Ghosts of the Old and New West in Téa Obreht's novel Sunrise

Obreht’s electrifying novel opens in summer 2024, in the aftermath of a plane crash. Nina, a New York-based grad student and nanny, was on vacation with her boyfriend, Ben, when the small Cessna he was flying over a remote Wyoming lake developed engine trouble, and he pushed her out to save her life. Or is that what happened? Something feels off.

Nina ponders this, but survival takes precedence. With her waterlogged backpack, she trudges through the mountainous woods in hope of rescue, rationing her protein bars and finally taking shelter in a dusty, abandoned mining town: a site that, as she learns, holds terrible secrets.

The town called Sunrise, a thriving hamlet in its Old West heyday, is the drawstring that pulls together multiple lives across more than a century. A subsequent section introduces Anton Vargas, a Tejano man who returns in 1902 to the place that cemented his reputation as a gunslinger and dime-novel hero twenty years earlier, as one of the famed “Greyrock Four.”

Pub. by Random House (Aug. 2026)

And in 2003, Coll Yard, a young man heading up the historical society in the nearby town of Sand Draw, prepares for a reenactment of the now-mythic showdown at Sunrise. As fallout from a shameful event at a local bar engulfs the community, a writer from Denver arrives with information that Coll’s unprepared to face.

This revisionist Western has real teeth and first-rate plotting. Descriptions feel viscerally real, and at first, it may seem to emphasize atmosphere and character over story, but pay close attention—and keep going.

In a puzzle-novel like this, when connections between different facets take time to materialize, one hopes the payoff will be worth it. Is it ever! The finale surpasses all expectations in this powerful, unique novel that asks why some stories are celebrated while others remain hidden.

Téa Obreht’s Sunrise is published on August 11th by Random House in the US and Canada. W&N is the UK publisher. This review also appears at the Historical Novel Society website.

Why did I decide to pick this up? A NetGalley widget dropped into my inbox without warning, and I got curious even though it didn’t seem like what I typically read. The marketing folks at Random House do this sometimes, send widgets out based on past reviews of other books of theirs. It’s effective.

Sunrise was being recommended for readers who enjoyed Daniel Mason’s North Woods. I’m not sure it was the perfect readalike choice, but there was also a comment that “The book starts with a plane crash, and I dare you to guess how it ends.” I did not guess the ending and am not sure how that would be possible. That’s some excellent plotting right there. It’s probably one of the most original and memorable novels I’ve read this year.

Was Henry VIII her true father? Alison Weir tells Katherine Carey's story in The Boleyn Secret

In her histories and fiction, Alison Weir has been particularly dedicated to Henry VIII, his six wives, and other royal family members, but her latest two novels have been departures about Tudor figures who weren’t royalty. First was The Cardinal (2025), about the unlikely rise and sudden fall of statesman Thomas Wolsey, the king’s lord chancellor.

Now we have The Boleyn Secret, her detail-rich story of a young woman who was niece to Henry’s tragic second queen, Anne Boleyn; close companion and First Lady of the Bedchamber to Anne’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I; and, perhaps, a blood relation to the king himself.

Pub. by Ballantine (2026)

Was Katherine Carey the natural child of Henry VIII and his reported mistress Mary Boleyn, Anne’s sister? Speculation has buzzed for centuries.

“With fiction,” Weir wrote on social media, “you can use your imagination to fill in the gaps, explain people’s motives and reasoning, or even make up storylines. However, I feel strongly that what a historical novelist invents should be credible within the context of what is known about the subject.” Though we may never know for sure, The Boleyn Secret develops a response to this “what if” that’s grounded in historical research. (Weir credits Wendy J. Dunn’s nonfiction biography Henry VIII’s True Daughter: Catherine Carey, A Tudor Life as a particularly valuable source.)

Kate Carey, whose father William Carey died when she was four, has grown used to attracting odd attention, but she doesn’t understand it. She closely resembles the Lady Elizabeth, who sports the same shade of red hair… but they are first cousins, after all. After her aunt Anne is executed – an event that 12-year-old Kate is horrified to witness – Kate has the honor of rejoining Elizabeth’s household, even though the other Boleyns have been disgraced. King Henry has always been kind to her, and curious about her life, though she, understandably, detests him for his role in her aunt’s death:

She did not think she could bear to see that unspeakable, blood-soaked monster. She feared she might try to scratch his eyes out or give him a piece of her mind. She knew that, in truth, she would do no such thing, but still she did not want to be anywhere near him.

Much later, after Kate falls in love with Francis Knollys, a most suitable potential spouse, King Henry must approve of their marriage. Why?

The woman who may hold answers is Kate’s mother, Mary Boleyn, who’s been lying low with her beloved second husband, Will Stafford, ever since their unequal match caused a scandal at court.

Weir drops hints about Kate’s origins throughout the early sections, so much so that the “Boleyn secret” won’t be one to the reader. Instead, her novel focuses on how this kind woman discovers and comes to terms with a legacy she finds abhorrent – and how she navigates her friendship with her brilliant yet possessive cousin, Elizabeth.

Weir describes their relationship’s delicate balance with finesse as Elizabeth’s status falls, then rises. At first, Kate acts as her loving mentor, a source of stability in young Elizabeth's volatile life. After Elizabeth accedes to the English throne, her Kate becomes the companion she can’t live without, regardless of Kate’s own wishes.

Alongside the “secret,” the novel emphasizes Kate’s role as wife and mother, and how she strives to tenderly care for her family amid her royal obligations. The religious changes in the realm are ever-present, and Weir presents another new angle on Tudor society and politics as Kate and Francis, staunch Protestants, face danger during Mary I’s Catholic rule and head abroad for their safety.

As biographical fiction, The Boleyn Secret is solidly entertaining fare about a lesser-known historical woman, the uncertain status she may have endured, and the weighty responsibility of serving a queen.

The Boleyn Secret was published in May by Ballantine in the US and Canada, and by Headline Review in the UK. This is an expansion and substantial reworking of a review I’d written for Booklist Online in May.