The Best Books of 2023: Historical Fiction
(according to Waterstones.)
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Taking inspiration from a real-life nineteenth-century imposture trial, Smith's immersive first historical novel weaves together the stories of a Scottish housekeeper with a novelist cousin, a formerly enslaved valet unexpectedly thrust into the limelight of a legal case and the missing heir to the Tichborne baronetcy.
North Woods by Daniel Mason
A novel with the quality of a spell, this mesmeric tale takes a single house in the woods of Massachusetts and those who inhabit it across four centuries to explore the countless ways in which the past lives on in nature, memory, language and the human heart.
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
A luminous epic that spans a quarter of a millennium and begins in fourteenth-century India where a girl is tasked by a goddess with giving women agency in a patriarchal world.
The Glutton by A. K. Blakemore
In this rich and absorbing tale of depravity, pleasure and class, Blakemore serves up another glorious evocation of the past, as a hungry peasant embarks on a curious crusade in revolutionary France.
Sharpe's Command by Bernard Cornwell
Another unputdownable entry in the mega-selling Sharpe series as Britannia puts her faith in our maverick hero to defend her troops from French forces in early nineteenth-century Spain.
The New Life by Tom Crewe
A tender and powerful tale of passion, progress and personal freedom that re-imagines the lives of the two men who published the first English medical textbook on homosexuality, Crewe’s beautiful novel is filled with nuance and forensic insight into love.
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
A tour de force of historical storytelling, as a fleeing servant girl finds herself adrift in a world she can scarcely comprehend.
The Armour of Light - The Kingsbridge Novels by Ken Follett
A sweeping story of industrial unrest, oppressive government and the spectre of revolution in the tinderbox of the late eighteenth century
Wolves of Winter - Essex Dogs by Dan Jones
The siege of Calais and pirate ships spell new dangers for the Essex Dogs as the Hundred Years' War rages on in the second part of the gripping trilogy from the popular historian and broadcaster.
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
The bestselling author of Ariadne and Elektra brings the formidable Atalanta and her adventures amidst the Argonauts to vivid life in another sweeping re-imagining of Greek myth.
Weyward by Emilia Hart
A woman fleeing an abusive relationship heads for Weyward Cottage and makes a startling discovery about her ancestors in this bewitching debut perfect for fans of Bridget Collins.
Well, there you go. The first ten and to my shame I have to say I have not read any of them!
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