The 10 Best Historical Fiction Novels Of The Last Decade

Historical fiction is nothing new. Period-set stories have existed as long as storytelling itself as a means of romanticizing the past, contextualizing the present, or simply filling in the gaps of a historical record. But the past decade has been especially ripe for stories in the third category: books that center on the voices left out of historical events, or even reimagine classic stories from new perspectives.

In the late 2010s, Madeline Miller’s Greek mythology-inspired work prompted a wave of books that reimagined or modernized stories from classical mythology. Novelists like Percival Everett, Janice Hadlow, and Kat Dunn did something similar, revisiting 19th-century classics from another character’s perspective, and with 21st-century sensibilities.

On the more history-heavy side, authors like Colson Whitehead, Min Jin Lee, and Marlon James asked their readers to consider a historical event we thought we knew from a perspective we definitely didn’t, or to discover a narrative left out of the history books altogether. Meanwhile, writers like Ann Patchett, Ariel Lawhon, and Taylor Jenkins Reid ensured it was still a great decade for straightforward family drama and period romance. Suffice it to say, it's never been a better time to start reading historical fiction.

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Lincoln in the Bardo By George Saunders (2017)

A Harrowing Exploration Of Lincoln's Most Intimate Battle

Abraham Lincoln may be one of the most studied figures in American history, but somehow, George Saunders finds an overlooked element of his biography, and a way to turn that historical footnote into a long, intimate story about loss, grief, and duty.

Inspired by newspaper accounts of Lincoln’s visits to Oak Hill Cemetery to cradle the body of his late son, Willie, in Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders writes a quasi-supernatural interpretation of the president’s lasting grief. The story unfolds over one night, when Lincoln visits his lost child in the Bardo, the Buddhist concept of a liminal space between death and rebirth. With the Civil War raging on, his quiet night of grief becomes haunted not just by the memory of Willie, but by an expansive cast of ghosts as he reckons with how anyone could carry a nation’s collective grief alongside his own impossibly personal loss.

You can purchase Lincoln in the Bardo here.

Pachinko By Min Jin Lee (2017)

Three Timelines. Two Countries. One Family Determined To Start Anew.

Named for the Japanese game of chance, Pachinko is a story about an immigrant family that bears the full weight of the historical events unfolding around them, but never gives up trying for a better future.

In the 1910s, a Korean teenager discovers she’s pregnant by a married mobster and chooses a new future by fleeing to Japan. Over the next seven decades, her family’s story stretches from a small Korean fishing village to New York City as they find ways to survive the Japanese occupation of Korea, Japan’s systemic discrimination against Korean immigrants, the atomic bombings of WWII, encounters with the mafia, imprisonment, and estrangement from each other. Min Jin Lee writes it all with emotional precision, brutal honesty, and endless depth. This is the story of a family shaped by history while fighting not to be left out of it.

You can purchase Pachinko here.

Circe By Madeline Miller (2018)

The Odyssey's Most Controversial Character, Revisited

Naturally, Circe's subject matter makes it an ideal next read for fans of Nolan’s take on The Odyssey, but it's also a perfect starting point for fantasy or YA readers looking to make the jump into adult historical fiction. Miller’s novels are historical fantasy for classics nerds and grown-up Percy Jackson fans alike.

Miller’s Circe isn’t the vengeful temptress that appears in some stories, the one who turns innocents into animals for rejecting her advances and seduces Odysseus away from his quest. This Circe is powerful and terrifying, but Miller refuses to make her a villain. Instead, she’s a consistently wronged but indomitable heroine torn between the worlds of the Gods and the mortals, and she's more than deserving of the kind of redemption story Miller loves to write.

You can purchase Circe here.

The Nickel Boys By Colson Whitehead (2019)

The Heartbreaking Story Of Two Unjustly Incarcerated Teens Vying To Change Their Fate

Colson Whitehead’s writing runs the genre gamut, from post-apocalyptic sci-fi to niche nonfiction about his real-life adventures, but he’s always at his best when he's writing intricate fiction about overlooked chapters of American history. This novel has the added benefit of having inspired one of the decade's best literary adaptations, RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys (2025).

Whitehead paints a hyperrealistic portrait of one of the darkest parts of Florida’s history: the Dozier School, a reform school that, throughout the 20th century, systematically abused, tortured, and murdered its predominantly Black students. In his story, two Black teen boys meet at Dozier the 1960s and build a friendship that sustains them through their darkest moments and gives them hope of escape. Five decades later, the government is finally investigating reports of abuse at Dozier, and one of the two boys is left carrying an impossible decision.

The Nickel Boys never undercuts the tragedy or brutality of Dozier’s history. Grimness and grief linger alongside every glimmer of hope for his characters. Whitehead simply refuses to let another unchecked abuse of power be the end of their story.

You can purchase The Nickel Boys here.

The Dutch House By Ann Patchett (2019)

A Rich Family Drama Anchored By Two Siblings Cast Out of Paradise

The Dutch House is Ann Patchett's masterwork. It spans the entire second half of the 20th century, but remains anchored in the titular home, an idyllic Pennsylvania mansion where two siblings lead privileged but lonely childhoods, then find themselves unmoored when their stepmother cuts them off after their father's sudden death.

