A historical fiction preview for autumn 2025

Fall is always a big season for fiction, and here are 14 upcoming novels that caught my interest. Distinctive settings across the board, with a mix of big-name publishers and smaller presses from both the US and UK.

I've been curious about this one ever since I read the original publishing deal. The story of the artistic collaboration and clandestine romantic relationship between two painters in 1930s Scotland: Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, who first meet at the Glasgow School of Art. Canongate, September 2025.

A story of feminine courage and the pursuit of literacy in Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1920s, when rebellious sentiment against the Japanese burns underground in Seoul.  Simon & Schuster, September 2025.

Coventry (a retired physician who has also written a YA historical novel and Regency romance) brings little-known history back into the spotlight in her literary biographical novel of 19th-century American surgeon William Stewart Halsted, the pursuit of new formulas for anesthesia, the pain of addiction, and how this impacts Halsted's wife, Caroline. Regal House, November 2025.

I'm always up for a new novel about the Brontë family, and Cowell's new novel intermingles the historical and mystical in a story about Emily's encounters with a Scottish shepherd living in a stone cottage on the Yorkshire moorland: a man nobody else has seen.  Regal House, September 2025.

Set in Provence during the early Renaissance, Echols' second historical novel (after A Tale of Two Maidens, set in France at the time of Joan of Arc) centers on an apprentice surgeon from Barcelona, his romance with a mentally troubled young woman, and its effect on his approach to medicine.  She Writes, September 2025.

A debut novel about faith, belonging, envy, betrayal, and women's communities set in late 13th-century Flanders as an unorthodox young woman hungers to become closer to God.  Spiegel & Grau, September 2025.

As in her previous The Wharton Plot (which I had the pleasure of interviewing the author about), Fredericks weaves a novel around a little-remembered historical crime: the shooting death in 1920 of society figure Joseph Elwell.  Zelda Fitzgerald, looking for distraction during her husband's current writing project, gets curious about what really happened. Plus, an amazing cover. Minotaur, September 2025.

I loved Elodie Harper's The Wolf Den, set during Pompeii's last days, and really ought to get back to that series!  Her Boudicca's Daughter is a standalone, giving a name (Solina) to the warrior queen's eldest daughter, starting during the time before Boudicca led the Iceni people to rebel against the might of Rome. Union Square, September 2025; the UK edition comes out in late August from Head of Zeus.

Gill Hornby's historical novels about Jane Austen's family have received increased attention after the recent TV adaptation of her Miss Austen (I recommend both the novel and the series). The Elopement looks ahead one generation to two young people brought together after their parents get married, and the scandal that ensues when they themselves fall in love.  Pegasus, October 2025.

Lorena Hughes' novels are addictive reads with such interesting concepts. In 1950s Ecuador, two journalists sift through the tragic fallout from the radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, which was broadcast in their country in 1949, determined to learn the truth about their families. Kensington, September 2025.

First in a series about medieval queens of Portugal, Inês reveals the tumultuous forbidden love between Pedro, Prince of Portugal, and the woman his father refuses to let him marry: noblewoman Inês de Castro. Their story, as described by the author, is "a tale of jealousy and revenge most bloody and tragic."  Histria, October 2025.

Having worked in academic libraries, I'd been familiar with Harvard's famed Widener Library, but until recently, I hadn't known its backstory: that it was built to honor Harry Elkins Widener, a Harvard alum, book collector, and Titanic victim. Richman's latest is a ghost story about Harry and a modern-day student working in the building bearing his name.  Union Square, October 2025.

Secrets pervade a small Ohio town in this novel spanning the postwar era to contemporary times. This generational saga set in the US Midwest has been receiving considerable advance praise. (Ohio's known as the Buckeye State.  So are graduates of Ohio State, of whom I'm one.)  Random House, September 2025.  

Gothic historical fiction set in early 20th-century Omaha, Nebraska. A medium's presence in the home of a high-society woman stirs up restless spirits.  Lake Union, November 2025.