Historical Fiction

From the author of the Booker nominated, international bestseller Nightcrawling - a novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a Florida beach town When...

In the vein of The Paris Wife and The Personal Librarian comes this debut novel, a magnificent work of “biographical fiction” that reimagines the turbulent and triumphant early years of...

A riveting, emotionally-charged tale of forbidden love, centred on an estranged couple who are brought together to reckon with the events that tore their family apart decades ago. In 1960s...

A richly-told debut of mothers, daughters and family secrets from the BBC journalist What will it take to uncover her past? A lost child. When Mivvi is young, her mother...

An unforgettable story of survival, sisterhood, and the fight for a brighter future. In 1970s Brazil, two teenage sisters are thrust into a chaotic world. Fear and hunger stalk them...

A sweeping historical love story that brings Torres Straight Islander culture to life. For readers of Anita Heiss. A sweeping, heart-warming and ultimately triumphant story of the life of a...

An Observer Best Debut Novel 2025 A debut novel bursting its banks with wondrous storytelling, for fans of David Mitchell, Sunjeev Suhota and Yaa Gyasi 'A writer we will be...

"'The women in this house are the same,' she said. 'When we love, we love with all of ourselves.'" Mai is navigating life in 90s London as a first generation...

An epic and emotional story of three spirited women - a mother, her daughter, their maid - during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong 1941. The wealthy Tang family has...

'The boldest debut of the year . . . It is refreshing to discover a new author of such grand scale, singular focus and blistering vision' —Observer America In the...

A luminous, beautifully observed novel about the people we once were, and the people we can become – if only we're brave enough to try. 1990: Indu and Vijay leave...

For readers of Pachinko and Queenie, a funny, sexy, and heart-wrenching literary debut that explores exile, ambition, and hope across three generations of Palestinian American women. Arabella gets an unexpected...

'The word-of-mouth breakout' STYLIST 'As funny as it is moving' GUARDIAN 'Funny and profound' TASH AW A riotously funny and moving debut novel following five women from three generations of a once illustrious...

A daughter searches for her father; a mother for her son. From isolated Tasmania to vibrant Morocco, two women seek the truth about what happened to the same man.Khadija is...

An electrifying Afrobeat love story about a young Senegalese jazz musician and an aspiring African American producer thrown together by chance, and destined to make music that will change the...

One will lose his mind. One will pay. One will agonise. And one will die. Duy, Phong, Minh, and Edmond have been best friends since childhood. Now, as young men...

The Concubine, Elechi Amadi's most celebrated work of fiction, paints a picture of pre-colonial life in rural Eastern Nigeria and explores the boundary between myth and reality.Ihuoma is a woman...

The debut novel from the award-winning screenwriter of ‘Bhaji on the Beach’. The story of nine-year-old Meena, growing up in the only Punjabi family in the Black Country mining village...

A strikingly original first novel, from the author of A Little Life. ‘The world Yanagihara conjures up, full of dark pockets of mystery, is magical.’ – The Times  In 1950 Norton Perina, a...

A gem-like parable about Palestine, timely and prismaticNabila Yasmeen is in her eighties. She lives alone with over a hundred plants that she keeps in pots because she can't bear...

An epic, spellbinding novel of rebellion, redemption, power and humanity, and of a Black community finding freedom to live an ordinary life of love and pain in America's darkest days....

*A stunning and compelling novel for fans of PACHINKO, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, and SHUGGIE BAIN* 'The pages crackle with the tension of a Hollywood thriller . . . an enticing, engaging...

From debut Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Mapepa comes the saga of the four Taha sisters, and the indomitable matriarch who carried her daughters—and her community—through times of drought and violence in...

'One of the most original and brilliant debuts in years' Irish Times An exhilarating and fiercely original story of brotherhood, war and art, set in ancient SicilyAncient Sicily. Enter GELON- visionary,...

‘Aiwanose Odafen’s novel has entered popular feminist discourse.’ Afrocritik On a Sunday in 1978, Obianuju meets Chigozie at church – the perfect place for an upstanding girl to find a...