This one tragedy changes the course of both siblings’ lives, until eventually, they must choose between mourning the lives they should have had and building new ones. At the core of The Dutch House is a quality that makes all of Patchett’s stories so moving: no matter the era, her fictional families always find their way back together.

You can purchase The Dutch House here.

The Vanishing Half By Brit Bennett (2020)

A Decade-Spanning Saga About Secrets And Sisterhood

Brit Bennett's sophomore novel takes inspiration from great American novelists—most obviously Toni Morrison and Nella Larsen—while instantly cementing her as one of them. Set across four cities over five decades, The Vanishing Half is a sweeping, powerful story about the identities we inherit and the ones we choose.

In 1940s Louisiana, twins Stella and Desiree grow up in a small town with a dark history. When they finally escape to the big city, the sisters find their survival plans couldn’t look more different: Stella passes for white, marrying her wealthy boss and moving to California, while Desiree escapes an abusive marriage and returns to their hometown with her young daughter.

But the twins’ relationship is far from over. Decades later, their respective daughters—one identifying as Black, the other as white—meet by chance, unaware of their connection. What comes next in this winding, non-linear saga will change the course of their family history forever.​​​​​​

You can purchase The Vanishing Half here.

The Marriage Portrait By Maggie O'Farrell (2022)

The Imagined Story Behind An Iconic Painting And Its Real-Life Subject

Maggie O’Farrell is best known for Hamnet, which inspired an adaptation that earned her an Oscar nomination. But her best work is the less-discussed novel that came next.

In The Marriage Portrait, O’Farrell once again humanizes a woman rendered silent by historical narratives that favor her husband. This time, her subject is more obscure—Lucrezia de Medici, an Italian noblewoman believed to have been murdered by her husband shortly after sitting for the titular portrait—but that fact only serves to let her imagination run even wilder. O’Farrell builds a lush world around Lucrezia, one that sometimes feels like an old-fashioned fairy tale, with fantastical creatures and princes around every corner, and other times feels ripped out of a Gothic novel, with danger lurking just out of reach. Once you’ve stepped in, it feels impossible to leave.

Lucrezia’s story teems with tragedy: she’s a 13-year-old girl who loses her beloved older sister, only to find her parents are marrying her off to her would-be brother-in-law, who intends to murder her. By virtue of her gender and place in history, her fate seems all but set in stone. But, as with all great O’Farrell novels, that’s only the beginning of the story.

You can purchase The Marriage Portrait here.

Trust By Hernan Diaz (2022)

The Winding Story Of An American Tycoon, As Told By Four Narrators Who Can't Agree On Any Of It

With Trust, Hernan Diaz builds on the idea of historiography—how we tell history, and whose perspectives we deem worthy of considering—and ends up with a massive, winding story that asks big philosophical questions without ever getting lost in the weeds.

Trust ​​​​​​takes the form of four fictional books, each written by a different author whose version of events contradicts the others. In one chapter, a finance tycoon's life unravels after he profits unethically from the 1929 Wall Street crash. In the next, a man who believes his life inspired the previous story attempts to set the record straight. Years later, that man's ghostwriter shares her own version of events, and in doing so, unleashes one final story: the diary of the mysterious character at the center of all this arguing. It’s up to the reader to decide whose version, if any, they believe.

You can purchase Trust here.

The Disappearers By Marlon James (2026)

A Sprawling Epic About Violence, Memory, And Identity In 1980s Jamaica

The fictional event at the center of The Disappearers takes place over a single night, but Marlon James spins it into a tale so vast it spans decades and countries. In Kingston, 1988, eight closeted gay men are rehearsing a play in secret when they’re attacked in a brutal hate crime. One of them is killed. The perpetrators are lauded. The survivors carry that night forever.

Somehow, this novel feels sweeping and definitive while remaining strikingly intimate and niche. We follow characters through their most private moments and innermost thoughts, but we also watch the 80s and 90s unfold around them as the outside world's attitudes toward queerness evolve. During some of the most pivotal years in LGBTQ+ history, seven vividly rendered, infinitely complex protagonists attempt to navigate a personal tragedy only they can ever truly understand. It’s an incredible experience to read them as they go.

You can purchase The Disappearers here.

The Pirate Queen By Ariel Lawhon (2026)

An Action-Packed Adventure On The High Seas, Inspired By One Of Ireland's Greatest Folk Heroes

With her latest novel, Ariel Lawhon adopts a project similar to fellow genre great Maggie O’Farrell: identifying a marginalized woman in history and zooming in on her story. Lawhon just so happens to have chosen a woman whose story already reads like an adventure novel.

The Pirate Queen imagines Grace O’Malley—a real sailor who dominated the Irish Sea in the 16th century—as a heroine torn between duty and desire. She’s the heir to a chieftainship, expected to marry a powerful warrior to ensure her clan's security, but her true passions lie with a life and a lover she’s forbidden to have. As she fights for true independence, another calling emerges: defending her fleet, and her country, from the encroaching forces of Elizabeth I. If Lawhon shines at one thing, it’s paying this folk heroine her due.