Michelle Cameron's Babylon illuminates life during the Jewish exile in ancient Babylon

Babylon is engrossing from start to finish. Michelle Cameron’s novels illustrate the lives of the Jewish people (especially women) at times and places rarely explored in fiction. I’ve enjoyed The Fruit of Her Hands (13th-century Europe) and Beyond the Ghetto Gates (Napoleonic-era Italy), and this one is even better.

The story begins in 586 BCE, as Chaldean soldiers in the army of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s mighty ruler, overtake the prosperous farm outside Jerusalem where a young woman named Sarah lives with her parents, brother, and cousin. After her other relatives are killed, Sarah and her cousin Reuven are forcibly marched, along with numerous other captives, on the lengthy journey to Babylon. Some of the enslaved Judeans are chosen to be servants at the royal palace; others are settled on farms, with orders to grow specific crops. The characters undergo difficult ordeals, presented unflinchingly yet with great compassion. Sarah always yearns for the day she’ll see her farm again and keeps faith that the Judeans will be allowed to return. However, while they preserve their customs and faith in this very foreign land, there’s no denying the allure of the dazzling riches at court.

Babylon spans over eighty years and three generations, with genealogical charts in the opening pages for the novel’s three principal families: Sarah and her lineage, the Babylonian royals, and the people who take up residence on the farm Sarah was forced to abandon. While I love that the charts exist, I didn’t consult them until I was done, since I didn’t want to know in advance which relationships would be forming. This is an epic novel, and Cameron has mastered the art of moving through a wide swath of time without choppiness and without losing readers’ emotional connection to the characters. And the characters themselves are a colorful and interesting bunch, including vain and power-hungry princesses, farmers, talented musicians, Biblical prophets, and a dedicated scribe who chronicles happenings for posterity.

Individual Judeans and the people as a whole work through questions relating to assimilation – intermarriage, adoption of a new land’s customs and religious rituals, and more – but don’t find simple answers. It’s altogether an immersive tale, told with an underlying sense of warmth, about resilience during adversity, family, faith, and how people instill the meaning of home in their daily lives even while far away.

Babylon was published last year by Wicked Son/Post Hill Press; I read it from a personal copy.

Ten more recent indie-published historical novels to check out

Here are ten more indie-published historical novels worth investigating. It was great to see so much interest in my initial list of ten titles - thanks for all the feedback and shares.  Because of a Blogger quirk, the cover images below got uploaded in reverse alphabetical order by author, which I'm keeping in order to switch things up a bit. These novels feature many historical settings you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere in fiction.

Peter Young, the title character in Tvordi's debut, was a highly respected scholar who sounds like he was a decent overall fellow, too. As tutor to the young Scottish king, James VI, Peter's political skills and patience are tested when James's attractive French cousin, Esmé Stewart, arrives at court. June 2024. 

Australian writer A. M. Stuart's Harriet Gordon mystery series, set in early 20th-century Singapore, began with Berkley and is continuing via indie publishing. This fifth entry has her looking into a schoolgirl's death, complicating her relationship with her beau, a police inspector. Oct. 2024.

I've read and reviewed all of Elizabeth St.John's full-length historical novels, so I preordered The King's Intelligencer as soon as it went online. They're all well-researched, beautifully told stories based on people from her own family tree; many of the St.Johns played prominent roles in English history, though you may not recognize their names. This entry, standalone but connected to her earlier The Godmother's Secret, takes place in the 1670s as bones of young children (the lost princes?) are discovered in the Tower. October 2024.

S. K. Rizzolo has contributed guest essays here before, so you may recognize her name from that as well as from her Regency mystery series from Poisoned Pen Press. Safe in Death begins a new series featuring Esther Hardy, who turns amateur sleuth in Victorian England after a young woman's terrible murder. November 2024.

 

The Pirate's Physician is a companion standalone novella to Maroney's Sea and Stone Chronicles, set in the 15th-century Mediterranean world. A female medical student boards a ship to escape an unwanted marriage. Pirates and romantic intrigue in a setting you don't often see in fiction. I first discovered Maroney's work via the Historical Stories of Exile anthology. September 2024.

Described as "Gangs of New York for women," Battle Annie is based on Annie Walsh, a brick-hurler and gang leader active in the gritty world of railroad strikes on the streets of NYC's Hell's Kitchen in the late 19th century. She sounds like quite a character!  Annie and her ward, an orphaned guttersnipe, go on the run after a false murder accusation. I'd interviewed the author about her excellent novel Cinnamon Girl last year. Sept. 2024.

