -
The Convert
When a young woman from a Christian family in 11th century France falls in love with a Jewish scholar they face violence and danger when they flee their city in order to be together.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Convert