Seattle Picks: Historical FictionLike this list

30 items

• My Name Is Emilia Del Valle

  a Novel

  Allende, Isabel

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  A gutsy female journalist travels from San Francisco to Chile in the 19th century, trying to discover the truth about her father while civil war looms.

• The Volcano Daughters

  Balibrera, Gina Maria

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  Two sisters flee genocide in 1920s El Salvador, traveling to California and France but followed by ghosts.

• The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye

  a Novel

  Cameron, Briony

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  A fierce adventure tale based on true-life female pirates sailing the Caribbean in the 17th century.

• Malinalli

  Chapa, Veronica

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  Magic and myth intertwine with history in this retelling of the story of the Nahua woman who was forced to interpret for the Spanish conquistadors in 16th century Mexico.

• The East Indian

  a Novel

  Charry, Brinda

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  Set in 17th century India, England and colonial Virginia, this novel follows the travails of an orphaned boy who becomes an indentured servant and strives to become a doctor.

• Beyond the Door of No Return

  Diop, David, 1966-

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  Stories within stories explore an 18th century French botanist’s obsession with finding a legendary Senegalese woman who was sold into enslavement and managed to escape.

• The Paris Express

  a Novel

  Donoghue, Emma, 1969-

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  In 1895, a French anarchist boards a train to Paris, planning to destroy all aboard with a homemade bomb.

• The Lost Journals of Sacajewea

  a Novel

  Earling, Debra Magpie

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  Indigenous author Earling reclaims the mythologized figure of Sacajewea, vividly depicting the violence and tenacity of her life.

• A Calamity of Noble Houses

  Ghenim, Amira

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  A gripping family saga set against the turbulent background of 1930s Tunisia.

• The Bullet Swallower

  a Novel

  Gonzalez James, Elizabeth, 1982-

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  A philosophical Western with magical realism about a Mexican bandido in 1895 and his film star grandson in 1964, based on the author’s family history.

• Isola

  a Novel

  Goodman, Allegra

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  An engrossing account of a 16th century noblewoman who is abandoned on a remote island off the coast of New France and fights brutal conditions to survive.

• The Great Divide

  a Novel

  Henríquez, Cristina, 1977-

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  A sweeping saga of the building of the Panama Canal, told through the stories of the diverse laborers involved in its construction in 1907.

• The Emperor and the Endless Palace

  Huang, Justinian

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  Drawing on Chinese mythology, this queer love story sweeps across centuries, from the ancient Han dynasty to 18th century China to present-day Los Angeles.

• The Life of Herod the Great

  a Novel

  Hurston, Zora Neale

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  Scholar Deborah Plant rescued this unfinished novel by Harlem Renaissance luminary Hurston, which looks at the Roman king’s life in a new light.

• Loot

  James, Tania

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  A young man in 18th century India helps build a full-size wooden tiger for the Sultan. A sprawling adventure ensues across continents, incorporating a love story and a critique of colonialism.

• All We Were Promised

  a Novel

  Lattimore, Ashton

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  During a turbulent period of race riots and anti-Black violence in 1830s Philadelphia, three women struggle for freedom.

• North Woods

  a Novel

  Mason, Daniel (Daniel Philippe)

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  A wide cast of characters from precolonial times to the present are linked – sometimes in ghostly ways –through their connections to a house in rural western Massachusetts.

• The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

  McBride, James, 1957-

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  The 1972 discovery of a human skeleton leads to an examination of events decades earlier, when a vibrant community of Black folks and immigrants helped each other to endure dark times.

• Let Us March on

  a Novel

  Moon, Shara,

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  This novel is based on the true story of Lizzie McDuffie, a Black maid in the White House during FDR’s presidency who appointed herself Secretary On Colored People’s Affairs.

• Harlem Rhapsody

  Murray, Victoria Christopher

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  Biographical fiction about Jessie Redmon Fauset, the “literary midwife” of the Harlem Renaissance.