Susan Higginbotham always chooses interesting subjects for her biographical novels, and her research is thorough; so much so that in this case, a peer-reviewed journal article resulted from her new discoveries about the title character and her family. The Queen of the Platform stars Ernestine Rose, a Polish woman of Jewish heritage whose surprising path led her to become a noted public speaker and early women's rights activist in early America. I've read it and recommend it.  March 2024.

Any Hamilton fans here?  American Harlot reveals the backstory of Maria Reynolds, whose affair with Alexander Hamilton became early America's first major political sex scandal. Her tale is one of resilience and survival. I first read about this novel in Stephanie Dray's author newsletter. Sept. 2024.

Opening in France in 1793, The Greatest Thing evokes the first-person voice of a historical person who deserves more attention. Louis-Benoît Zamor was enslaved as a child and given as a "gift" to Madame du Barry, the last official mistress of Louis XV, King of France. This is the first in a trilogy; one additional novel has been published so far. November 2023.

Lexie Conyngham is an indie author from the Scottish Highlands whose books have been recommended on the CrimeThruTime e-list often. She has multiple historical mystery series, set between early medieval times and the 20th century, incorporating detailed research and dry wit. This first series entry follows Dr. Robert Wilson on his travels throughout Europe during the Regency era, where he encounters crimes. November 2023.

Jennifer S. Brown's The Whisper Sister is a fabulous tale of Prohibition-era NYC

In flapper-speak, a “whisper sister” was a female barkeep during Prohibition, a daring woman who kept booze flowing for eager customers in underground establishments. A more unlikely career choice could hardly be imagined for ten-year-old Malka Soffer when she arrives at Ellis Island in 1920 with her Mama and older brother, having traveled from Ukraine to join her father in New York after a long separation.

Her Papa seems barely recognizable without his long beard and yarmulke, and at school she gets a new American name: Minnie. Remarkably, her story of transformation, assimilation, and blood and chosen family never loses its believability through many sudden plot twists.

As with her debut, Modern Girls, Brown has a confident hand with character, and Minnie has vulnerabilities and a deep emotional strength. Young Minnie soon learns that her Papa has mysterious sources of power through connections to organized crime (though that phrase is never uttered), and when he buys a soda shop, she gleans it’s a front for a bar. She’s right – and rapidly falls in love with the unprepossessing joint on Baxter Street. Some years later, awful circumstances compel her to take over the place herself, leading her ever deeper into excitement and danger, to her brother Max’s dismay.

Minnie’s two spheres of existence feel immediate and real: the strong Jewish traditions her Yiddish-speaking Mama upholds at home, versus the alluring world of the speakeasy, where Minnie crafts original drinks and socializes with an affable trio of regulars. Brown pulls no punches in illustrating the era’s prejudices and violence, which was brutal and often premeditated. The prologue generates instant intrigue with a magnificent (and suspenseful) opening scene that repeats later on. A bravura performance, led by an original heroine who takes risks in bending rules.

The Whisper Sister (a phrase I'd never heard before and makes for a great title) was published by Lake Union in September, and I covered it initially for November's Historical Novels Review.  I also enjoyed the author's interview for Lilith Magazine, in which she discusses the novel's background and themes, Jewish identity, and more.

Signe Pike's The Shadowed Land delves into the possible Scottish roots of Arthurian legend

Personal transformations echo throughout Pike’s intensely felt third novel (following The Forgotten Kingdom, 2020) in an ongoing series about sixth-century Scotland’s political and religious conflicts. Grounded in intriguing new research, it brings to life the little-known stories of Languoreth of Strathclyde, a powerful early medieval queen, and Artúr mac Aedan, a war leader and prince of Dalriada—potentially the true, historic King Arthur behind the legends.

After the Battle of the Caledonian Wood, where the brutal Angles were defeated, the characters endure separate tests of fortitude. Languoreth, a pagan follower of the Old Way, grudgingly endures a treacherous former bishop’s presence in her lands while Artúr returns to Dalriada at his father’s behest.

The book’s title references the Pictish kingdom, where Languoreth’s daughter Angharad travels to hopefully apprentice herself to the druid Briochan. A valiant young woman with deep emotional reserves, Angharad undergoes physical and mystical trials during her quest.

There are perhaps too many viewpoints, but Pike enthusiastically transfers her affinity for ancient Celtic cultures to readers, and her interpretation of the Arthurian canon exudes originality.

