The Wayfinder by Adam Johnson In this powerful and original epic, a girl ventures from her remote Polynesian island to try to save her people from doom. The Book of I by David Greig After Norse invaders slaughter almost everyone on a small Scottish island, a mead wife, a monk and an elderly Norseman find themselves the only survivors. The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson This mystery is filled with fascinating glimpses of mid-18th-century London, where the recently widowed Hannah Cole runs a confectionery shop. The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey Chidgey’s devastating new novel, set in an alternative version of the 20th century, watches young lives get twisted into unnatural shapes. Amanda by H.S. Cross Cross’s World War I love story, about a mysterious governess and an upper-class university student, balances historical sweep with erotic tension. This Here Is Love by Princess Joy L. Perry Set in the early years of the Virginia Colony, Perry’s searing novel explores the complexities and contradictions of a society built on bondage. The Original by Nell Stevens Though this novel’s ingredients sound familiar — a seedy English mansion, a ne’er-do-well scion, his domineering mother — conventions are soon upended. Sing to Me by Jesse Browner In this novel of the Trojan War, Browner focuses not on the warriors but on the unknown lives that were lost, and on the damage that years of fighting left behind. Daikon by Samuel Hawley Daikon’s riveting, impeccably researched novel asks, what if a third atomic bomb fell into the hands of the Japanese when an American plane crashed? The Eights by Joanna Miller Miller invents fascinating stories (and back stories) for four young women admitted to Oxford’s first class of female undergraduates in 1920. by Peter Mann Mann’s novel stars a Richard Halliburton-ish character caught in a maelstrom of spies, émigrés and double-dealers. Florenzer by Phil Melanson Melanson introduces us to a teenage Leonardo da Vinci still struggling to find himself amid the roiling atmosphere of late-15th-century Florence. We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara This poetic, hallucinatory tale was inspired by Catalina de Erauso, who was known in 17th-century Spain for her New World exploits living as a man. These Days by Lucy Caldwell Caldwell’s novel follows two very different sisters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which was targeted by the German air force in the spring of 1941. The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater When a resort manager is forced to shelter Axis diplomats, they disturb the magical springs that make the property a success. A Lesser Light by Peter Geye In the spring of 1910, a marriage of convenience implodes when the wife joins her husband, who’s the master of an isolated Lake Superior lighthouse. by Grace Tiffany Judith Shakespeare, the playwright’s daughter, must flee her native Stratford when she is charged with witchcraft. Boy by Nicole Galland A “boy-player” of female roles in Shakespeare’s company, aging out of his apprenticeship, seeks an aristocratic patron. Thrilling Historical Mysteries Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/books/historical-fiction-books.html