Historical Fiction

Hanging beside the door is a painting of a wedding feast. The light is centred on the bride; the guests are banished to the shade.That is how it is when he looks at her: all others fade away. Geertje, an impoverished widow from Ed…

Those eyes are fixed on someone. But who? What is she thinking as she stares out from one of the world’s best-loved paintings? Johannes Vermeer can spot exceptional beauty. When servant girl Griet catches his eye, she soon becomes…

Here was one who would squeeze the sun in her fist if she ever got the chance; yes, and tilt her head back to swallow its liquid light.  August 9th, 1945, Nagasaki. Twenty-one year old Hiroko Tanaka steps out onto her veranda, wea…

Northern Germany, 1945. Dead of night and dead of winter, a boy hears soldiers and sees strangers - forced labourers - fleeing across the heathland by his small town: shawls and skirts in the snowfall.The end days are close, war b…

February 6, 1958, British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on take-off at Munich Airport. On board were the young Manchester United team, 'the Busby Babes', and the journalists who followed them.Twenty-one of the passengers die…

A stunning debut on queer love, betrayal and survival in Elizabethan England. Perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel and Maggie O'Farrell.  England, 1593.Kit Marlowe is one of London's most beloved playwrights. He lives audaciously, le…

A heart-rending story of a Native American community told through the generations. Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle where he is forced to learn English …

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he flees to nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a …

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh G…

Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifr…

Lucy is running from what she's done - and what someone did to her. There's only one person who might understand: her sister Jess. But when Lucy arrives at her sister's desolate cliff-top house, Jess is gone. Lucy is now alone, in…

The outstanding novel from the Carnegie Medal-winning, former Laureate na nÓg Sarah Crossan; thought-provoking and moving, it explores love and family during The Great Hunger. Ireland, 1846. Nell is working as a scullery maid in t…

When Miss Catherine Symonds arrives to take up a position as governess at remote Locksley Abbey in the foothills of the Black Mountains, where England bleeds into Wales, she is apprehensive. It is not the echoing, near empty house…

The Women is a novel of epic love and devastating loss. And it is a story of a memorable heroine, and her deep friendships, whose idealism and courage under fire will define an era.Their friendship changed lives. Their bravery cha…

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023A Reese's Bookclub December Pick (2022)An Instant Sunday Times, New York Times and Irish Times Bestseller (August 2022)A Guardian and LitHub Book of the Year (December 2022) 'Every…

Trieste, 1904. James Joyce - not yet famous - arrives in the city by train with Norah Barnacle. Penniless, he goes to seek out a loan, leaving Norah sitting on a suitcase outside the train station for almost an entire day and nigh…

Kyiv, 1919. The Soviets control the city, but White armies menace them from the West.No man trusts his neighbour and any spark of resistance may ignite into open rebellion. When Samson Kolechko's father is murdered, his last act i…

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, NPR, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg BusinessweekFrom one of today's most brilliant and beloved novelists, a dazzling, epic family saga set across a half-century …

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River - an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes…

Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of social and political chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When sold…

Yaga lives deep in the Russian forest, tending to any that call upon her for her healing potions and vast wisdom. She has been alone for centuries, with only her beloved animals for company. But, when Tsaritsa Anastasia, wife of T…

Ancient Sicily. Enter GELON: visionary, dreamer, theatre lover.Enter LAMPO: lovesick, jobless, in need of a distraction.  Imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse, thousands of defeated Athenians hang on by the thinnest of threads.…

Meet the indomitable Marie de France. Born from a long line of female warriors and crusaders, yet too coarse, too wild, too rough-hewn for courtly life, Marie de France is cast from the royal court. Woefully, she is sent to the mu…

They will have justice. They will show their power. They will not burn. Norway, 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. After recently widowed Zigri's affair with the local me…

The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo's attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and …

December 1962, the West Country.In the darkness of an old asylum, a young man unscrews the lid from a bottle of sleeping pills. In the nearby village, two couples begin their day.Local doctor, Eric Parry, mulling secrets, sets out…

Bringing sixteenth-century France vividly to life, Kate Mosse’s historical epic The Burning Chambers is a gripping story of love, betrayal, war and conspiracy. It is the first volume in the sweeping, spellbinding s…

The richly atmospheric new Strafford and Quirke murder mystery, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Snow. He had seen drowned people. A sight not to be forgotten.1950s, rural Ireland. A loner comes across a mysteriously em…

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024. It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother's country home, with not a fork or a word out…

Hidden behind the walls of Grangegorman Mental Hospital in 1941, four lives collide, all afflicted by the human cost of wars, betrayals and trauma. Gus, a shrewd attendant, is the keeper of everyone’s secrets, especially his own.…