The Shadowed Land was published this week by Atria/Simon & Schuster, and I reviewed it initially for Booklist. I had previously reviewed book one, The Lost Queen, and book two, The Forgotten Kingdom, but since the previous book came out over four years ago, it took some time to reacquaint myself with where the characters left off.  You really don't want to start with this book. Originally the series was planned as a trilogy, but the story doesn't end here.  There will be one more book to come.

Critics pick their favorite historical novels of 2024

It's not even December, and media outlets have been proclaiming their Best Books recommendations for 2024. I feel a bit sorry for those novels slated to come out next month! (Although to be fair, these may be included in roundups by pre-publication review sources.)

Here are the lists I've come across thus far.

As always, NPR's Books We Love crosses subgenres, age categories, and time periods (even ranging up through the 1980s) to present their annual collage of favorite historical novels: 44 of them.  If you prefer to see a list rather than a cover gallery, that's available too.

Writing for The Times (London), critics Nick Rennison and Antonia Senior pick the 10 best historical novels for 2024. This is paywalled, sorry, though if you have Apple News, you can read the article through the app. Some books included here that I haven't seen on other lists are Irish writer Kevin Barry's The Heart in Winter (set in 1890s Montana), Mary Horlock's The Stranger's Companion (1930s on the Channel Island of Sark), Hesse Phillips' Lightborne (Christopher Marlowe), and Rosanna Pike's A Little Trickerie (Tudor times).

The Washington Post (gift link) makes their picks, including Leonard Pitts, Jr.'s 54 Miles, Ashton Lattimore's All We Were Promised, and The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, which is on NPR's list too.

The top 10 list in The Independent has been out for a few weeks, and is very different from that in the compilation above. Overlapping titles include Robert Harris's Precipice (which I also read and enjoyed, though it wasn't my favorite of his) and Tracy Chevalier's The Glassmaker.

The final round of Readers' Choice Awards at Goodreads is out, with ten books vying for the title (in theory). Voting is only open for the next day and a half. Just because I'm curious how closely popularity will correlate with the ultimate rankings, here they are, listed by the # of reviews posted in the system as of today:

The Women by Kristin Hannah - over 90K reviews

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon - 19,400+ reviews

James by Percival Everett - 13,800+ reviews

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn - 6700+ reviews

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult - 5300+ reviews

Husbands and Lovers by Beatriz Williams - 4600+ reviews

Anita del Monte Laughs Last by Xóchitl González - 3800+ reviews
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali - 3600+ reviews

The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - 1200+ reviews

The Booklover's Library by Madeline Martin - 800+ reviews

Some books with higher #s of reviews were eliminated after the semifinals, so we'll see how this ends up.

Still to come: the New York Times list, which should be out in mid-December, and Library Journal's lists, out in their December issue.

Ten recent indie-published historical novels to check out

If you aren't paying attention to indie-published historical fiction, you don't have a full picture of what the genre has to offer to readers today. You're also missing out on some wonderful stories. The best of these novels, as with those from mainstream publishers, have excellent writing and editing as well as professional cover art. And with indies, authors are organizing all this on their own, plus handling their own publicity and marketing.

How did I go about choosing these? Some are by authors who have had previous novels out with big presses, so I've been following their writing paths for years. The historical fiction market is so focused on specific eras and trends that when I hear about a new novel by a writer who turned to self-publishing after a successful career with bigger presses, my ears perk up. (While not the focus for this post, this holds true for small presses too.)  These books frequently incorporate less familiar topics, settings, and approaches, and as a reader, I appreciate greater variety.  Others listed below came to my attention through reviews and recommendations from trusted sources, or because I've read and enjoyed previous books by their writers. This is the first of two (at least) posts.

