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  1. Genres
  2. ›Historical Fiction

Best Historical Fiction Books

Explore the best historical fiction books — comprehensive summaries, key takeaways, and insights from the standout titles in this genre.

2,135 summaries

Showing 2,065–2,088 of 2,135

  1. Kiss the Dust

    Elizabeth Laird

    ★ 3.8 (632) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    Forced from her Iraqi home, a young girl faces displacement and a search for belonging as her family travels from Kurdish resistance to British asylum.

  2. Daddy Was a Number Runner

    Louise Meriwether

    ★ 4.2 (620) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    In 1934 Harlem, twelve-year-old Francie Coffin navigates a world of dashed hopes and resilient dreams, where the daily numbers game offers a false promise of escape from the Great Depression.

  3. Threads and Flames

    Esther M. Friesner

    ★ 4.0 (613) average on GoodreadsYoung Adult

    In 1910 New York, a young Polish immigrant named Raisa navigates a new world of friendship, love, and factory work, only to face the devastating inferno of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that will forever mark her life.

  4. The Day the Cowboys Quit

    Elmer Kelton

    ★ 4.2 (612) average on Goodreads

    In 1883, Texas Panhandle cowboys, labeled as thieves and exploited by powerful ranchers, launch a strike to regain their dignity and the right to own the cattle they tend.

  5. The Lottery Ticket

    Jules Verne

    ★ 3.5 (593) average on GoodreadsScience Fiction

    In 1800s Norway, a young woman's grief for her lost betrothed aboard the fishing boat 'Viking' is entwined with the tantalizing hope of a lottery ticket found in a bottle, promising a fortune that could change her fate or deepen her despair.

  6. The Wonder of Charlie Anne

    Kimberly Newton Fusco

    ★ 4.0 (585) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    During the Depression, a girl named Charlie Anne, living with a strict cousin and farm chores, finds an unexpected friend in Phoebe, an African American girl, challenging small-town prejudice and showing love's power.

  7. Little Manfred

    Michael Morpurgo

    ★ 4.0 (574) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    A carved wooden dachshund becomes a symbol of an unlikely friendship between a German prisoner of war and a young British girl, spanning WWII and hinting at a hopeful reunion during the 1966 World Cup.

  8. Hannibal

    Thomas Harris

    ★ 3.7 (573) average on GoodreadsHistory

    Years after eluding the FBI, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, now a respected curator in Florence, finds his cultured life threatened by a disgraced Clarice Starling, a greedy Italian detective, and the monstrously disfigured Mason Verger, who seeks to feed Lecter to his own ravenous eels as twisted revenge.

  9. Gospel

    Wilton Barnhardt

    ★ 4.3 (572) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A shy theologian and a cynical ex-Jesuit race across continents, from the Vatican to the ancient Silk Road, in a thrilling, erudite, and often humorous pursuit of a lost first-century gospel that could redefine the essence of Christian faith.

  10. Death and Nightingales

    Eugene McCabe

    ★ 3.7 (570) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    On her twenty-fifth birthday in 1883 Fermanagh, Beth Winters, caught between her stepfather's cruelty and a charismatic rogue, races against a family curse to escape a life of pain and betrayal before it consumes her.

  11. The Colonel

    Mahmoud Dowlatabadi

    ★ 3.8 (558) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    On a rain-slicked Iranian night, a retired Colonel confronts the devastating legacy of a revolution devouring its own, forced to bury his tortured daughter while grappling with the ghosts of his nation's past and the shattered ideals of his children.

  12. Eureka

    William Diehl

    ★ 3.7 (558) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In 1941 California, a detective investigates a woman's suspicious electrocution, uncovering a decades-old secret that links a bootlegging town, a bloody shootout, and a sheriff's gubernatorial ambitions, exposing the dark side of the state's elite.

  13. Pearl

    Mary Gordon

    ★ 3.2 (552) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    A mother's radical past clashes with her daughter's enigmatic act of self-starvation outside the American embassy in Dublin, forcing a harrowing descent into maternal love, faith, and Ireland's history.

  14. The Rise of David Levinsky

    Abraham Cahan

    ★ 3.6 (546) average on GoodreadsSpirituality

    From the fervent study of the Talmud to the cutthroat world of New York's garment industry, a young Hasidic Jew discovers that the glittering promise of American assimilation may cost him his very soul.

  15. Nevermore

    Kelly Creagh

    ★ 3.8 (543) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A cheerleader's world unravels when she is drawn into the dark, Edgar Allan Poe-inspired dreamscape of a mysterious classmate's journal, where nightmares become terrifying realities and his life hangs in the balance.

  16. Stroke of Midnight

    Olivia Drake

    ★ 3.7 (538) average on GoodreadsMystery

    A disgraced woman returns to London under an assumed identity, only to find herself entangled with the earl who once accused her father and now insists on marrying her to protect her amateur sleuthing.

  17. Lady in White

    Denise Domning

    ★ 4.0 (536) average on GoodreadsRomance

    A widow forced into a politically charged marriage finds herself entangled in a dangerous web of suspicion and attraction with her husband's loyal steward, who believes she's a spy.

  18. The Hunting Ground

    Cliff McNish

    ★ 3.7 (536) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Trapped in Glebe House, brothers Elliott and Ben must navigate haunted halls and unravel a century-old tragedy to escape a twisted evil before becoming its next victims.

  19. Beorn the Proud

    Madeleine A. Polland

    ★ 3.9 (531) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    In 9th-century Ireland, a young Norse warrior named Beorn discovers the power of Christian humility through his captive, an Irish chieftain's daughter.

  20. I Hotel

    Karen Tei Yamashita

    ★ 3.8 (525) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    Through diverse voices and forms, "I Hotel" explores the Yellow Power Movement in San Francisco's Chinatown, tracing a decade of student unrest, revolutionary spirit, and the fight to save a historic hotel that became central to Asian American identity in the late 1960s and early 70s.

  21. The Last Wolf

    Michael Morpurgo

    ★ 4.1 (525) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    In the Scottish Highlands of Bonnie Prince Charlie, an orphaned boy and his wolf cub form a bond as they navigate a war-torn land, learning that belonging sometimes means letting go.

  22. Once on This Island

    Gloria Whelan

    ★ 3.8 (521) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    During the British occupation of Mackinac Island in the War of 1812, a young girl named Mary cares for her family's farm and waits for her father to return.

  23. The Syringa Tree

    Pamela Gien

    ★ 3.8 (493) average on Goodreads

    In apartheid South Africa, a young girl's bond with her nanny turns into a dangerous secret that challenges their divided world.

  24. The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

    Anatole France

    ★ 3.7 (492) average on GoodreadsMystery

    An aging, reclusive scholar of medieval manuscripts finds his quiet world upended by a perplexing mystery and an unexpected connection to a young woman's past, forcing him to unravel a historical enigma to ensure her future.

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