Some early 2020 historical novels that caught my attention

Hope you're all coping OK during this odd, unsettling time.  I started writing this post in mid-December last year, having picked out the novels and covers and included them.  Then my schedule got busy and I forgot that I'd never published it. By now, four months later, many of these novels are out in the world, or soon to be, so when I found the draft post, I figured I might as well write up some descriptions and get it out there. The following ten historical novels, which take readers to places and eras not frequently written about, are published in the first half of 2020.  Have you read any?

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction (UK), this debut novel takes place in Philadelphia, in 1910, as an African American woman named Spring recounts her family's history to her son Edward as he lies in a hospital bed; comparisons have been made to Beloved (see the cover image above). Blackstone, February 2020. [see on Goodreads]

Cameron adds to her repertoire of historical novels about lesser-known eras in European Jewish history with this work about a young woman, Mirelle d'Ancona, living in a ghetto in coastal Italy at the time of the French occupation in the late 18th century. Review coming soon.  She Writes, April 2020. [see on Goodreads]

In the aftermath of the bombing of Nanking by the Japanese, a large group of Chinese university students and professors travel across their country, refugees all, while carrying the valuable writings of the book's title (the Library of Legends).  William Morrow, May 2020. [see on Goodreads]

 

Set amid the Vardø witch trials of 1621 Norway, Hargrave's adult fiction debut centers on two women in this tiny northern fishing village after most of its men are killed in a storm, their unexpected relationship, and their struggle to survive both external and internal forces. Little, Brown, February 2020. [see on Goodreads]

A young henna artist pursuing an independent life in 1950s Jaipur, India, eight years after the British left her country, finds her existence in upheaval after her estranged husband and a previously unknown sister track her down. MIRA, March 2020. [see on Goodreads]

Readers of WWII fiction set in far-flung locales should take note: Liu's newest novel takes place in India and on a penal colony on the Andaman Islands in 1942, as a family searches for their missing, mute four-year-old son at the height of wartime. Red Hen, May 2020. [see on Goodreads]

As a fan of Gothic fiction, I find this title and cover hard to resist. Set in 1950s Mexico, the story centers on an elegant debutante who discovers sinister secrets at her cousin's mansion.  Del Rey, June 2020. [see on Goodreads]

The author's followup to The Wives of Los Alamos is set considerably further back in time: ten years after the Mayflower's landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts, recasting the Pilgrim fathers (and mothers) in a new light in its recounting of a crime that transformed their community. Bloomsbury, March 2020. [see on Goodreads]

I've been hearing positive buzz about Karin Tanabe's newest novel, set in Indochine in the 1930s, and featuring a French heir to the Michelin family, his American wife, their glamorous friends, and dangerous political intrigue. St. Martin's, April 2020. [see on Goodreads]

The protagonists of Zhang's debut novel are two orphaned Chinese siblings during the California Gold Rush years; it's been receiving rave reviews from the New York Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere.  Riverhead, March 2020. [see on Goodreads]