Best Historical Fiction Books of All Time
Project Hail Mary (Released: January 2021)
Author(s): Andy Weir
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.45 (2321 Ratings, 317 Reviews)
Pages: 496
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission – and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that’s been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it’s up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance. Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian – while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
Genre(s): Science fiction, Fiction, Space, Fantasy, Dystopian, Aliens, Historical Fiction, photography, Adventure, Mystery
And Then There Were None (Released: January 1939)
Author(s): Agatha Christie
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.25 (1208 Ratings, 115 Reviews)
Pages: 116
And Then There Were None is the signature novel of Agatha Christie, the most beloved work of the world's bestselling novelist. It is a masterpiece of mystery and suspense that has been a fixture in popular literature for more than sixty years, a brilliant tale that remains as compelling today as ever. First there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the-coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to any of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder, and one by one they begin to fall prey to an unseen hand. As the only people on the island, unable to leave and unable to call for help, they know that the only possible suspects are among their number. And only the dead are above suspicion. Also published as "Ten Little Indians"
Genre(s): Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Classics, Suspense, Traditional Detectives, etc, English fiction, Islands, Juvenile Fiction
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (Released: November 2002)
Author(s): R.F. Kuang
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.07 (921 Ratings, 185 Reviews)
Pages: 560
1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he'll enroll in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation--also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working--the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars--has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire's quest for colonization. For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide... Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?
Genre(s): Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Dark Academia, Science fiction, Literary Fiction, History, Anti-imperialist movements
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Released: January 1967)
Author(s): Gabriel García Márquez
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.09 (787 Ratings, 78 Reviews)
Pages: 396
One of the most influential literary works of our time, One Hundred Years of Solitude remains a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendiá family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with unforgettable men and women—brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul—this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.
Genre(s): Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature, Spanish, Colombian fiction, Diversity, Macondo (Imaginary place), Colombia, Latin America
The Shadow of the Wind (Released: January 2001)
Author(s): Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Lucia Graves (Translator)
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.14 (609 Ratings, 92 Reviews)
Pages: 487
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets—an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love. ____ Un amanecer de 1945, un muchacho es conducido por su padre a un misterioso lugar oculto en el corazón de la ciudad vieja: el Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados. Allí, Daniel Sempere encuentra un libro maldito que cambia el rumbo de su vida y le arrastra a un laberinto de intrigas y secretos enterrados en el alma oscura de la ciudad. La Sombra del Viento es un misterio literario ambientado en la Barcelona de la primera mitad del siglo xx, desde los últimos esplendores del Modernismo hasta las tinieblas de la posguerra. Aunando las técnicas del relato de intriga y suspense, la novela histórica y la comedia de costumbres, La Sombra del Viento es sobre todo una trágica historia de amor cuyo eco se proyecta a través del tiempo. Con gran fuerza narrativa, el autor entrelaza tramas y enigmas a modo de muñecas rusas en un inolvidable relato sobre los secretos del corazón y el embrujo de los libros cuya intriga se mantiene hasta la última página. Todavía recuerdo aquel amanecer en que mi padre me llevó por primera vez a visitar El Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados.
Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery, Suspense, General, Thriller, Spanish, Juvenile Nonfiction, Detective and mystery stories
The Pillars of the Earth (Released: March 1800)
Author(s): Ken Follett
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.08 (493 Ratings, 50 Reviews)
Pages: 1008
A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, The Pillars of the Earth is Ken Follett's classic historical masterpiece. A MASON WITH A DREAM 1135 and civil war, famine and religious strife abound. With his family on the verge of starvation, mason Tom Builder dreams of the day that he can use his talents to create and build a cathedral like no other. A MONK WITH A BURNING MISSION Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, is resourceful, but with money scarce he knows that for his town to survive it must find a way to thrive, and so he makes the decision to build within it the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known. A WORLD OF HIGH IDEALS AND SAVAGE CRUELTY As Tom and Philip meet so begins an epic tale of ambition, anarchy and absolute power. In a world beset by strife and enemies that would thwart their plans, they will stop at nothing to achieve their ambitions in a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother . . . The Pillars of the Earth is the first in The Kingsbridge Novels series, followed by World Without End and A Column of Fire. More than 175 million copies sold worldwide. Published in over eighty territories and thirty-seven languages. The international No. 1 bestselling phenomenon returns.
Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Classics, Fiction, Fantasy, Suspense, General, Thriller, History, Adventure
Pachinko (Released: January 2017)
Author(s): Min Jin Lee
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.23 (474 Ratings, 66 Reviews)
Pages: 496
In this New York Times bestseller, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan–the inspiration for the television series on Apple TV+. In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty.
Genre(s): Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, War, Literature & Fiction
A Gentleman in Moscow (Released: January 2016)
Author(s): Amor Towles
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.23 (453 Ratings, 71 Reviews)
Pages: 512
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.
Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classics, History
The Color Purple (Released: April 1976)
Author(s): Alice Walker
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.16 (412 Ratings, 38 Reviews)
Pages: 288
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this novel about a resilient and courageous woman has become a Broadway show and a cultural phenomenon. A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by the society around her and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate, and while Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante, married off to an older suitor, and sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband. In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters directly to God. The letters, spanning twenty years, record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment guided by the light of a few strong women. She meets Shug Avery, her husband’s mistress and a jazz singer with a zest for life, and her stepson’s wife, Sophia, who challenges her to fight for independence. And though the many letters from Celie’s sister are hidden by her husband, Nettie’s unwavering support will prove to be the most breathtaking of all. The Color Purple has sold more than five million copies, inspired an Academy Award–nominated film starring Oprah Winfrey and directed by Steven Spielberg, and been adapted into a Tony-nominated Broadway musical. Lauded as a literary masterpiece, this is the groundbreaking novel that placed Walker “in the company of Faulkner” (The Nation), and remains a wrenching—yet intensely uplifting—experience for new generations of readers. This ebook features a new introduction written by the author on the twenty-fifth anniversary of publication, and an illustrated biography of Alice Walker including rare photos from the author’s personal collection. The Color Purple is the 1st book in the Color Purple Collection, which also includes The Temple of My Familiar and Possessing the Secret of Joy.
Genre(s): Fiction, Classics, African Americans, Historical Fiction, Friendship, American fiction, LGBTQ, General, Native Americans
The Name of the Rose (Released: January 1980)
Author(s): Umberto Eco, William Weaver (Translator)
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.01 (376 Ratings, 27 Reviews)
Pages: 556
The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon - all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where "the most interesting things happen at night."
Genre(s): Mystery, Classics, Fiction, Suspense, History, Historical Fiction