Historical fiction blends rich storytelling with detailed research into another time and place. Whether you enjoy the escapism of another era or you like to learn about history through the lens of a resonant story, take a look at these newly-published historical fiction novels. 

When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky by Margaret Verble

After disaster strikes during one of her shows, Two Feathers, a young Cherokee horse-diver on loan to Glendale Park Zoo from a Wild West show, must get to the bottom of a mystery that spans centuries with the help of an eclectic cast of characters. 

 

 

 

 

Coco at the Ritz by Gioia Diliberto

Though her name is synonymous with elegance and chic, the iconic Coco Chanel had a complicated dark side, and in late August 1944, as World War II drew to a close, she was arrested and interrogated on charges of treason to France. In this brilliantly insightful and compulsively readable novel Diliberto explores the motivations of this complex woman and portrays the gripping battle of wits that could have been her interrogation. Was Chanel truly a collaborator?

 

 

Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim

After her desperate family sells her to a courtesan school, Jade befriends JungHo, an orphan boy begging on the streets of Seoul, and must decide to pursue her dreams or risk everything in the fight for independence. 

 

 

 

 

One Night, New York by Lara Thompson

At the top of the Empire State Building on a freezing December night, two women hold their breath. Frances and Agnes are waiting for the man who has wronged them. They plan to seek the ultimate revenge. Set over the course of a single night, One Night, New York is a detective story, a romance and a coming-of-age tale. It is also a story of old New York, of bohemian Greenwich Village between the wars, of floozies and artists and addicts-lighting up the world, while all around them America burned with the Great Depression.

 

 

The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis

When mod English model Veronica Weber, while at the Frick museum, chances upon a series of hidden messages, she is led on a hunt that could not only solve her financial woes but could finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder in the infamous Frick family.

 

 

 

 

Dust Off the Bones by Paul Howarth

After their family's cattle farm is attacked in the 1890s Australian Outback, two estranged brothers reunite to attempt to revive the business and are called to testify after a reprisal slaughter is perpetrated against the Kurrong.

 

 

 

 

The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed

In Cardiff, Wales in 1952, Mahmood Mattan, a young Somali sailor, is accused of a crime he did not commit: the brutal killing of Violet Volacki, a shopkeeper from Tiger Bay. At first, Mahmood believes he can ignore the fingers pointing his way; he may be a gambler and a petty thief, but he is no murderer. He is a father of three, secure in his innocence and his belief in British justice. But as the trial draws closer, his prospect for freedom dwindles. Now, Mahmood must stage a terrifying fight for his life, with all the chips stacked against him: a shoddy investigation, an inhumane legal system, and, most evidently, pervasive and deep-rooted racism at every step. Under the shadow of the hangman's noose, Mahmood begins to realize that even the truth may not be enough to save him. Based on a true event.

 

Harsh Times by Mario Vargas Llosa; translated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West

The true story of Guatemala’s political turmoil of the 1950s as only a master of fiction can tell it. The military coup perpetrated by Carlos Castillo Armas and supported by the CIA topples the government of Jacobo Árbenz. Behind this violent act is a lie passed off as truth, which forever changes the development of Latin America: the accusation by the Eisenhower administration that Árbenz encouraged the spread of Soviet Communism in the Americas. Harsh Times is a story of international conspiracies and conflicting interests in the time of the Cold War, the echoes of which are still felt today. 

 

A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago

The unhappy wife of the Earl of Essex strikes up an unlikely friendship with the newly-widowed, but talented, Anne Turner and the pair hatch a desperate plan to change their fortunes by navigating the dangerous Jacobean court.

 

 

 

 

 

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Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.