No Time Machine? Try One of These New Works of Historical Fiction Instead
If you’ve been watching the new TV adaptation of Outlander, you may recently have found yourself yearning for the chance to step back in time. And assuming your neighborhood is low on standing stones and ancient Druidic magic, your best bet may be journeying back in the pages of a book. If you can give up on the idea of a shirtless Jamie Fraser as your new-world guide, you’ll love those four new and forthcoming titles, which take you from 17th-century Amsterdam to an English villa in the years after World War II, from the Hapsburg Court to that of the famously volatile King Henry VIII. Here’s the historical fiction you should be reading this month:
The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton
When young Nella Oortman travels to Amsterdam to join her new husband, celebrated trader Johannes Brandt, she finds herself more houseguest than wife. Her precarious acceptance of her new life shifts when the distant Johannes presents her with a cabinet-sized replica of their home, built by an elusive miniaturist. As the skilled miniaturist sends her package after package of tiny dolls and pieces of furniture, Nella finds that the items mirror her concerns and the secret life of her home with eerie prescience. This book beautifully captures a time and lush place and the loneliness of a stranger in an unfamiliar land.
The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters (out September 16)
In South London in the 1920s, a genteelly impoverished widow and her unmarried daughter, Frances, are forced to take lodgers into their home: Leonard and Lilian Barber, whose progressive ideas, lower social status, and hidden rift help speed the story to a crisis. The book takes place in the volatile social landscape of the post-World War II years, and Frances, especially, is a creature of her time and place, unable to enjoy either life as a modern woman or the life of gentle breeding she was born for. Waters effortlessly spins a tightening tale of such psychological suspense you may need to take breaks between chapters (but you’ll be turning pages too quickly to bother).
The King’s Curse, by Philippa Gregory
In the concluding volume of the Cousins’ War series, Gregory focuses her considerable powers on bringing to life Margaret Pole, a lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon, first wife to King Henry VIII. As a Plantagenet princess, Margaret has her own claim to the throne, a dangerous blessing that she seeks to hide—especially in light of her brother’s execution by those who would keep him from attempting any claim to the throne. As her mistress’s place at court becomes increasingly rocky with the ascendance of Anne Boleyn, this Tudor-era survivor must once again attempt to find her footing in a time of great upheaval.
Fortune Hunter, by Daisy Goodwin
A tragic 19th-century beauty with a way of slaying hearts. A doomed attraction between an empress and a cavalry captain, with potentially disastrous consequences. A lushly realized world of royalty, courtiers, and breathtaking wealth. Oh, did you need a plot? Fine: Captain Bay Middleton finds himself falling for both Charlotte, the orphaned heir to a large fortune, and Elizabeth, the reluctant Empress of Austria and wife to a dullard husband. Over the course of one long English hunting season, he must choose which, if either, to devote himself to.
What historical fiction have you been reading lately?