I love historical fiction, especially those amazing historical fiction books
that give an often-overlooked perspective, like for example the
perspective of women in history, we were there too! So in this Book Break video I
have got 15 amazing feminist historical fiction books to recommend to you, such a
long list, there are just so many brilliant ones, I couldn't narrow it down.
I'm gonna go through the books in this video in chronological order, in the
order of when they were set. So to begin, let's go all the way back to ancient
history and start with A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. So this book puts
women front and center of the Greek myths. It retells the story of the Trojan
War from the perspective of a whole chorus of voices of the women in the
story, from goddesses to nymphs to princesses to slave girls, there are so
many women in these stories who are so important and central to the stories, but
we so rarely actually get to hear the myths
from their perspective, so this is the book that changes that. Next let's
fast-forward to the sixteenth century for the Sin Eater by Megan Campisi. This
is a really fun one that's actually set in a kind of alternate history, and
it's about a young girl who is forced to become a Sin Eater. And this was a real
historical thing. So our main character is a Sin Eater, she's not allowed to
speak to anyone and no one will speak to her or listen to her, but she refuses to
stay quiet. This is a really fun book about her solving this massive mystery,
this huge conspiracy theory in the royal family, even when no one will listen.
Then for a 17th century book we have The Mercies by Kiran Milwood Hargrave. And
this is actually based on a true story, so it's about a group of women who end
up stranded on this island after all of the men of their island are killed in a
storm while out fishing, so these women have to learn to fend for themselves,
which then attracts attention from people who fear they are using
witchcraft. So it's very much about men's fear of women's power, and of female
spaces. For a book set in 18th century London
you should read Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. So this is about
a woman called Caroline Corsham, who finds an injured woman in the Vauxhall
Pleasure Gardens and she calls the police, but when the police find out that
this woman was a prostitute they completely
stop caring, and so Caro has to solve the crime herself. So this book
really confronts the long history of sex workers being ignored by the people who
are supposed to protect them, and the book then puts a woman in charge of
restoring justice. And then there's The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
which is set at the end of 18th century when a girl called Lilith is born into
slavery, and a group of the other slave women who call themselves the night
women, and have been planning a revolt, see her as key to their plans. So it's a
very violent, sad book that does an amazing job, especially considering it's
written by a man, of telling this coming-of-age story of a woman but
within the context of slavery. Another late 18th century book but that
also goes through the generations all the way up to present day is Remembrance
by Rita Woods. And this one is also slightly magical. So we have these three
timelines in the late 18th century. We meet a slave called Abigail who is
forced to leave her children behind and escort her mistress to safety during the
slave revolts, then in the mid 19th century we meet a slave called Margo who
is forced to flee when disease starts to spread, and then in present-day Ohio we
meet a woman called Gayle who works in a nursing home. And the stories are all
linked by this slightly magical fantastical element, these powers that
these women have access to, and it's about the bonds between these women
through the generations. Next, going to the early 19th century, we have The Other
Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow. I actually did a whole video with Janice
Hadlow which I will link to below. This is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice,
and the events after the book finished, but all from the perspective of Mary
Bennet. So it gives you a whole new perspective on the story from the point
of view of the most often forgotten and least popular Bennet sister, both within
her family and within readers of the novel, but after having read this book I
now have a whole new appreciation for Mary Bennet. And then while we're in
this time period, another really fun Regency book is The True Queen by Zen Cho.
So this is a fantastical alternate version of Regency Britain. It's the
sequel to The Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho. And this time our main characters
are these two sisters, and one of them, in order to save her sister,
has to go to London and trick these high society magicians into believing that
she is a magical prodigy. Then in the mid 19th century we have The Doll Factory by
Elizabeth Macneal, which is a really fun gripping historical thriller about an
artist called Iris who becomes involved with the members of the Pre-Raphaelite
brotherhood. They want her to be their muse but she insists that she will be an
apprentice and learn how to paint from them herself. At the same time she is
being stalked by this collector, so it's partly this wonderful story about the
artistic world that she joins and it's partly this really page-turning thriller.
And then another mid 19th century book is The Woman Who Read Too Much by
Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, and this is about an Iranian poet who has these predictions that keep
coming true. So she keeps predicting the deaths of these powerful figures that
then happen, and people start to suspect that she's not just predicting the
future, she's actually writing the future and causing it to happen. And this book
is inspired by the true story of this Iranian poet, and I love historical
fiction that's based on real women's lives. Remembered by Yvonne Battle Felton
is set in 1910 and it's about a woman called Spring, an emancipated slave, whose
son has now been charged with committing a crime of intentionally driving his car
into a shop window. And the book is set on this night where Spring sits awake,
worrying that her son is going to die, and going back through her memories. And
she's accompanied by the ghost of her dead sister, and sort of goes back to
rewrite her history for herself and tell her son the story of where he came from
while she still can. Then in the 1920s we have The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer.
So this is about the photographer Lee Miller
when she arrives in Paris in the late 1920s and becomes the muse for the
artist Man Ray. But again she refuses to be just a muse, and it's a fascinating
novelization of this real woman, and it's so interesting following her as she
develops these really radical new photography techniques. The Shadow King
by Maaza Mengiste is set in 1935 during Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia, but
casting light on the women soldiers who have been largely left out of historical
record, and this book is written this really lyrical way. It uses a kind
of Greek chorus of collective voices at some points combining all these
different perspectives of what it means to be a woman at war. And then also set
in the 1930s but flashing forwards to the 1960s as well is The Muse by Jesse
Burton. So this is partly set in 1930s Spain, where we follow an art dealer's
daughter called Olive who is very talented and has all these ambitions of
her own. And then in 1960s London we meet a woman called Odelle who's just started
working at an art gallery, when this mysterious painting is
delivered with a secret history waiting to be uncovered. And just like in The
Doll Factory, and The Age of Light I mentioned earlier, this book does a
really good job of subverting what it means to be a muse and what a woman's
role in art can be. And then my final book is Half of a Yellow Sun by
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This one is set in the 1960s, and there is some
disagreement on what counts as historical fiction, there's so many
different definitions. Some people say it can only be set in the first half of the
20th century or earlier, some people say it just has to be written 50 years or
more after it's set. I think we can slip this one under the net as our final book.
So Half of a Yellow Sun is set during the Nigerian Civil War and it follows the
lives of these three different people: a 13 year old houseboy who works for this
revolutionary professor, a woman called Alana who is the beautiful mistress of
this professor, and a shy English man called Richard who is in love with
Alana's twin sister. So they're all connected, kind of one step removed, but
they all have to flee for their lives as the Nigerian troops advance on the
university. So I would love to know any recommendations
you guys have of more feminist historical fiction like this. I will also
link our playlist here of all of the videos we've done on historical fiction
books because it's such a great genre. So click through and have a browse
and we'll see you next time!