Novels based on historical events

China Dolls

by Lisa See

I always count on Lisa See for sweeping historical fiction stories. This one opens in the late 1930's night club scene in San Francisco and spans major events of WWII, like the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the horrors of Japanese internment camps. Showgirls Ruby, Helen, and Grace compete for roles and share their pasts. Grace and Helen are from Chinese families and escaped to find new lives in the city. Ruby is Japanese but passes for Chinese, which only her closest friends know. When she's suddenly among the many Japanese Americans under suspicion after Pearl Harbor, Ruby grapples with betrayal and faces an uncertain future. See writes friendship so well, and I appreciated this less-familiar look at the WWII era.

The Secrets We Kept

by Lara Prescott

The story behind this historical thriller could launch its own novel. Lara Prescott has always loved the book Dr Zhivago, and was stunned—along with the rest of the world—when the CIA declassified documents revealing that it had played a role in the book's covert publication and distribution in Russia during the Cold War. This is Prescott's imagining of what that might have looked like. The story moves between East, where the focus is on Pasternak and his muse/mistress, and West, where readers get to know the female spies of the OSS. The book has the feel of Kate Quinn’s The Huntress, with some of the storytelling flavor of Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, or Brit Bennet’s The Mothers.

As Bright as Heaven

by Susan Meissner

The 1918 Spanish flu epidemic isn't nearly as unfamiliar to us as it was a year ago—now that we've seen a pandemic firsthand and witnessed countless charts, graphs, and comparisons to the past. But when Meissner was writing this book, it was little known to contemporary readers. In fact, even many months after it was published, Meissner bemoaned that though 50 million people died of the 1918 influenza, we appeared then to be making little effort to remember. In her novel, Pauline Bright and her husband are newly arrived in Philadelphia with their three daughters; they hope to give their girls a chance at a better life. But shortly after arriving in Philadelphia, the great illness that came to be known as the Spanish flu meets them in their new city, bringing loss and heartache in its wake. But there's also hope, as the family takes in a baby orphaned by the illness. (Please be mindful of whether you're ready to read a pandemic tale before picking this one up!)

The Last Train to Key West

by Chanel Cleeton

In this standalone novel from the author of Next Year in Havana, three women’s lives become entangled over the course of Labor Day weekend, 1935, when the storm of the century slams into Key West. The story is told from three perspectives, that of three different women who seem to share little in common, but whose lives are about to intersect in ways no one could foresee. Helen is a Key West native, poor and pregnant, fleeing her abusive husband. Mirta is Cuban, newly married to a man she barely knows, and just beginning her honeymoon. And Elizabeth, who’s come south on a dangerous search for a long-lost loved one. A captivating novel about a little-known historical event.

The Cold Millions

by Jess Walter

This is a story of two brothers who get mixed up in the labor movement in 1909 in Spokane, Washington. They're from Montana and when their mother died, their last surviving parent, they go to the big city to find work and make a future for themselves. But the brothers end up at a labor protest and they end up in jail. As a result of their circumstances, they get all mixed up with the based-on real life activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Hers was not a name I knew, but I love reading about under explored, unexamined periods of history. Something else I loved about this book is the wonderful cast of characters. It's at its heart a story of two brothers, but the whole roster of supporting characters is deep and fabulous. There's a vaudeville actress whose character might be my favorite; her stage name is Ursula the Great and her backstory is fantastic. I would highly recommend this for fans of This Tender Land.

Flight of Dreams

by Ariel Lawhon

I loved Lawhon's historical fiction debut The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress and was eager to read her next work. Her second novel puts an interesting spin on a tragic historical event: the 1937 Hindenburg disaster. This entertaining, suspenseful tale is told from multiple points of view and is based on the lives of real characters. The enigmatic setting—aboard the luxurious yet claustrophobic airship—captures your imagination. My husband surprised me by loving this. For fans of Agatha Christie and Kate Morton.

Outrun the Moon

by Stacey Lee

From the publisher: "An unforgettable story of determination set against a backdrop of devastating tragedy. San Francisco, 1906: Fifteen-year-old Mercy Wong is determined to break from the poverty of Chinatown, and an education at St. Clare's School for Girls is her best hope. Although St. Clare’s is off-limits to all but the wealthiest white girls, Mercy gains admittance through a mix of cunning and a little bribery, only to discover that getting in was the easiest part. Not to be undone by a bunch of spoiled heiresses, Mercy stands strong—until disaster strikes. On April 18, a historic earthquake rocks San Francisco, destroying Mercy’s home and school. Now she's forced to wait with her classmates for their families in a temporary park encampment. Though fires might rage, and the city may be in shambles, Mercy can't sit by while they wait for the army to bring help—she still has the 'bossy' cheeks that mark her as someone who gets things done. But what can one teenage girl do to heal so many suffering in her broken city?"

