Short Historical Fiction Books To Read Before the End of the Year

Pages: 176

On the last day of his long life, a widowed ferryman goes about his usual daily tasks, picking up travelers and transporting them across the fjords. But today, it’s not living passengers he’s transporting, but those he’s known and lost. As he reflects on his life and the people who have come and gone from it, he grows closer and closer to his final destination.

Pages: 208

Winifred has every intention of playing the perfect Victorian governess when she arrives at Ensor House, but soon she finds herself deviating from that plan. The Pound family are entirely pathetic, and Winifred finds compulsions from her past becoming more and more difficult to ignore. Is it really such a terrible thing to torment the house staff a little or take a moonlit stroll in her underwear? Perhaps not. But when her dark imaginings fully pour over into reality on Christmas morning, they’ll all learn what terror truly is.

Pages: 240

In Little Nettlebed, a dangerous new rumor is taking shape, and for five sisters living with their blind grandfather, the whispering soon becomes something far more sinister than mere neighborhood gossip. An ongoing drought, a vindictive drunk, and a vicious attack coalesce into a rumor almost everyone in Little Nettlebed now believes to be true: the Mansfield girls can turn into dogs, and something must be done about it.

Pages: 274

Inspired by a real life tragedy and the surprising, surreal photographs that captured it, The Paris Express tells the story of a train filled with an eclectic cast of characters, from members of parliament and doctors to a young anarchist crafting terrifying plans. The train departs at 8:30am. It will never make its final destination. From a power house writer like Emma Donoghue, how could a story like this one be anything but remarkable?

Pages: 275

A century apart, two woman are forced away from their homes by forces beyond their control, one, an Indian woman taken to South Africa as an indentured servant, the other, a Pakistani scholar fleeing violence. When Hajra comes across a picture of a woman brandishing a protest banner and laughing in defiance, she’s drawn to South Africa to trace Sita’s story. Though living in different centuries and through different circumstances, Hajra finds solidarity and inspiration in Sita’s story as she decides how to move forward with her own life.

Pages: 288

When the Lim family returns to their rural estate after years away, their teenage son Jay discovers he’s expected to share a room with the estate overseer’s son, Chuan. It takes almost no time at all for an intense bond to form between the two, but with the vast differences between their pasts and their expectations of the future, the question of what exactly their relationship can be hangs in the balance. The South paints an intimate portrait of family against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Malaysia.

Pages: 298

A young Japanese novelist and the interpreter hired to show her around Japanese-occupied 1938 Taiwan grow close over long train rides and delicious meals. But though Chizuko has little interest in her homeland’s imperialistic agenda and wants only to eat good food and draw her new companion closer, Chizuru keeps her distance. It’s not until after their heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to understand why Chizuru could never let her in.