20 Award-Winning Historical Fiction Books

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (PEN/Hemingway Award, American Book Award, 2017)

This was Gyasi’s debut successful humanities fabrication and instantly garnered some awards for the rubric and devoted readers for the author. The communicative follows Maame, an Asante woman, and her descendants crossed generations. This sweeping publication captures the futures of aggregate lines of Maame’s household arsenic the crippled weaves from Ghana to America.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2020)

This fictionalized relationship of the beingness of Hamnet, the lad of Shakespeare who died successful childhood, was everyplace the twelvemonth it came out. Combining Farrell’s genius with prose and emotionally resonant storytelling, this communicative weaves successful themes of family, love, plagues, and civilization throughout.

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The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (Pulitzer Prize, 1928)

Rewinding astir a 100 years, this publication is wide considered to beryllium the champion enactment of Wilder, who besides wrote Our Town. A friar witnesses the deaths of 5 radical erstwhile a enactment span they are crossing successful Peru collapses. Torn isolated by what he’s seen, the friar begins to look into each of the five’s beingness stories, questioning wherefore they had to die. As helium searches, the dormant characters travel to beingness to talk with the friar astir the meaning of beingness and fate.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Margaret Wong Memorial Prize, 1959)

Achebe’s caller is considered the archetype of the modern African caller and was 1 of the archetypal to execute wide planetary acclaim and readership. In this book, which was Achebe’s debut, we spot the communicative done the eyes of Okonkwo, an Igbo (Ibo successful the novel) antheral successful Nigeria. The caller addresses authorities and household wrong Okonkwo’s life, arsenic good arsenic the impacts of colonialism and Christian missionaries connected his community.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Booker Prize, 2014)

At the extremity of his life, Australian doc Dorrigo Evans is recalling the memories that led him to his contiguous state. He reflects connected his puerility successful agrarian Tasmania and past connected his clip arsenic a Japanese captive of warfare sent to labour connected the Burma Death Railway. Flanagan conveys the wrenching fearfulness of those experiences, drawn from his household member’s ain clip arsenic a POW. The publication was praised globally for its exploration of themes relating to humanity and war.

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (Booker Prize, 2015)

This caller is built successful 5 sections, each focusing connected a azygous time and titled aft a philharmonic track. Through these moments, James explores Jamaican authorities and the neighborhoods of West Kingston portion sprinkling successful appearances from real-life figures and from James himself. Marlon James has aggregate award-winning books; his The Book of Night Women (2009) is besides an award-winning humanities fabrication title.

All Clear by Connie Willis (Nebula Award, Hugo Award, 2010)

If you similar a broadside of sci-fi with your humanities fiction, prime this 1 up. Part of a duology (along with Blackout), this publication centers astir a radical of clip travelers who person travel from the adjacent aboriginal to Blitz-era London. Polly, 1 of the main characters, fears that the clip nett is slipping and that she volition beryllium stuck successful the 1940s, doomed to dice there. The publication involves plentifulness of futuristic crippled points, but besides a elaborate look astatine wartime England.

War Trash by Ha Jin (PEN/Faulkner Award, 2004)

This novel, which was besides a Pulitzer Prize finalist, takes spot successful a prisoner-of-war campy successful Korea. Yu Yuan, a Chinese soldier, was captured by the Korean subject and present indispensable determine betwixt declaring his allegiance to the Chinese Nationalists and facing ne'er returning to China oregon becoming aligned with the Communists successful hopes of someday being released to spot his parent and his fiancée.

A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley (Society of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction, 2023)

In 1850s California, prostitutes Eliza and Jean are some creating their ain lives connected the borderline of the Wild West successful Monterrey, California. The bodies of young women person begun to crook up extracurricular of town, and Eliza and Jean are determined to find the killer. This publication explores the freedoms and restrictions of women making their mode connected their ain during this clip period.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (British Book Awards Author of the Year, 2003)

This gothic humanities caller explores themes of feminism and lesbianism successful the Victorian era, and it incorporates humanities texts. Sue Trinder has been raised arsenic an orphan and is sent by her benefactor, Mrs. Sucksby, to assistance Gentleman, a well-known conman, seduce Maud, a affluent heiress. As the communicative progresses, we statesman to perceive Maud’s broadside of the communicative arsenic good arsenic spot however the relationships betwixt Sue, Maud, and Gentleman shift.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Pulitzer Prize, 2021)

It’s 1953, and Thomas Wazhashk is the nighttime watchman astatine the jewel-bearing works adjacent the Turtle Mountain Reservation successful agrarian North Dakota. He is besides a subordinate of the Chippewa Council, which is grappling with the U.S. government’s determination to terminate Native American pact rights and the individuality of tribes. Filled with the benignant of expertly crafted characters and storylines that Erdrich is known for, this publication illustrates a pivotal constituent successful Native American history.

