I love a good author’s note at the end of a novel, especially when it’s historical fiction and the writer gives some explanation of their research—what was real in the book and what was imagined. Many fans of the genre enjoy scrutinizing authors’ fidelity to facts. But the truth is, there are bound to be errors, because no matter how many dusty documents a writer consults, the past remains, alas, unreachable. We’ll never know exactly what it was like to be in a time and place that wasn’t our own. It may as well be galaxies far, far away...
The rich world-building of great historical fiction makes us feel like we’ve collapsed that distance, if only for a few glorious hours. You might think adding speculative tropes like time travel or mythological creatures would shatter the illusion entirely. Yet this collection of stories shows how a little dose of the fantastical can often expand our reach even further into the emotional truth of an era: Magic and mysticism as metaphor for traumas too big to wrap our minds around; for regrets so weighty they could swallow us whole; or, better yet, for the powerless finding their power.
History teaches us that surreal, impossible-seeming things do, in fact, happen—technologies that once seemed unimaginable come to fruition, as do horrors beyond our worst fears. Stories help us make sense of such things, a sort of spellcasting in their own right, providing comfort, escape, and wisdom. These speculative historical novels do all that and more, transporting us to places we’re aching to see and exploring what connects people across time.
Francis Spufford’s historical fiction is so atmospheric, it’s like you’re walking arm-in-arm down the street with his protagonists. What was it actually like to endure the London Blitz? You have the giddy sense you know after listening to Nonesuch—even though, in this London, there’s time travel and cheeky, shape-shifting angels. Since his 2017 debut novel, Golden Hill, Spufford’s fiction has been moving more and more in a speculative direction, while remaining grounded in rich historical premises. The stiff-upper-lip, “Keep Calm and Carry On” vibes we love about the Blitz era feel fresh in Spufford’s wholly original and astonishingly imaginative tale.
The real magic of this book may be that its author was only 22 years old when it was published. Nelio Biedermann’s breakout novel is an intergenerational family saga spanning a half-century of tumultuous Hungarian history, including the Habsburg collapse, two world wars, the communist takeover, and the failed 1956 uprising. In tone, it feels like a gothic fable, set in a manor house with more than its fair share of madness, on the edge of a frightening forest known to swallow a family member or two. There are many unexplained happenings as the Lázár family is tossed hither and thither through their surreal times. But who’s to say what’s real and what’s not when the world keeps collapsing and rebuilding? Narrator Justin Avoth’s sonorous voice is inflected with the perfect patrician cadence and biting wit for this eccentric tale.
History and myth combine to stunning effect in Adam Johnson’s epic The Wayfinder, his first novel since his Pulitzer-winning The Orphan Master’s Son. This novel is the result of a decade of research, richly immersing us in the 13th-century Tonga Empire and a Polynesia untouched by European influence. With magical realism crafted from the islands’ oral history (this is a world where souls can be stored in coconut shells and parrots recite poetry), the story follows Kōrero, a young girl who embarks on a heroic voyage to save her starving island. Narrators Waikamania Seve and Caleb Teaupa’s Antipodean accents bring a heartfelt authenticity to the telling of this remarkable story.
The Listeners takes place right after Pearl Harbor at a luxury hotel in West Virginia, where diplomats from Japan and Germany have been sent to await their expulsion from the country. Hotel manager June Hudson is trying to keep things running smoothly—including the mysterious and magical water source that runs below the hotel—but the turbulent times are putting her to the test. Beyond the satisfaction of learning about a little-known domestic chapter of the war (The Listeners was inspired by real events), this is an insightful novel about class, coming to terms with your past, and life in liminal spaces. Underlying it all, as with all of Maggie Stiefvater’s writing, is a welcome sense of wonder.
Whose stories get told, and whose get buried? In this brilliant novel about suppressed narratives, a Dominican writer seeks a quieter life by returning to her homeland and burying all the drafts of her unfinished books in her garden. But instead of putting her characters to rest, the act sets them free to tell their own stories: Bienvenida (the tossed-aside wife of dictator Rafael Trujillo) and dissident Dr. Manuel Cruz slowly emerge—evolving from voices into full-blown apparitions as they grow more confident, more heard. Together, they weave an intimate portrayal of life under a ruthless regime. Alive with Dominican folklore and history, Julia Alvarez’s cathartic storytelling confronts a painful past with wit and wisdom.
A brother and sister search for each other in war-torn Belgium, but obstacles both fantastical and apocalyptic stand in their way. Inspired by the widespread interest in spiritualism during World War I, author Katherine Arden crafted a haunting tale that deepens our grasp of the grief and horror of that cataclysmic conflict. Ghosts and demons seem to fit naturally amid rich depictions of real-life hellscapes like the Battle of Passchendaele and the Halifax Explosion, which leveled a big part of that Canadian city. This is a dark story, but as one listener review noted, “There is plenty of heart and love and hope holding this poetic, historical tale together.”