A propulsive retelling inspired by the Greek myth of MedeaCalcutta, 1757.Bengal is on the brink of war. The East India Company, led by the fearsome Sir Peter Chilcott, are advancing...

'More than lives up to the hype' — Observer 'Set to become a publishing sensation' — Kirsty Lang, BBC Front Row 'An astounding achievement' — Sunday Times 'The lost giant...

AN OBSERVER TOP TEN DEBUT 2020 'The kind of novel you never knew you were waiting for. An explosive work that reels from sex, to sin, to salvation all the...

In Igboland, the lives of two Nigerian women change forever... In the city of Enugu in the 1970s, young Nwabulu dreams of becoming a typist as she endures the endless...

A Stylist Best Book of 2020 You’re free to decide your future. But how do you escape the ghosts of the past? The pale-skinned, black-eyed baby is a bad omen....

Mia Kim's debut novel, set in ‘60s post-war Korea, is a harrowing story of Su-young's life with her aunt and her family. After a series of disastrous stays in various...

The forbidden love story of a slave woman and an Irish immigrant, inspired by the author’s great-great-grandparents. Henry O’Toole sails to America in 1848 to escape poverty and famine in...

On the night of the Tiananmen Square massacre, a woman gives birth alone in a Beijing hospital. Years later, her daughter Liya travels from America to China with her mother's...

'Rarely is a book this finely wrought, the lives and histories it holds so tenderly felt, and rendered unforgettably true' — Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous...

Spanning more than half a century and cities from New Delhi to Atlanta, Anjali Enjeti’s debut is a heartfelt and human portrait of the long shadow of the Partition of...

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020 LONGLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2021 'The boldest debut of the year . . . It is refreshing to discover a new author...

Translated by Melanie Mauthner Introducing Scholastique Mukasonga: a major international author and her brilliant and award-winning first novel. Parents send their daughters to Our Lady of the Nile to be...

‘Inventive, excellent … a pure pleasure to read’ THE TIMESIn this compelling debut, an unknowable legacy passes through generations of one family living on the beautiful island of Barbados.There is...

'Do you know what it was like here? You wouldn't believe the glamour. We had our own film studio, redbrick houses for the stars, even Jackie Chan. Now look at...

ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S 'TEN DEBUT NOVELISTS' OF 2021 Delhi, 1946. Ma and Bappu are liberal intellectuals teaching at the local university. Their fourteen year-old daughter — precocious, headstrong Alma...

In writing her sister Annie's eulogy, Kathy reflects on the complexities that shaped their family and their identities. It’s winter in Logan, south-east Queensland, and still warm enough to sleep...

Moving between two continents over a troubled century, We Are All Birds of Uganda is a multi-layered, moving and immensely resonant novel of generational love, loss and what it means...

A Girl Called Rumi, Ari Honarvar’s debut novel, weaves a captivating tale of survival, redemption, and the power of storytelling. Kimia, a successful spiritual advisor whose Iranian childhood continues to...

A stunning new reissue of one of the most iconic fictional debuts of all time, to mark the 25th anniversary of this modern classicFirst published in the year 2000, Zadie...

From the winner of the SMH/Age Best Young Novelist of the Year and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year. Growing up can feel like a death...

In this “captivating” (Harper’s Bazaar) and lyrical debut novel — perfect for fans of The Water Dancer and the Legacy of Orïsha series — the Yoruba deity of the sea,...

Read the searing first novel from the celebrated author of Beloved, which immerses us in the tragic, torn lives of a poor black family in post-Depression 1940s Ohio.Unloved, unseen, Pecola prays...

Set in Uganda in 1972, an extraordinarily moving debut that tells the story of one family’s escape, when Amin forces them to leave: a story of loss and separation, but...

In 19th century Bombay, Captain Jim Agnihotri channels his idol, Sherlock Holmes, in Nev March’s Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut.In 1892, Bombay is the center...

The brilliantly imaginative New York Times bestselling fantasy retelling of Romeo and Juliet set against the immersive backdrop of 1920s Shanghai. In glittering Shanghai, a monster awakens . . ....