The Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Books of Fall 2024
As a genre, historical fiction is by its very nature eclectic. After all, it can and does often contain multitudes. From tales of ancient Greece and Arthurian Britain to stories set in Victorian-era London and colonial America, it features books that run the gamut in terms of both time period and subject matter.
Such is the case this Fall, as the publishing industry ushers in a season of change by releasing a positive avalanche of new titles that touch on all those eras, and throw in a few spooky season-adjacent picks (body snatching anyone?) on top.
Here are seventeen of the biggest historical fiction titles hitting shelves this Fall.
Cecil the Lion Had to Die by Olena Stiazhkina, translated by Dominique Hoffmann
Release Date: September 3 from Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
Why We’re Excited: The story of four families whose lives change radically when the Soviet Union collapses, an independent Ukraine is born, and neo-imperial Russia occupies Ukraine’s Crimea and parts of the Donbas. Rich and timely historical fiction with a multifaceted view of the conflict in the region and Ukrainian history.
Publisher’s Description: In 1986 Soviet Ukraine, two boys and two girls are welcomed into the world in a Donetsk maternity ward. Following a Soviet tradition of naming things after prominent Communist leaders from far away, a local party functionary offers great material benefits for naming children after Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the German Communist Party from 1925 to 1933. The fateful decision is made, and the local newspaper presents the newly born Ernsts and Thälmas in a photo on the front page, forever tying four families together.
The Mesmerist by Caroline Woods
Release Date: September 10 from Doubleday
Why We’re Excited: This historical fiction murder mystery set in late 19th century Minnesota in which three disadvantaged women in a charitable home must band together to bring down a serial killer is inspired by a real crime spree.
Publisher’s Description: Before hypnotism, there was Mesmerism. And in 1894 Minneapolis, in the wake of a national financial crisis, spiritualism of every stripe is all the rage, and women are dying under mysterious circumstances. But until a new guest lands at the Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers, refusing to speak or explain her arrival, the sordid stories of unexplained deaths seem unconnected. Faith’s reticence is quickly interpreted as malevolence, setting the house abuzz with whispers of dark magic.
Abby, a staunch Quaker, lifelong supporter of progressive causes, and the Bethany Home’s treasurer, thinks the rumors of mystical powers swirling around Faith are nonsense, but she recognizes the danger of a good story. Unwilling to allow the Home’s important mission to be clouded by scandal, Abby tasks Faith’s roommate, May, with tracing Faith’s path to the Bethany Home.
May is desperate to end her year at Bethany Home engaged and on track to her happily-ever-after—even if her prince charming is Hal, a man she’s not sure she can trust. She uncovers a Minneapolis she never expected as she begins digging into Faith’s shadowy background, and her investigation brings her closer to polite society and Hal than she could have dreamed. The more May learns, the more she’s forced to question the motives of everyone around her, including Abby and Faith, and as more women turn up dead, May must reevaluate the future she wants, and which lies she’s willing to tell, for whom.
The Witch of Colchis by Rosie Hewlett
Release Date: September 10 from Sourcebooks Landmark
Why We’re Excited: For whatever reason publishing seems to move in cycles when it comes to telling stories of historical or mythological women, and at the moment we’re in a period that seems eager to reckon with our cultural perception of Medea, the daughter of King Aeëtes, who figures prominently in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. But while she’s a large part of the reason Jason’s quest is successful, she’s primarily remembered as a monster, a dark sorceress and murderer who killed her own children out of jealousy and rage. Hewlett’s story joins Eilish Quinn’s Medea as 2024’s second empathetic reimagining of the reasons behind her choices.
Publisher’s Description: A disgraced daughter. A fearsome witch. A woman more myth than mortal.
Medea, princess of Colchis, longs for a different life. Since childhood, she has been shunned from her family, tormented by her people, and treated with shame. All because of a unique and dangerous talent: witchcraft.
But when a dashing young hero, Jason, arrives to claim the famed Golden Fleece, Medea sees her opportunity for escape. Her offer to help Jason sets in motion a journey that will test every ounce of strength, magic, and loyalty she has. A journey that will see her battle monsters, dethrone kings, and confront a love more brutal than any before.
A journey that will ultimately end in betrayal, bloodshed, and a dark power impossible to forget.
