Historical Fiction around the World

This book takes place in 1860s Japan and follows eleven year old Sachi. When princess Kazu travels through a farmer’s village on her way to the palace to marry the Shogun, she notices Sachi. Kazu decides to bring the girl along as her servant, confidante and to eventually offer her as a concubine to her husband. The Last Concubine is a beautiful story, intertwined with Japanese history from the Edo time period. The novel largely takes place at the palace, portraying customs that are wildly different from western culture. Set against the backdrop of a changing country, you are emerged in a world where tradition has to make way for modernity.

While Hannah has written multiple novels that take place in the past and feature specific time period and events, I chose The Four Winds. It centers around an important event in 1930s-1940s America and Canada that I previously knew nothing about: The Dust Bowl. In typical Kristin Hannah fashion, she weaves a heartbreaking story about adversity and resilience within the backdrop of this agricultural and environmental disaster that many people suffered from. The protagonist, Elsa Martinelli, has not had an easy start, but she has finally built the life she has dreamed about. Working on the farm of her in-laws is hard work, but finding a family and place to belong to makes it worth it. When tragedy strikes and a drought holds the Great Plains in an iron grip, Elsa is suddenly faced with making the hardest decision of her life. Does she stay at the land she loves but might prove unsalvageable, or fight for a better future for her children in California, a place described as paradise.

World War II is one of the most popular historical fiction topics and therefore features twice in this list. Sea of Memories is a love story, set in both Scotland and France. It starts in 1938, when seventeen year old Ella is sent to a Île de Ré, A French Island. She meets and falls in love with Christophe, and as many of us do when we are young and in love, she feels incredibly free. The feeling is short lived however, as times are grim. With a war on the doorstep, Ella is called back to Scotland. Desperate to oppose, she stays and joins the French resistance. With hardship and war surrounding her, the summer with Christophe on Île de Ré only floats farther away.

The story starts in 1939 and also centers around WW II, but this time it takes place in England. When Grace arrives in London, it isn’t at all what she had envisioned. War is on the doorstep and the only employment she can find is in a dusty bookstore, with a patron who is not keen to have her there. But when Grace discovers the beauty of reading and storytelling, she finds the strength to fight back.

This story is told in a dual timeline, partly taking place in 2017 New York, and partly in 1946 Genoa, Italy. When Vincenzo and Giovanna fall in love, they believe their differences in descent is the greatest obstacle. He is the son of a count and she is the daughter of a tailor, but their connection is so strong that they do everything to make it work. When political tensions rise in their country, the young lovers realise that their differences are even greater, and betrayal from both sides shatter their love, and future with it. Dozens of years later, an engaged couple in New York bring their grandparents together to pose for a painting. When past and present come together, secrets come to light once more and everything changes. 

In 1952, Kya is six years old. Her mother and her older siblings leave their home to get away from an abusive and alcoholic husband and father, but they don’t take her with them. Living isolated in the North Carolina Marshes, Kya’s father teachers her to survive, but when he too eventually leaves, she is left to fend for herself. Growing up away from society, as an outsider, Kya faces prejudice and harassment from the community. The older she gets, the more she has to battle her own desires to both be free from societal norms, and to belong and be loved. When a young man is discovered dead, locals immediately suspect the wild naturalistic girl, who will have to fight the prejudice to clear her name.

True to the title, this story takes place during the summer months of 1969. The novel follows the different members of the Levin family on Nantucket, as they go through changes fit with their age, while also adjusting to a tumultuous time in the world. Blair is going through a twin pregnancy, while her sister Kirby is swept up in the civil rights protests, their brother Tiger gets drafted and deployment to Vietnam and thirteen year old Jessie feels lost without her siblings. The effects of a changing nation are visible throughout this novel, while the Levin siblings go through their own dramatic changes.

Similar to the previous two recommendations, Mary Jane does not so much feature one specific historical event as it portrays the culture and the way of life of a broader time period in the West. Set in 1970s Baltimore, the novel follow fourteen year old Mary Jane as she discovers the world outside of her community, through her first summer job. Her mother is as glad as her daughter when she lands the respectable job of nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. Respectable as they might look from the outside though, the Cone could not be more different from Mary Jane’s own family. While she introduces the Cone’s to home cooked meals, crisp and clean laundry and milk that does not spoil, they introduce her to the world of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. The more time she spends with them, the more she falls in love with their family and way of life, and starts to develop her own identity. As the summer goes on, it gets harder to keep her parents in the dark about what goes on in the Cone household. When summer comes to an end, will she be able to go back to her life before?