Book Reviews
- Ivo Andric: Bosnian Chronicle
- a novel about Napoleon's consulate in Travnik, Bosnia
- Ivo Andric: The Bridge on the Drina**
- a novel of three centuries in eastern Bosnia
- Gina Apostol: Insurrecto
- metafiction and massacre: scripting the Philippines
- Gesualdo Bufalino: Night's Lies*
- on the eve of execution, four prisoners tell tales of deceit
- Willa Cather: Death Comes for the Archbishop
- a novel of the Catholic Church in 19th century New Mexico
- Javier Cercas: Soldiers of Salamis
- villains and heroes of the Spanish Civil War
- Bruce Chatwin: The Viceroy of Ouidah**
- a short but powerful novel of West Africa
- Paul Clayton: Calling Crow
- the Spanish are raiding for slaves on the North American coast
- Michael Crichton: Eaters of the Dead
- the Beowulf story from the perspective of an Arab traveler
- Giuseppe di Lampedusa: The Leopard*
- a Sicilian aristocrat faces change in 1860
- Apostolos Doxiadis: Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture*
- a novel of obsession and mathematics
- Dorothy Dunnett: King Hereafter*
- a historical novel about the real Macbeth
- Shusaku Endo: The Samurai*
- a novel of Christian faith in 17th century Japan
- Per Olov Enquist: The March of the Musicians
- a novel about labour unrest in Sweden's bleak north
- Ford Madox Ford: The Fifth Queen*
- a novel about Henry VIII's fifth wife, Katharine Howard
- Enchi Fumiko: A Tale of False Fortunes
- love and politics in 10th century Japan
- John Gardner: Grendel**
- an original and provoking philosophical novel
- Alan Garner: Strandloper**
- an Australian convict escapes and joins the Aborigines
- Hushang Golshiri: The Prince*
- a dark novel about the Qajari lords of Isfahan
- Robert Graves: King Jesus; Count Belisarius; Homer's Daughter
- mythological musings dressed up as a novel
- a historical novel about Justinian's great general
- a novel about a woman writing part of the Odyssey
- Robert Graves: The Shout and Other Stories
- English, Roman, and Majorcan stories
- Robert Graves: Wife to Mr. Milton
- a novel of the English Civil War
- Alasdair Gray: Poor Things*
- a socialist neo-Gothic novel
- Peter Green: The Laughter of Aphrodite*
A Novel about Sappho of Lesbos
- Georgette Heyer: The Grand Sophy*
- a Regency romance by the founder of the genre
- Stefan Heym: The Queen Against Defoe
And Other Stories
- Stefan Heym: The King David Report**
- a very funny novel about the politics of history in the 10th century BC
- Robert Irwin: The Arabian Nightmare
- a novel of dream and story in medieval Cairo
- Ida Jessen: A Change of Time*
- facing widowhood in a Danish country town
- Daniel Kehlmann: Measuring the World
- a comic historical novel about Gauss and von Humboldt
- Thomas Keneally: Gossip from the Forest
- a novel about the signing of the armistice that ended WWI
- Tadeusz Konwicki: The Polish Complex
- personal and national angsts intertwine
- Jaan Kross: The Conspiracy and Other Stories
- Estonia in the Second World War
- Jaan Kross: Professor Martens' Departure*
- Jaan Kross: The Czar's Madman
- von Bock is a friend of Tsar Alexander I, but also an idealist...
- Jeanne Larsen: Bronze Mirror + Manchu Palaces
- novels of the Southern Song and Qing dynasties
- Torgny Lindgren: Bathsheba
- an earthy, mytho-poetic novel about the later days of King David
- Amin Maalouf: Balthasar's Odyssey
- a novel of signs and portents in the year 1666
- Amin Maalouf: Ports of Call
- family, love and war, in France and the Middle East
- Naguib Mahfouz: Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth
- a novel of ancient Egypt
- Colleen McCullough: Masters of Rome
- epic historical fiction, from the Republic to the Empire
- Andrés Neuman: Traveller of the Century*
- the great German novel, in Spanish?
- Patrick O'Brian: The Aubrey/Maturin books
- a naval lieutenant and a penniless physician meet at Port Mahon in 1801...
- Patrick O'Brian: The Golden Ocean
- the son of a poor Irish clergyman sails around the world with Anson
- Borislav Pekic: The Time of Miracles*
- prophecy, blindness, uncleanliness, sin, faith, madness
- Mary Renault: The Alexander Trilogy*
- Alexander the Great's childhood and final years; conflicts after his death
- Victor Segalen: A Lapse of Memory
- a novel about the destruction of traditional religion in Tahiti
- Mesa Selimovic: Death and the Dervish**
- a spiritual crisis amidst Ottoman Bosnian politics
- Shi Nai'an, Luo Guanzhong: Outlaws of the Marsh
- an abridgement of the classic Chinese novel
- Jan Jacob Slauerhoff: The Forbidden Kingdom
- confusions of identity in 16th + 20th century Macao
- Dido Sotiriou: Farewell Anatolia
- a panoramic tale of the end of Greek Asia Minor
- Francis Spufford: Red Plenty*
Inside the Fifties' Soviet Dream
- Rosemary Sutcliff: The Armourer's House
- an eight year old moves to Henry VIII's London
- Antonio Tabucchi: Declares Pereira*
- a political awakening in 1938 Portugal
- Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time
- a policeman in hospital takes up the case of Richard III
- Pramoedya Ananta Toer: This Earth of Mankind**
- the Buru Quartet: novels of colonial Indonesia
- Milos Tsernianski: Migrations
- a novel of Serbs in 18th century Austria
- Magdalena Tulli: In Red
- love, commerce and war in an imaginary Polish town
- Sigrid Undset: Kristin Lavransdatter*
- a family saga set in medieval Norway
- Gore Vidal: Creation*
- the grandson of Zoroaster meets Buddha, Gosala, Lao Tse and Confucius
- Evelyn Waugh: Helena
- a dull and tendentiously Catholic novel about Constantine's mother
- Peter Weiss: Marat/Sade*
The persecution and assassination of Marat as performed by the inmates of the asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade
- Connie Willis: Doomsday Book
- parallel plagues in Oxford in 1348 and 2054
- Gene Wolfe: Soldier of the Mist*
- historical fantasy set in classical Greece, during the Persian Wars
- A.B. Yehoshua: Mr. Mani*
- linked stories about a Jewish lineage
- Yi Mun-yol: The Poet*
- a marginal poet in 19th century Korea
- Akira Yoshimura: Shipwrecks
- a story of a poor coastal village in medieval Japan
See also:
alternative history
I've always been a fan of historical fiction; this was the
largest subject category on the site until I created a separate historical mystery category.