The third volume in the seasonal quartet, an extended experiment in synchronicity, is the most explicitly political so far, Smith's moral fury a swelling undercurrent; yet hope springs eternal.
Tag: historical fiction
Daphne du Maurier · The King’s General
A grisly discovery inspired du Maurier to write this historical novel set during the English Civil War—a story of a country and families caught up in the conflict, with a romance at the heart of it.
Octavia E. Butler · Kindred
Part science fiction, part historical novel, part (neo) slave narrative, Butler's most famous novel is a memorable, emotionally effective, and engrossing commentary on the legacy of slavery.
Yaa Gyasi · Homegoing
This debut is a remarkable, ambitious, and tightly plotted historical fiction novel that paints a panoramic portrait of the legacy of slavery through short stories spanning several generations.
Ali Smith · How to Be Both
This creative dual-narrative novel about art leaves the reading experience up to chance—a playful textual Hall of Mirrors in which past and future intertwine in the fleeting present.
Louise Kennedy · Trespasses
A melancholy sadness and seething anger permeates this impressive debut novel, perfectly grounded in the time and place it portrays—Northern Ireland during The Troubles.
Sarah Waters · The Paying Guests
Set after the Great War, an impoverished widow and her spinster daughter are forced to take in lodgers, and their genteel life is about to be shaken up in rather unexpected ways...
Betty Smith · A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
This gentle and understated, yet rich and multi-layered American classic about a young girls' coming of age in poverty at the start of the 20th century is timeless, and still resonates today.
Toni Morrison · Song of Solomon
Book-ended by two leaps, two attempts to take flight, the rich, sprawling, kaleidoscopic story that unfurls between these acts of surrender takes wing slowly, but deliberately.
Daphne du Maurier · Frenchman’s Creek
A decidedly light-hearted and witty historical adventure/romance book set in du Maurier's beloved Cornwall, featuring suave french pirates.