Historical Fiction Featuring Strong Female Protagonists

It was called “The Titanic of the South.” The luxury steamship sank in 1838 with Savannah’s elite on board; through time, their fates were forgotten — until the wreck was found, and now their story is finally being told in this breathtaking novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis.

What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love? Inspired by true events, American Spy knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance. This is the face of the Cold War you’ve never seen before, and it introduces a powerful new literary voice.

A searing and compassionate new novel about a young Black nurse’s shocking discovery and burning quest for justice in post-segregation Alabama, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.

The lives of writers can often best be understood through the eyes of those who nurtured them and made their work possible. In The Sweetest Fruits, three women tell the story of their time with Lafcadio Hearn, a globetrotting writer best known for his books about Meiji-era Japan. Each is a gifted storyteller with her own precise reason for sharing her story. With brilliant sensitivity and an unstinting eye, Truong illuminates the women’s tenacity and their struggles in a novel that circumnavigates the globe in the search for love, family, home, and belonging.

This sweeping novel from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.

All through her childhood in Tehran, Forugh Farrokhzad is told that Persian daughters should be quiet and modest. She is taught to obey, but she always finds ways to rebel, living life by her own rules — but at enormous cost. Inspired by her verse, letters, films, and interviews — and including original translations of her poems — this haunting novel uses the lens of fiction to capture the tenacity, spirit, and conflicting desires of a brave woman who represents the birth of feminism in Iran — and who continues to inspire generations of women around the world.

A captivating debut novel about the tangled fates of two best friends and daughters of the Italian mafia, and a coming-of-age story of twentieth-century Brooklyn itself.

A teenage girl living in 1960s China becomes Mao Zedong’s protégée and lover — and a heroine of the Cultural Revolution. Forbidden City is an epic yet intimate portrayal of one of the world’s most powerful and least understood leaders during this extraordinarily turbulent period in modern Chinese history. The protagonist’s harrowing journey toward truth and disillusionment raises questions about power, manipulation, and belief, as seen through the eyes of a passionate teenage girl.

Carlota Moreau: A young woman growing up on a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatán peninsula. The only daughter of a researcher who is either a genius or a madman … From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a dreamy reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico.

An enthralling epic about two trailblazing female doctors in nineteenth-century New York from the international bestselling author of The Gilded Hour. In the city, it seems that the advancement of women has brought out the worst in some men. Unable to ignore the plight of New York’s less fortunate, these intrepid doctors and cousins draw on all their resources to protect their patients.

For fans of Pachinko and Lilac Girls, the heartbreaking history of Korea is brought to life in this deeply moving and redemptive debut that follows two sisters separated by World War II. Suspenseful, hopeful, and ultimately redemptive, White Chrysanthemum tells a story of two sisters whose love for each other is strong enough to triumph over the grim evils of war.

Once inseparable, Berlin teenagers Ilse Fischer and Renate Bauer find their friendship ripped apart by their nation’s abrupt swing into fascism. Ilse, a so-called Aryan, throws her lot in with the Nazi Party, while Renate sees her once-secure world dismantled by Adolf Hitler and then shattered by a shocking betrayal. Decades later, Ilse’s daughter Ava will discover long-buried truths about her mother’s past. A harrowing page-turner, Wunderland traces the lives of three women across two generations — and the devastating repercussions of choices made in the dark days of wartime Germany.

Two impossible love stories are fatefully connected by one artistic legacy in a stunning debut that leaps between the mysteries of late-Renaissance Venice and the dramas of present-day America.

At the end of the nineteenth century, three revolutionary women fight for freedom in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton’s captivating new novel inspired by real-life events and the true story of a legendary Cuban woman — Evangelina Cisneros — who changed the course of history.

From debut author Asha Lemmie, “a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together” (Kristin Hannah).

Conjure Women is a sweeping story that brings the world of the South before and after the Civil War vividly to life. Spanning eras and generations, it tells the story of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman; her daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother’s footsteps; and their master’s daughter Varina. Magnificently written and richly imagined, this book tells the haunting story of their passions and friendships, and the lengths they will go to save themselves and those they love.

1932. After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell has become a “surplus woman,” one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men. But Violet starts a new life with a society of broderers — women who embroider kneelers for the Cathedral. Violet finds support and community in the group, but when forces threaten her new independence and another war appears on the horizon, Violet must fight to put down roots in a place where women aren’t supposed to grow. Told in Chevalier’s glorious prose, A Single Thread is a timeless story of friendship, love, and a woman crafting her own life.