Historical Fiction
Recently published historical novels with a rich variety of settings and time periods.
(Updated June 2025)
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Isola
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.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Great Divide
A sweeping saga of the building of the Panama Canal, told through the stories of the diverse laborers involved in its construction in 1907.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Emperor and the Endless Palace
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.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Life of Herod the Great
Scholar Deborah Plant rescued this unfinished novel by Harlem Renaissance luminary Hurston, which looks at the Roman king’s life in a new light.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Loot
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.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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All We Were Promised
During a turbulent period of race riots and anti-Black violence in 1830s Philadelphia, three women struggle for freedom.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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North Woods
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.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
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.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Let Us March on
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.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Harlem Rhapsody
Biographical fiction about Jessie Redmon Fauset, the “literary midwife” of the Harlem Renaissance.
Format: Book
Availability: Available