A visual preview of a dozen historical fiction debuts for 2016

It seems appropriate that my first post for 2016 is focused on first novels.  Look for these debut historical novels to be published in the upcoming months.



What a beautifully original setting for a family saga; there aren't many set in France.  This novel about a family from the bourgeoisie, their involvement in the flourishing Impressionist art movement, and the secrets they hide from one another is set in Belle Époque Paris.  St. Martin's, July 2016.



The books in this post are in alphabetical order by author surname, so it's a coincidence that this second novel in the list is also situated in the 19th-century art world: but this time in Gilded Age New York, where a family of four artistic sisters seeks to make their mark.  Harper, May 2016.



The first novel from Hungarian film director Péter Gárdos is a hot commodity; rights to his story, a fictionalized version of his parents' unlikely post-WWII romance, have been acquired in 30 countries.  And, according to IMDB, the film version is in post-production in Hungary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 2016.




Yaa Gyasi's debut novel moves us over to Ghana with a saga about history, race, and identity that begins in the 18th century, with the lives of two sisters, and continues through the 20th century in Harlem.  Knopf, June 2016.



This coming-of-age novel set in the racially turbulent American South in the '50s and '60s focuses on the friendship between two children of farming families, one White and one Black, and the complications that develop in their relationship as they mature.  Kensington, July 2016.



Johnson's time-slip novel, a love story set in rural southern France, sweeps from the present day to the 13th century at the time of the Albigensian Crusade. Really looking forward to this one.  Sourcebooks, February 2016.



The lives of three women—a New York socialite, a member of the Polish resistance, and a German physician—come together in war-torn Europe in this saga about women's courage and heroism in World War II. Ballantine, April 2016.



A novel of war, friendship, and difficult new beginnings that follows a Canadian girl of Japanese heritage who's deported with her father to American-occupied Tokyo after WWII.  The author is a Japanese-Canadian librarian. Doubleday, April 2016.



Personal adventure, self-discovery, and the search for love are themes in this debut about a young man from Harlem who loses then finds himself amid the heady jazz scene of Paris in the '20s.  Kensington, May 2016.



First in a series entitled "Daughters of New France," Promised to the Crown is billed as an exploration of the female experience in the Canadian colony of New France in the 17th century, as seen through the eyes of three young women sent there to find husbands and populate the new land.  Kensington, April 2016.



First-century Britain, just prior to the Roman invasion, is the setting for this story about a young woman destined for a leadership role in her matriarchal society.  Tampke is based in Australia, where her debut has the title Skin.  Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, April 2016.



From this publisher's blurb, Williams' debut is "based on a true story of the only fatal nuclear accident to occur in America"; an ominous premise. Set in Idaho Falls in 1959, it evokes the communications breakdown in a marriage when the husband, an Army Specialist, learns about problems with the nuclear reactor there and the subsequent cover-up.  Random House, January 2016.