As we near the end of the year, so many fantastic authors are releasing new historical fiction books. We have created a list of the most anticipated for everyone that wants to take a step back in time. Whether its 40 years or 400 years, we have a book for every lover of historical fiction.

The Disappearers by Marlon James (9/1)

In 1988 Kingston, Jamaica, eight men are preparing for a play. They are all strangers to each other with different reasons for participating but share a common trait–they are all gay and must contend with the danger that being queer brings to their life. One night the group is savagely attacked and one of the members is killed. For each man, they must recover both physically and emotionally. As they work through the trauma, each man processes it differently with some wanting to forget and others wanting to plan retribution.

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The Gods Will Sing Our Song by Autumn Krause (9/1)

In 1942, the world is raging and an act of war is set into motion that will unite two lovers. Ren Hamada, only seventeen-years-old, is haunted by his troubled past while Violet Aratani’s main focus is maintaining her straight-A grades. They have very little in common other than the magic beating in their family heirlooms. That is until the U.S. government sends their families to an internment camp purely because they are Japanese-American. There is a magnetic pull drawing them nearer to each other. They have new priorities when they discover that a god stuck in his mortal form is walking alongside them. If they can free him, they will be given an unmeasurable reward, but it will be risking themselves amongst rising tensions.

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The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon (9/8)

As the daughter of an Irish chieftain, Grace O’Malley is expected to secure an advantageous marriage and continue the family lineage. She was born to be a sea captain though with her natural skills on the water. When she is sent to spend time with a nearby clan and foster a relationship with them, she falls for a second son who is both open-minded and smart but she cannot have him. Instead, Grace is married off to a brutal warrior but she remains dutiful to her husband until she is thrown out of his lands. This gives Grace the opportunity to return to the sea leading her clan’s powerful fleet. As Queen Elizabeth’s colonizing invasions grow more threatening, Grace proves herself as a sea captain, defending her land, her people, and all that she loves from the power-hungry English.

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The Newer World by Sebastian Barry (9/10)

In Union-leaning Northwest Tennessee, Tennyson Bouguereau is born into slavery. He spends his days picking tobacco in the fields of a small harm and steering clear of and violence with the pro-Confederate neighbors like the ones that killed his mother. Following emancipation, a group of insurgents come to take the farm. Tennyson’s choice to defend it makes him a fugitive. Rather than having the chance to farm the land given to him and his sister, Rosalee, he must flee the only home he has ever known and enter into a new world.

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Red Seal by Rosa Kwon Easton (10/6)

In 1942, Japan is fighting in the Pacific War. Miyoung is a Korean nurse and single mother who is ordered to serve the Japanese Imperial Army. Instead, she flees with her young son, Ko-chan, leaving behind all that they know and love including their family. Miyoung hopes that as they travel back to her homeland that Ko-chan can come to understand his heritage. First, they journey through Manchuria, where Miyoung’s brother offers them refuge and Ko-chan begins to question the future. When Japan’s defeat means they must flee again, a decades-long relationship with sacrifice and survival is formed that will influence future generations.

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The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (10/13)

In Tulsa Oklahoma, shortly after the race massacre of 1921, Richard Milford has been found dead. The Milfords have lived comfortable lives built on the backs of the citizens of Newville and now the town is on the brink of the Great Depression. Richard was an infamous moonshiner at the height of prohibition and a womanizer with four wives, the question is who killed him. The top suspects are those four “wives,” Lally, Sophronia, Georgette, and Vivianne but as their stories unfold, the idea of a true story is blurred.

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Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones (10/13)

Nathan Yellowtail survived a massacre on the Blackfeet reservation five years ago. Now, he finds himself and his best friend, Sebby, in the hospital after an accident that should have killed him. To try and rebalance his life and maybe even save Sebby, Nate is going with three other Blackfeet to try and recover the bones of the only Blackfeet boy that died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where indigenous children were abused and killed. They are hoping to put the young boy at rest by bringing his remains home but in doing so, something awful has escaped with them.

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The Stolen Women by Alysandra Dutton (10/27)

Safinia is focused on her warrior training and providing for her sisters. That changes when women in her town, including her former lover, start disappearing. It is happening quietly, usually the daughters of wealthy men who say they are on a trip but will be back. Safinia is alarmed though and takes matters into her own hands. On her journey to a nearby village in search of answers, Safinia meets Livy, a historian who will prove to be a helpful partner. As her investigations are continually foiled by the girls’ fathers, Safinia struggles to find these women and realizes that the only person she can trust to do so is herself.

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The Lost Kingdom of Daughters by Weina Dai Randel (11/1)

In the 1950s in China, the Moso people follow a matriarchal tradition where women are free to choose their lovers and marriage doesn’t exist. Lazo is one of these women but she wants to become a mother. Two American brothers, Noah and Adam Starling, are stranded and hungry in the village, but Lazo takes them in. Free-spirited artist Adam is very intrigued by the lack of marriage but Noah, having been burned in the past, does not appreciate the concept. As the brothers try to understand a world that is not patriarchal, they both are drawn to Lazo. As their relationships with one another grow deeper, jealousy, betrayal, and a hidden truth threaten everything.

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Whale Harbor by Mary Beth Keane (11/3)

In the 1960s, following a devastating tragedy, a father decides to send his older sons from Ireland to work in England and keep the younger sons home. One of the oldest sons, Macdara accepts a job working on a cattle ranch in Montana and promises his younger brother, Rian, that he will bring him to America once Rian is old enough. However, that will never happen because Rian disappears, haunting the family forever.

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Peregrine Hill by Nina de Gramont (11/10)

At the very beginning of the 20th century, widowed Isabelle Bishop is fighting for her remaining family. After losing her husband and three of her children in a shipwreck, she’s determined to protect her surviving daughter and her elderly mother. Isabelle catches the interest of one of New York’s wealthiest men, and believes that this might save her. However, Whitten is interested in her daughter, Mariah. When Whitten finds out about a scandalous secret Mariah and her mother are keeping, he blackmails them into marriage. Mariah quickly realizes that her marriage is a cage but finds solace in her ambitious maid, Hetty. Together they try to fight for power and self control in a world where women are not afforded such.

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The Last Prince of Florence by Zoe Sivak (11/17)

In 1490, Iye, an African nurse at the Santo Spirito foundling hospital, began to raise a dark-skinned baby girl. She taught Simonetta how to survive and to fight for herself. Simonetta does just that. Rather than settling for her only two options to become a nun or a wife, she carves out a path for herself. A fight in the night leads to Simonetta saving the exiled prince Lorenzo de’ Medici. She manages to talk her way into the powerful family and finds herself falling for the beloved son. Her dark skin and strong will make enemies within the family to the point of accusations of witchcraft being hurled her way. Simonetta reveals her bargaining chip–she’s pregnant with the next Medici Heir. However, this makes Simonetta their prisoner. Nothing will come between this mother and putting her son on the throne.

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The Three Daughters of Annam by Phong Nguyen (12/8)

In 1935, in a northern city of Vietnam, three girls, Nhung, Mai, and Anh, are devoted friends and steadfast in their love for each other. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, the three friends navigate the dangerous French occupation together, where even saying the name “Việt Nam” is an act of rebellion. Their stories spread across the world from Paris to the United States, but their goals from youth have not changed. They must survive and triumph over the trials they have faced. While they may not be in the same city anymore, their friendship will always connect them and their families.

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