The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Walter Scott Prize, 2010)

The Long Song is written arsenic the memoir of an aged Jamaican pistillate surviving astatine the extremity of the 19th century. It covers the communicative of slavery successful Jamaica, the 1831 Baptist War, and the modulation to state successful a moving epic of a woman’s life.

These Days by Lucy Caldwell (Walter Scott Prize, 2023)

Set successful April 1941 during the Belfast Blitz, this is the communicative of 2 sisters. Audrey is engaged to Richard, and Emma is uncovering herself dilatory falling successful emotion with a woman, with some journeys playing retired against the astir surreal horrors of the bombing raids. The publication provides tons of item astir wartime successful Belfast arsenic good arsenic a moving relationship of the sisters’ idiosyncratic lives.

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra (David J. Langum, Sr. Prize successful American Historical Fiction, 2022)

Maria Lagana grew up successful Rome dreaming of the cinema and moved to Los Angeles to prosecute a vocation successful film. Fifteen years later, she’s an subordinate shaper astatine Mercury Pictures, a workplace connected the verge of bankruptcy. As the satellite teeters connected the brink of war, Maria indispensable look the idiosyncratic relationships that person travel to complicate her life, arsenic good arsenic invited the warfare refugees who person travel to Los Angeles to effort to marque a caller beingness for themselves.

Beloved by Toni Morrison (Pulitzer Prize, 1988)

There’s a crushed this publication is simply a classical of literature, careless of genre. Nobel Prize victor Toni Morrison erstwhile again shows her genius portion telling the communicative of Sethe, who escaped enslavement 18 years agone but is inactive haunted by the ghosts of the past. Called “brutally powerful,” this enduring caller is simply a must-read.

True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (Booker Prize (UK), 2001)

Structured arsenic the autobiography of Ned Kelly, this caller begins with the communicative of Ned’s father, an Irishman who came to the colony of Victoria, Australia. As the years spell by, the household begins to tangle with the British constitution that governs the colony. First, Ned’s begetter is jailed, and past Ned, on with his friends and brothers, becomes a pack of equine thieves wanted by instrumentality enforcement. The communicative has a “Wild West”/folk leader motif arsenic Kelly struggles against the Englishmen who ain the colony and privation him dead.

Saint Monkey by Jacinda Townsend (Society of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction, 2015)

Audrey Martin is simply a 14-year-old with an astonishing endowment astatine the soft and a champion friend, Caroline, who dreams of stardom. Audrey and Caroline aren’t definite they’ll ever permission Kentucky, but erstwhile a endowment scout sees Audrey playing the piano, she’s offered a accidental to caput to New York City and yet to the Apollo. As Audrey deals with the trials of big-city life, Caroline continues to unrecorded successful their hometown. This is simply a representation of 2 women connected diverging paths successful the aboriginal 20th century.

The Frozen Hours by Jeff Shaara (W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence successful Military Fiction, 2018)

This caller is known for its precise dramatization of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, of Frozen Chosin, successful 1950. In Shaara’s book, we perceive the communicative done the position of 3 men: an American commander, a Marine private, and a Chinese commander, arsenic they each combat for endurance successful 1 of the astir terrifying battles of the war.

The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 1: The Witnesses by Sharon Ewell Foster (Michael Shaara Award for Excellence successful Civil War Fiction, 2012)

Sharon Ewell Foster’s epic, two-part caller astir the heroic Nat Turner sets a caller modular for elaborate probe and narrative, humanities writing. In this volume, Foster writes a caller spanning implicit 60 years, from Ethiopia to Virginia, to archer the communicative of Turner’s life.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize, 2017, National Book Award for Fiction, 2016)

In this ingenious telling of antebellum history, the Underground Railroad is not a metaphor but an existent railroad that takes passengers to freedom. Following Cora, who begins the communicative enslaved connected a fabric plantation, Whitehead masterfully weaves unneurotic her ain fearful travel and the larger past of the United States.