Susan Wittig Albert has published a great many novels (mysteries) with NY presses, both on her own and co-written with her husband. Most of the books in her Hidden Women series of biographical novels, though, have been indie-published, including Loving Eleanor. Her latest, Someone Always Nearby, centers on Maria Chabot, a prominent promoter of Native American art, and a good friend to Georgia O'Keeffe. (November 2023)

The first novel in Elizabeth R. Andersen's Alewives of Colmar series was great fun. In Sleight of Hand, the followup to The Alewives, the three women brewers from 14th-century Alsace have another mystery on their hands when an unfortunate item shows up in one of their cooking pots.  (April 2024)

Pamela Belle's 17th-century Herons of Goldhayes saga, written in the '80s, still holds a treasured place on my bookshelf. The books in her Wintercombe series, following a Puritan woman and her family during the English Civil War, are also longtime favorites. A Parcel of Rogues, her first new novel in over 25 years, incorporates a different style and setting: the decadent, dangerous world of London and other English cities in the early 18th century. (June 2024)

Kinley Bryan's debut Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury opened my eyes to little-known Great Lakes history and the roles of women at the time. For her second novel, she moves back in time to the Civil War, following two millworker sisters forced to begin new lives far away from their Southern home. (May 2024)

The Lioness is biographical fiction about Jeanne de Clisson, known as the Lion of Brittany, a 14th-century privateer seeking justice for her late husband. The author has also written The Empress, a tie-in to the Netflix series of the same name about Empress Elisabeth of Austria, plus novels for younger readers. (November 2024)

Anne M. Kennedy's debut is historical adventure/suspense. Based on its first three chapters, it took home the silver medal in the Adventure category of the Historical Novel Society's First Chapters competition earlier this year. Opening in 1890 in the oil-rich capital of Azerbaijan, it follows a man's quest to solve a mystery involving his family, a jeweled artifact, and an encoded message. (September 2024)

Third and latest in her Cape May Historical Mystery series of standalone novels, The Night the Light Went Out is a locked room mystery of sorts set within a lighthouse during a violent storm along the New Jersey coast in the 1820s. The author also writes cozy mysteries and gothic suspense as Amy M. Reade. (August 2024)

After author Michelle Moran recommended this novel on social media, I had to go look it up. Tana Rebellis' novel is first in a duology about Julia the Younger, a Roman noblewoman and Emperor Augustus' granddaughter, who finds herself sent into exile after becoming pregnant with an illegitimate child.  (June 2024)

Tracey Warr specializes in historical fiction set in medieval times; previously published by Impress Books (UK), she has reissued her earlier novels under her own imprint along with new material, including this new book. Love's Knife, first in a series, introduces a female troubadour (trobairitz) who investigates a murder at the court of 11th-century Toulouse. (September 2024)

The Anny of the title is Anne Thackeray, oldest daughter of Vanity Fair's author, as she begins finding her own place in the world, amid family obligations and her own love affairs, after her father's death. Barbara Wright won the Spur award from Western Writers of America for her 2003 novel Plain Language. (June 2024)

The opening round is up for the 2024 Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction

Voting for the opening round in the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards is open for the next week, through November 24th. On the ballot for historical fiction are 20 titles, which appear in a random assortment.

I've read only two of these, The Great Divide and The Frozen River.  Much as I enjoyed these two, I'm going to take a wild guess that the ultimate winner for 2024 will be Kristin Hannah's The Women.  It has a 4.63 rating and, most importantly, 88,160 reviews already on Goodreads.  Nothing else comes close in terms of review numbers. But even though the novels on this grid with fewer than 1000 reviews don't stand much of a chance against very popular books, Goodreads remains a very useful tool for book discovery, and if you want more readers to get their eyes on a book that you highly recommend, have your say and vote for it, in hopes that it will make it through to the final round.  

Kristin Hannah's historical novels always fare well in this competition, but her previous novel, The Four Winds, lost to Taylor Jenkins Reid's Malibu Rising (which had more overall reviews) in 2021. 

Also, take a look at the initial picks for debut novels, since you'll find historicals there that didn't make the main category, like Ashton Lattimore's All We Were Promised, Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits, Eve J. Chung's Daughters of Shandong, Elba Iris Pérez's The Things We Didn't Know, and O. O. Sangoyomi's Masquerade.

In the fantasy category are Rose Sutherland's A Sweet Sting of Salt, set in 1830s Nova Scotia; Katherine Arden's WWI novel The Warm Hands of Ghosts; Leigh Bardugo's Spanish Golden Age fantasy The Familiar; Yangsze Choo's The Fox Wife, set in early 20th-century Manchuria; and Ann Liang's mythological Chinese retelling A Song to Drown Rivers.  There's strong reader interest in historical fantasy genre-blends. The horror category has historical novels in it too, namely Del Sandeen's This Cursed House and C. J. Cooke's The Book of Witching.

I don't vote for books I haven't read, so my choice for historical fiction went to Ariel Lawhon's The Frozen River.  We'll see how far it gets in the process. New books frequently get introduced for the final round, so I'll be curious to see those, too.