Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Twelve upcoming historical novels for 2021 that aren't set during WWII

Here's the first in a series of previews of upcoming 2021 releases. As you've no doubt noticed, publishers' interest in World War II as a historical fiction setting continues unabated. I've been keeping an eye on current publishing deals, and the trend looks to last through 2022 at least. For readers who prefer earlier settings, or who enjoy focusing on a wide variety of eras, this post is for you.  These dozen titles will be appearing from US publishers in the first half of next year. Links go to the books' Goodreads pages.

Hope Adams' first novel Dangerous Women (Berkley, Feb.) follows 180 Englishwomen on a convict ship to Van Diemen's Land (modern Tasmania) in 1841. Along the way, they assemble a giant quilt, an artifact that can be viewed today, and evade a potential murderer on board. The setting for Melanie Benjamin's The Children's Blizzard (Delacorte, Feb.) is the Dakota Territory in January 1888. Young people and their teachers were in school as a sudden blizzard hit, leaving them with tough decisions to make. Moving to an earlier period than his usual, Chris Bohjalian's Hour of the Witch (Doubleday, Apr.) delves into the life of a young Puritan woman in 1660s Boston who's desperate to end her violent marriage. And for her debut, Wild Women and the Blues (Kensington, Mar.), Denny S. Bryce intertwines the stories of a chorus girl in Jazz Age-Chicago and a modern film student who interviews her decades later, when she's 110 years old.



Incorporating another pulled-from-history subject, Patti Callahan (Becoming Mrs. Lewis) focuses on the sinking of the steamship Pulaski in 1838, a family affected by the tragedy, and a contemporary professor researching the topic, in her Surviving Savannah (Berkley, Mar). Ben Hopkins' Cathedral (Europa, Jan.) looks tailor-made for Ken Follett fans, with its subject the bustling community surrounding the construction of a Gothic cathedral in 13th-century Germany. When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown (Thomas Nelson, Apr.) takes us to small-town, Depression-era Georgia with the story of a young Black woman coming of age during a time when the KKK is wreaking havoc in her community. Sadeqa Johnson's Yellow Wife (Simon & Schuster, Jan.), set in the mid-19th century, recounts the tale of a young woman hoping to be granted her freedom but who finds herself returned to slavery and working in a notorious Virginia jail (based on a true story).


Mitchell James Kaplan's third novel, Rhapsody (Gallery, Mar.) centers on the decade-long affair between composers George Gershwin and Kay Swift in the 1920s-30s.  In the Palace of Flowers by Victoria Princewill (Cassava Republic, Feb.) takes place in the royal court of Iran in the 1890s, with two enslaved people as its protagonists. (The UK release date was this August.)  Mary Sharratt's historical novels are always excellent, and I'm looking forward to Revelations (HMH, Apr.), her take on English mystics Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe in the 15th century. Lastly, Leaving Coy's Hill by Katherine A. Sherbrooke (Pegasus, May) is another work of biographical fiction, illuminating the life of Lucy Stone, a 19th-century American orator and abolitionist.

21 comments:

  1. I loved your list. I have requested just two only because the others are all on the wish list for Netgalley. I've stopped requesting on that as it never materializes!! but if I get the two I requested I will be happy.

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    1. Thanks for your comments on the list. I know what you mean - the wish list option is often there because the book's not available in the region, and publishers rarely change their minds. Glad to hear that two were available for you to request.

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  2. They all sound great - thanks for the list. I find myself shying away from tragedy and conflict these days, but that still leaves me with plenty of good material. Happy Thanksgiving!

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    1. I know what you mean about wanting to stay away from darker subjects these days. Happy Thanksgiving!

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  3. Loved Ben Hopkins' "Cathedral" - definitely read this if you love Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" or Falcones' "Cathedral of the Sea". Mary Sharratt is also excellent.

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    1. Thanks for the recommendations. I can't wait to read both of them.

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  4. Thanks for the recs. The interest and publication of WWII continues to amaze me. Hope my novel will hit this list next year - writing about early 1900s US.

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    1. Best of luck with your novel - it's a fascinating period. WWII is these days what Tudor was ten years ago. Interesting how things go in cycles. Wonder what will be the next big thing?

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    2. Thank you! I wonder if there will be an uptick in revisiting the period I'm writing about with a focus on 1918 and the Spanish flu - in case any writers are impacted by today's crisis to look back. I have 2 chapters on that pandemic in my novel.

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    3. It seems very possible. There were quite a few Spanish Flu novels appearing in 2018 for the centennial remembrance, and Emma Donoghue's new novel is also about it - written back before anyone knew about COVID-19. But actually living during a pandemic provides a deeper perspective... so more novelists may be inspired by it.

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  5. I've got the ARC for the Melanie Benjamin book and I'm really looking forward to reading it.!

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    1. Hope you enjoy it! I just got an ARC also - hoping to read it over the end-of-year break.

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  6. Thank goodness there will be other options outside of WWII. I wish publishers/writers could space these out a bit more so you get a year of WWII and then a year of something else. While I've enjoyed several WWII books, there is only so much you can take of one time period with similar themes before you get bored (and that is not the authors fault!).

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    1. That's not a bad idea. I've read three WWII novels in succession recently and, while the books are good and they're set in different places around the world, I generally go for more variety in my reading.

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  7. Imma gonna guess one of the next ubiquitous periods for historical fiction will be the John Company in India.

    ITV's dreadful series, Beecham House, flopped. But a lux production of William Dalrymple's The Anarchy tracing the the rise of the East India company, will be turned into a TV series, internationally produced. So will his Kohinoor: The History Of World's Most Infamous Diamond, written together with Anita Anand, get a series adaptation too by 185 Carat Films From Mumbai.

    Also the last visit of the Black Death to England, in Samuel Pepys London, 1667, as well as Daniel Defoe's novel about it (he wasn't there). A television series of this is coming too.

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    1. I'd like to see HF in India trending. I've read many of these novels, and the period hasn't been overdone. Thanks for sharing the news about The Anarchy and Kohinoor, which I hadn't heard before.

      I saw Beecham House, which I wasn't impressed by. It was clear from the ending that they were planning more episodes, but not a big loss.

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    2. The London Plague series is coming from the History Channel, via the same team that brought us, first, The Tudors on -- was it Showtime? or Starz? -- and then The Vikings, which turned to trash, but not in a good way. The first two seasons were very good. So what happened with Hirst and Co. after that? Anyway, don't have a lot of hopes for the History Channel's London Plague miniseries.

      The Dalrymple series are international in finance and production, but helmed, if I understood the news pieces correctly, from one of India's premiere television networks.

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  8. Sarah, thank you so much for including my book on your list. These are some amazing titles, and I am happy to be mentioned in the same breath as them. It is always an honor when readers and reviewers like yourself pay attention to the work we are doing. Please, let me know if you would like to receive an ARC, if you haven't already. My publisher would be happy to get one in the mail to you. My email is: angelabrownky@hotmail.com. Take care and happy reading!

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    1. Thanks so much for commenting! The novel sounds great, and I'm looking forward to it.

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  9. I am chuckling over your post because I do not like books about WWII. It's not historical for me as I was born ten years after it ended. I am finding it hard to find historical fiction that is not set during the war so thanks for the list.

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    1. I understand! Sorry for taking so long to approve your comment - I didn't get any notifications about it and just saw it in the pending queue. Glad you liked the post.

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