To the Bone by Alena Bruzas
Release Date: September 10 from Rocky Pond Books
Why We’re Excited: A dark, vivid piece of YA historical fiction about the early colonies in America, To the Bone follows the story of Ellis, who arrives in James Fort as an indentured servant and discovers her dreams of a better life requires surviving in a brutal, often violent landscape. Unlike anything else on this list—or our Fall YA installment, where it also appears— in all the best ways.
Publisher’s Description: After the long journey from England, Ellis arrives in America full of hope. James Fort is where a better life will begin for her: where she will work as an indentured servant to Henry Collins and his pregnant wife, gain financial security, and fall deeply in love with bold, glorious Jane Eddowes.
But as summer turns to fall, Ellis begins to notice the cracks in this new life—the viciousness of the colonists toward the Indigenous people and the terrifying anger Henry uses to control his wife and Ellis—leaving her to wonder if she has sentenced herself to a prison rather than a new home.
Then winter arrives and hunger grips the Fort. Ellis is about to learn that people will do whatever it takes to survive.
The Wildes: A Novel In Five Acts by Louis Bayard
Release Date: September 17 from Algonquin Books
Why We’re Excited: This historical fiction reimagining of the Oscar Wilde scandal in 1860s England gives the spotlight to the famous playwright’s family—his wife, Constant, and sons Cyril and Vyvyan. Structured like a Wilde play, Bayard’s work is sharply written and emotionally poignant, with an emotional core that feels timelier than many will likely expect.
Publisher’s Description: In September of 1892, Oscar Wilde and his family have retreated to the idyllic Norfolk countryside for a holiday. His wife, Constance, has every reason to be happy: two beautiful sons, her own work as an advocate for feminist causes, and a delightfully charming and affectionate husband and father to her children, who also happens to be the most sought-after author in England. But with the arrival of an unexpected houseguest, the aristocratic young poet Lord Alfred Douglas, Constance gradually—and then all at once—comes to see that her husband’s heart is elsewhere and that the growing intensity between the two men threatens the whole foundation of their lives.
Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera
Release Date: October 1
Why We’re Excited: An intriguing book about future Mexican president Benito Juárez and the 18 months he spent in New Orleans following a dispute with then-president Santa Anna. (Juárez was exiled from December 1853 until June 1855.) A chaotic and strangely hopeful story of a future revolutionary.
Publisher’s Description: New Orleans, 1853. A young exile named Benito Juárez disembarks at a fetid port city at the edge of a swamp. Years later, he will become the first Indigenous head of state in the postcolonial Americas, but now he is as anonymous and invisible as any other migrant to the roiling and alluring city of New Orleans.
Accompanied by a small group of fellow exiles who plot their return and hoped-for victory over the Mexican dictatorship, Juárez immerses himself in the city, which absorbs him like a sponge. He and his compatriots work odd jobs, suffer through the heat of a southern summer, fall victim to the cons and confusions of a strange young nation, succumb to the hallucinations of yellow fever, and fall in love with the music and food all around them. But unavoidable, too, is the grotesque traffic in human beings they witness as they try to shape their future.
The Stone Witch of Florence Anna Rasche
Release Date: October 8 from Park Row
Why We’re Excited: This immersive historical fiction novel about medieval Florence follows the story of a woman exiled after being accused of witchcraft for using alternative heaving methods to help cure those suffering from the plague. But when she’s summoned home to help solve a mystery surrounding stolen holy relics, she is given the chance to change her fate for good.
Publisher’s Description: 1348. As the Black Plague ravages Italy, Ginevra di Gasparo is summoned to Florence after nearly a decade of lonely exile. Ginevra has a gift—harnessing the hidden powers of gemstones, she can heal the sick. But when word spread of her unusual abilities, she was condemned as a witch and banished. Now the same men who expelled Ginevra are begging for her return.
Ginevra obliges, assuming the city’s leaders are finally ready to accept her unorthodox cures amid a pandemic. But upon arrival, she is tasked with a much different mission: she must use her collection of jewels to track down a ruthless thief who is ransacking Florence’s churches for priceless relics—the city’s only hope for protection. If she succeeds, she’ll be a recognized physician and never accused of witchcraft again.
But as her investigation progresses, Ginevra discovers she’s merely a pawn in a much larger scheme than the one she’s been hired to solve. And the dangerous men behind this conspiracy won’t think twice about killing a stone witch to get what they want.
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