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Award-winning historical fiction novels
Explore the past from an alternate perspective with these lauded novels.
Published on July 12, 2023
All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel
Anthony DoerrPulitzer Prize Winner (2015): Doerr’s novel is sensational — the rare book that takes a well-worn subject and adds an unforgettable spin. It follows the twin narratives of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a German orphan recruited to the military, at the height of WWII. The story is haunting, the imagery of war-torn France beautiful, and the characters so rich in depth that you could be convinced they were actually real.
The Known World
Edward P. JonesPulitzer Prize Winner (2004): Henry Townsend, a Black slave owner, is determined to do right by the people considered his property. But in Jones’ meticulously told morality tale, good is hard to grow when the soil is sustained by slave labor. Jones reveals a little-known part of American history that acknowledges nothing is black and white.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael ChabonPulitzer Prize Winner (2001): Chabon’s book blends comics, Jewish lore, and New York City history starting in 1939 to create a page-turning, smart, and deeply enjoyable novel that's been hailed by critics and readers as a modern classic.
The Narrow Land
Christine Dwyer HickeyWalter Scott Prize Winner (2020): Author Dwyer Hickey “reaches into the guts of the marriage of Jo and Edward Hopper and into the heart of the creative impulse itself. And more, much more. Quietly, inexorably, and with pinpoint perception, our winner has brought to dramatic life not just the Hoppers’ intimate eruptions but the tensions and complexities in those around them,” the Walter Scott Prize judges wrote.
The Garden of Evening Mists
Tan Twan EngWalter Scott Prize Winner (2013): A beautiful and original entry in the crowded World War II historical fiction space. The novel spans decades to explore the repercussions of Japan’s brutal actions against Malaya during the war, and how art can bridge cultures and preserve memories.
The Long Song: A Novel
Andrea LevyWalter Scott Prize Winner (2011): Levy breaks the mold of slavery stories with this book. In a lesser novelist’s hands, the helping of humor found here would belittle the sobering subject of slavery, but Levy’s comedic mastery expands, enriches, and humanizes her characters and their predicament.
Wolf Hall: A Novel
Hilary MantelWalter Scott Prize Winner (2010): After winning the Man Booker Prize, Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” also took home the inaugural Walter Scott award back in 2010. It’s a stunning reimagining of Henry VIII’s reign and how the Church of England got its start.
Remember Ben Clayton
Stephen HarriganSociety of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction Winner (2013): Sculptor Gil Gilheaney accepts a commission from Lamar Clayton to make a statue of his son, Ben Clayton, a soldier who died in World War I. In taut prose and with curated poise, Harrigan tells of large-scale historical events through the traumas of two families.
The Last Town on Earth
Thomas MullenSociety of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction Winner (2007): Fear of catching the flu during the devastating 1918 pandemic causes a liberal town in Washington to impose a strict lockdown, but Mullen shows how fear is just as contagious and deadly as the virus. It’s a morbidly fascinating read in the wake of 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Plot Against America: A Novel
Philip RothSociety of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction Winner (2005): This alternate history explores a world where Charles Lindbergh is elected president in 1940, allowing antisemitism to become acceptable in America. There’s a seamless melding of fact with fiction about one of America’s most famous (and infamous) pilots.
Bone by Bone
Peter MatthiessenSociety of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction Winner (2001): Matthiessen’s trilogy fictionalizing the life of outlaw Edgar J. Watson will appeal to fans of Cormac McCarthy. Each book tells Watsons’ life story from a different perspective, with “Bone by Bone” chronicling Watsons’ descent into cruelty through the eyes of the murderous man himself.
A Dangerous Friend: A Novel
Ward JustSociety of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction Winner (2001): Just was a war correspondent during the Vietnam War, and the idealism and depravity he witnessed there is painstakingly reimagined in “A Dangerous Friend.” In the vein of Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene, Just provides cutting commentary on war and American hubris.
Gain
Richard PowersSociety of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction Winner (1999): Powers (“The Overstory”) has been a master of the great American novel for decades, never writing the same book twice. In “Gain,” he intertwines the story of a real estate agent sick with cancer with the history of the corporation whose environmental practices caused her illness.
In the Lake of the Woods: A Novel
Tim O'BrienSociety of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction Winner (1995): In the guise of a thriller, O’Brien (“The Things They Carried”) magics up another literary exploration of the horrors of the Vietnam War. John Wade and his wife, Kathy, have to face a reckoning about their life in the wake of damning political revelations about John’s involvement in the war.
Shaman
Noah GordonSociety of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction Winner (1993): Gordon creates a lush historical drama that takes the reader from Scotland to Boston to the American frontier during the Civil War. Doctor Rob J. Cole is looking for a more equitable society in the New World, but finds beauty and brutality in equal measures.