Salt to the Sea

by Ruta Sepetys

You know about the Titanic, and maybe even the Lusitania disaster (the subject of Erik Larson's Dead Wake). But you've likely never heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy of 1945, though the lives lost outnumber the people who died in those two better-known disasters at sea. The ship was hugely over capacity when it sank in the Baltic Sea after being hit by Soviet torpedoes. Told in four distinct characters' voices, that of a young nurse, a Prussian soldier, an expecting mother, and a delusional Nazi recruit converge. Sepetys excels at writing historically accurate, page-turning YA novels equally beloved by tweens, teens, and grown-ups.

The Bird King

by G. Willow Wilson

From the publisher: "An epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition. A stunning new novel that tells the story of Fatima, a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker. Hassan has a secret—he can draw maps of places he's never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan's surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan's gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls?"

The Stars Are Fire

by Anita Shreve

After a scorching summer and months of no rain, the largest fires in Maine's history swept over its coast, from Bar Harbor to Kittery. In Shreve's claustrophobic domestic suspense we experience this real event through the eyes of Grace Holland, whose marriage is its own sort of natural disaster. Her husband came back from the war a little broken. So did her friend's husbands, yet they don't seem as cruel. When wildfires break out, her husband leaves to help dig a fire break, and Grace and her children flee to the ocean to escape the flames. When her husband doesn't return, Grace thinks she's lost him forever—and she's far from devastated. But then he returns, and the real trouble begins. Dark and a little melodramatic, but oh-so-discussable.

Flygirl

by Sherri L. Smith

Few of the WWII historical fiction stories I’ve read focus on the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, a group that was created by the U.S. Army to help defeat Germany and Japan. Ida Mae's father was a Black pilot who taught her to fly planes, though her race and gender prevent her from following in his footsteps. Eager to soar, Ida is ready to join WASP as a way to fly and to help her brother who is fighting in the Pacific. But when the new organization denies her entry based on her race, Ida's only choice is to pass as white in order to live her dream. Smith expertly explores identity, family, and legacy while immersing her readers in history in this fantastic YA novel.

The Huntress

by Kate Quinn

The Alice Network author Quinn also takes on the aftermath of WWII in her latest historical release. Inspired by a true story she stumbled upon in the historical archives (which would totally spoil the big reveal—you’re going to have to read the Author’s Note to learn all!), Quinn weaves together three perspectives to tell a gripping story: Jordan is a Boston teenager who works in her father’s Boston antiques store, Ian is a British journalist determined to bring his brother’s killer—known as “the Huntress”—to justice, and Nina is a Russian fighter pilot and the only woman alive who can identify the Huntress. There’s no weak link in the story; each thread is fascinating—and when they began to come together I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. A mesmerizing tale of war crimes, coming of age, love and fidelity, and the pursuit of justice, with stirring implications for today.

This Lovely City

by Louise Hare

In 1948, the Empire Windrush arrived in Essex, London, carrying 492 Jamaican immigrants who were recruited by the British government to help rebuild the economy after WWII. In her debut novel, Louise Hare tells a fictional story about young love, prejudice, and home. Recent immigrant Lawrie Matthews works as a postman by day and a jazz musician by night. In between, he makes time to woo the girl next door. When Lawrie discovers something terrible on his way to work one day, he becomes the number one suspect, despite all evidence to the contrary. The community turns against him in a show of xenophobia and racism; his hopes seem all but dashed. His friends want to help but fear getting wrapped up in danger themselves, leaving it up to Lawrie's love interest to step in. Hare writes a mystery wrapped in a romance, with vibrant historical detail.

The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding

by Jennifer Robson

Historian-turned-novelist Robson sets her latest historical release in 1947, when times are grim: so many have lost so much, war rationing continues, Britain is in ruins. But in a bleak year, there’s a bright spot: Princess Elizabeth’s royal wedding captured the hearts of a nation, and was a beacon of hope to a country on its knees. Britain was on its knees, but the people insisted on a real celebration, including a beautiful gown. Robson’s story shifts among three protagonists and spans 70 years, but the common thread is Elizabeth’s gown—and specifically, the women who make it. While Robson has a fine eye for detail, and her behind-the-scenes descriptions of the fine autelier’s workroom are riveting, the heartbeat of the story comes from female friendship, secret pasts, and life after loss. A must-read for fans of The Crown, and recommended for all seeking an intimate take on the often-neglected postwar era.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

by Kim Michele Richardson

Books have the power to change lives and nowhere is this more true than the story of 19-year-old Cussy Carter, an Appalachian woman who joins the Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and delivers books to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky. She's also the last living female with Blue People ancestry, all of whom had a skin condition called methemoglobinemia, which really did turn their skin blue. Inspired by real history and set in 1936, this is a story of hope and heartbreak and how fierce determination can challenge the grasp of poverty and oppression.

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Novels based on historical events

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