Historical fiction gives life to the stories of people who lived through major and little-known historical events. The authors in our historical fiction list have used facts and their imaginations to create compelling stories that connect the present and the past.

Here are our picks for captivating historical fiction for readers in 2022 (so far)!

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind an inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake made from a family recipe with a long history and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale reveals secrets she still holds back and the mystery of a long-lost child. The revelations will challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

 

Violeta by Isabel Allende

Violeta Del Valle’s life spans 100 years, beginning in 1920, a life marked by heartbreak, passionate affairs, poverty, and immense joy.
The first girl born into a family of sons, extraordinary events define Violeta’s life. Effects of the Great War are still lingering as the Spanish Flu arrives on the shores of South America. Luckily, her family makes it through the pandemic unscathed but meets another crisis, the Great Depression. Violeta’s life in the city transforms as her family loses everything. Finally, the Del Valles move to a beautiful and remote part of the country, where Violeta’s coming-of-age story begins.
Allende brings to life one woman’s experience of the 20th and 21st centuries through humor, passion, and determination.

 

Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow

When Joan is 10 years old, she, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s violent temper, seeking refuge in her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. But, unfortunately, it’s not the first time violence has altered the family’s trajectory. Just fifty years prior, Joan’s grandfather built this beautiful home in the historic Black community of Douglass, only to be lynched a few days after becoming the city’s first Black detective.
Joan finds solace in her artwork, creating portraits of her community in Memphis. Her favorite subject is Miss Dawn, who claims to know a little about curses. Her stories about the past help Joan see how her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them made impossible choices so that she wouldn’t need to define her life by loss and anger.

 

 

The Hacienda by Isabel Canas

Beatriz lost her home and father during the overthrow of the Mexican government. When Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, she seizes the opportunity his country estate provides, ignoring the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden death. But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined. When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. Rodolfo’s sister ignores her, and the head of the kitchen staff doesn’t dare enter the house’s interior. Suddenly, Beatriz begins to wonder what happened to the first Doña Solórzano.

 

 

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

It’s 1973, and Civil Townsend is fresh out of nursing school and looking to make a difference in the African-American community in her new role at the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic in Montgomery, Alabama.
During her first week on the job, she meets her new patients, India and Erica. They’re pre-teens who have never kissed a boy, but they’re poor and black. According to those in charge of their welfare benefits, that’s reason enough to place the girls on birth control. Civil is shocked to realize the situation she’s now a part of, taking the girls and their families into her heart. But one day, she arrives at their door to find a tragedy that will change all of their lives forever.

 

 

Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
A multigenerational western drama about survival, family secrets, and love.

Luz “Little Light” Lopez is left to fend for herself when her brother, Diego, is run out of town by a violent white mob. Luz, a tea reader, begins to have visions transporting her to her indigenous homeland in the Lost Territory. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories before they disappear into oblivion.

 

 

 

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu
It’s 1938, and Meilin’s future in China looks bright. But, the Japanese army is approaching, and soon she and her four-year-old son Renshu must flee across the country with nothing more than their wits and an illustrated handscroll of ancient fables.
Years pass, and Renshu is now Henry Dao living in America. His daughter, Lily, is desperate to understand her heritage, but Henry refuses to talk about his childhood. Henry struggles to keep his family safe in this new land amidst the weight of his history as the exploration of stories unfolds. And how can Lily learn who she is if her father won’t share her family’s story?