Historical Fiction
May 2026

Recent Releases
Treat Them as Buffalo by Blair Palmer Yoxall
Treat Them as Buffalo
by Blair Palmer Yoxall

An electrifying anti-Western from an exciting new Indigenous writer. As teenage boys begin to disappear from a great plains Métis community, a young man attempts to uncover the evil force lurking out of sight. In 1885, Nikosis Niko Eriksen spends his days playing buffalo hunter, even though it's been many years since a member of his tribe has actually seen one of the once-ubiquitous animals. But when beloved Cousin goes missing, things start to fall apart. With law enforcement failing--indeed refusing--to investigate the disappearance, the community members take matters into their own hands, rallying around the leadership of a sawn-off shotgun-slinging rancher named Kate McCannon.
The Sisters of Book Row
by Shelley Noble

In 1915 New York, the three Applebaum sisters live together and run the rare bookshop they inherited from their dad. Olivia handles repairs, while friendly Daphne and youngest Celia run the store. But they each have secrets, including Celia's distribution of banned women's health articles. With classic literature and art also at risk due to the censorious Comstock Laws, New York's Book Row shopkeepers work together. For fans of: timely historical tales; well-researched, slow-burn novels.
The Bookbinder's Secret by A. D. Bell
The Bookbinder's Secret
by A. D. Bell

Every book tells a story. This one tells a secret. A young bookbinder begins a hunt for the truth when a confession hidden beneath the binding of a burned book reveals a story of forbidden love, lost fortune, and murder. 
The Winter Witch by Jennifer Chevalier
The Winter Witch
by Jennifer Chevalier

Two sisters set sail on a bride ship from Normandy hoping to leave a curse behind them and find better lives in the wilds of 17th-century Quebec, only to meet a mysterious witch who forces them to confront the truth about magic--and their past. For fans of Emilia Hart, Sarah Penner, Alix E. Harrow, Ami McKay, and Roberta Rich. Inspired by the tales of Canada's Filles du Roi, The Winter Witch examines how lies, arrogance, and ignorance can lead to witch hunts in any society.
Evil Genius
by Claire Oshetsky

In 1970s San Francisco, 19-year-old Celia works at the telephone company, where an adulterous coworker has been murdered by her husband. Unhappily married to a controlling man 11 years her senior, Celia finds the sex and violence of the story tantalizing, and begins to dream of freedom and killing her spouse in this slightly surreal and darkly humorous novel. 
Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson
Keeper of Lost Children
by Sadeqa Johnson

 Ethel Gathers is living in Occupied Germany in the 1950s. After discovering a local orphanage filled with the abandoned mixed-race children of German women and Black American GI's, Ethel feels compelled to help find these children homes. Philadelphia born Ozzie Phillips volunteers for the recently desegregated army in 1948, eager to make his mark in the world. In 1965 Maryland, Sophia Clark is given an opportunity to attend a prestigious all white boarding school and escape her heartless parents. While at the school, she discovers a secret that upends her world and sends her on a quest to unravel her own identity. Toggling between the lives of these three individuals, Keeper of Lost Children explores how one woman's vision will change the course of countless lives, and demonstrates that love in its myriad of forms--familial, parental, and forbidden, even love of self--can be transcendent.
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
The Lion Women of Tehran
by Marjan Kamali

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming lion women. But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls' high school in Iran, Ellie's memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, her sudden reappearance in Ellie's privileged world alters the course of both of their lives. Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.
A Far-Flung Life by M. L. Stedman
A Far-Flung Life
by M. L. Stedman

From the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Light Between Oceans comes a breathtaking and epic novel set in the vast outback of Australia--about tragedy, family secrets, and the enduring power of love. When we do something that can't be undone or mended, how do we go on living? How do we find our North Star when there is no right answer? These are the questions at the center of M. L. Stedman's unforgettable and magisterial new novel, A Far-flung Life.
Skylark: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel by Paula McLain
Skylark: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel
by Paula McLain

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK The New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife weaves a mesmerizing tale of Paris above and below--where a woman's quest for artistic freedom in 1664 intertwines with a doctor's dangerous mission during the German occupation in the 1940s, revealing a story of courage and resistance that transcends time.
Lidie: The Further Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton: A Novel by Jane Smiley
Lidie: The Further Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton: A Novel
by Jane Smiley

From the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, a rousing novel that follows two young women fleeing a divided America: one running toward a dazzling future and the other running from a troubled past. Winter, 1855. America's future is precarious; civil war looms on the horizon. 
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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