A portrait of women's choices, cultural assimilation, and generational differences (plus other historical fiction news)

Vivian Jacobson is beyond overwhelmed. The children of Russian Jewish immigrants, she and her loving husband, Mel, moved from Chicago with their family to a new house in suburban Wilmette, so people of her time—1956—may believe she’s achieved the pinnacle of American womanhood. But with four young children needing her undivided attention, Vivian’s completely frazzled. A solo homemaker six days a week, she’s left without transportation while Mel takes their Oldsmobile downtown to work at his family’s eatery.

When Vivian learns she’s pregnant again, to her despair, Mel agrees to support her choice to seek an illegal abortion with a doctor her obstetrician recommends. The place is grimy, the provider sarcastic and rude, and Vivian’s too scared to proceed. Now what? She has a week to change her mind.

Pub. by She Writes Press (2026)

First-time novelist Leavitt draws us fully into Vivian’s daily life and emotional turmoil as she weighs this most painful of decisions. Alongside, we also see Vivian’s mother, Hannah Kolson, raising a large family in a small apartment in 1923 Chicago.

Isolated as a non-English speaker, Hannah contends with a sexist husband who lays frequent claim to her body. She, too, has an unwanted pregnancy, a situation which Vivian gradually discovers. One of many very personal women’s stories, as we see in this compassionate and psychologically involving work, that exist but are rarely spoken about.

Vivian’s Decision is also delightfully full of Jewish wisdom, traditions, and immigrant history, from the classic Settlement Cook Book to a rabbi’s sensible advice. We see how much has changed between the ´20s and the more modern ´50s—wives no longer sit separate from their husbands in shul—but the importance of women’s freedoms remains constant, as it does today. This riveting novel about female friendship and agency is strongly recommended.

Della Leavitt’s Vivian’s Decision was published in April by She Writes Press, and I’d reviewed it initially for the Historical Novel Society. I chose it because it focuses on Jewish immigrant life, it’s set in Illinois, and because I’d loved Jennifer S. Brown’s Modern Girls, an earlier novel set in 1930s Manhattan that addresses similar themes.

The cover image, depicting a woman from above, reminded me of a few other recent designs. Four isn’t enough to call it a trend, but The Frozen River was so popular that I’m surprised there aren’t more of these. Did I miss others?

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Among other historical fiction news:

Of this year’s winner, the judges of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction said it “may be the most unusual book you read this year.” Alice Jolly’s The Matchbox Girl took home the honors. Set in Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938, it follows a young, non-speaking girl who comes to the attention of Dr Hans Asperger… and other children at the doctor’s pediatric clinic have been disappearing. The Matchbox Girl is published by Bloomsbury.

Nobel laureate Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, the Japanese-born British author, has announced his upcoming novel: Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger, to be published in March 2027 by Faber (UK) and Knopf (US/Canada). It’s described as a spy caper set in Britain in 1938 that draws on the author’s “love of music, art and Golden Age cinema,” says Faber publishing director Angus Cargill.

For Writer’s Digest, Julie Gerstenblatt (her second novel, The Stargazer of Nantucket, is out now) contributes an article with five good tips on How to Bring a World to Life in Historical Fiction.