This dazzling novel takes us from 1920s Mexico into the Mayan underworld, showcasing the country’s folklore and history in a sweeping, colorful swirl of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s imagination. In a lush performance from Yetta Gottesman, Gods of Jade and Shadow deftly folds in the crosscurrents of the era—a Mexico still emerging from its decade-long civil war and rapidly modernizing—as we follow ill-treated young servant Casiopea Tun, who accidentally releases the spirit of the Mayan God of Death and must help him reclaim his throne. Along the way, she reclaims a few things herself, finally becoming master of her own fate.
A small-town teacher goes back in time to try to stop the Kennedy assassination in one of Stephen King’s best-loved novels, brilliantly narrated by Craig Wasson. King first had the idea for this story back in 1971, three years before he published his debut novel, Carrie. Daunted by the research involved, he set it aside for decades, becoming the most prolific and influential horror author of all time instead. Which was for the best. 11/22/63 benefits from the full force of his honed talent and craftsmanship, as immersive and spellbinding as the best of his books, boosted by his meticulous research of 1950s and ’60s America, right down to the price of root beer.
Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel actually takes place in the near future but depicts such a fun repartee with the past that it deserves to be on this list. In this case, time travel does not deliver us into history but rather delivers historical people to modern London, in a sort of cross-century exchange program run by the secretive Ministry of Time. A young woman working in the civil service is tasked with monitoring and guiding Commander Graham Gore, a real-life Arctic explorer who perished in an 1847 expedition. Watching him come to grips with the 21st century (he’s “like a daguerreotype developing”) makes for a fascinating, funny, and insightful story.
It really feels like David Mitchell is just showing off in this one. One author should not be able to execute this many writing styles, this well—and all in one book, no less. In the six nested tales that make up this ornate novel, we jump across centuries, from the 1850s South Pacific, to 1930s Belgium, to 1970s California and, eventually, to a distant post-apocalyptic future in Hawaii. A genius narrative device links each story to the last, creating a riveting and complex contemplation of how stories of the past echo onward, ad infinitum. It’s brought to life in audio by a powerhouse cast including Audible Hall of Fame narrators Scott Brick and Cassandra Campbell.
This time-traveling romance series—nine books strong, with a hit TV adaptation—is among the spicier exemplars of this genre blend. Following the adventures of Claire Randall, a WWII nurse who steps back in time to 1743 Scotland—and into the arms of hunky Highlander Jamie Fraser—the series spans decades, depicting revolutions on both sides of the Atlantic. Claire and Jamie never miss a chance to drop kilts, but you can rest assured the plaids are historically on point. There’s passion, yes, and plenty of derring-do, but Diana Gabaldon has also done her research, piecing together a detailed, lush portrayal of a tumultuous century, performed here in the irresistible Scottish burr of narrator Davina Porter.
Embedded in this heartwarming historical-fantasy mashup of Jewish and Middle Eastern folklore is a tale as old as time: the immigrant’s journey. A Golem and a Jinni both wash up on American shores, and despite having little in common, they connect over being outsiders and develop a deep bond. Together, these magical beings meander the teeming streets of 1899 Manhattan, and author Helene Wecker makes a meal of it, supplying vivid sensory details that transport you to the Lower East Side and Little Syria. Deeply philosophical, inventive, and compelling, The Golem and the Jinni is a story not just about what it means to become American, but what it means to become human.
Kivrin, an Oxford student in the year 2054, travels back to the 14th century to study daily life in medieval England but gets stranded there thanks to a series of snafus in both timelines. Doomsday Book was the start of a four-book series, and sci-fi master Connie Willis won a Hugo Award for each one, an unprecedented achievement. The story works so well in part because of the unforgettable portrayal of village life at the peak of the plague, graphic and meticulous in detail, but made more palatable by Willis’s dry wit and indelible characters. Needless to say, our heroine Kivrin’s academic detachment gives way to a more profound historic witness than she ever could have bargained for, and the realization that times may change, but human nature, not so much.
This highly influential classic from trailblazing sci-fi author Octavia E. Butler follows a Black woman living in 1970s LA who is repeatedly yanked back in time to a Maryland plantation, where she meets both her enslaved and white ancestors and is faced with impossible choices to ensure her own future existence. It’s Back to the Future meets Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a mind-blowing and effective blend that would be nearly unthinkable in the hands of any other writer, especially at the time it was released, in 1979. Layered and thought-provoking, it’s the kind of novel you can return to again and again, parsing ever more meaning from the story. Kim Staunton’s narration of the audiobook is not to be topped.
