10 historical fiction books to transport you this summer
CBC Books | Posted: July 11, 2024 5:03 PM | Last Updated: July 11
Looking for a good summer read? Transport yourself with these historical fiction works by Canadian authors.
Village Weavers by Myriam J. A. Chancy
Childhood friends Gertie and Sisi are extremely close, despite the socioeconomic differences that separate their daily lives in 1940s Port-au-Prince. An end-of-life secret tears their families apart in Village Weavers, and we follow the girls across the decades as Sisi moves to Paris and Gertie marries into a rich Dominican family — eventually both landing in the United States. A sudden phone call forces their lives back together, where they might finally be able to forgive and trust again.
Myriam J. A. Chancy is the author of four novels and four books of literary criticism. Her novel The Loneliness of Angels won the Guyana Prize for Literature Caribbean Award in 2011 and was shortlisted for the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize in Caribbean Literature for fiction. Chancy was raised in Haiti and Canada and now resides in the United States. Her previous book, What Storm, What Thunder, was longlisted for the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize and the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
LISTEN | Myriam J. A. Chancy talks Village Weavers on The Next Chapter with Ryan B. Patrick:
The Adversary by Michael Crummey
The Adversary centres on two rivals who represent the largest fishing operations on Newfoundland's northern outpost. When a wedding that would have secured Abe Strapp's hold on the shore falls apart it sets off a series of events that lead to year after year of violence and vendettas and a seemingly endless feud.
Crummey is an award-winning poet and novelist from Newfoundland and Labrador. He is also the author of the novels The Innocents, Sweetland and Galore and the poetry collections Arguments with Gravity and Passengers. Two of Crummey's novels have been shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction — Sweetland in 2014 and Galore in 2009. The Innocents was shortlisted for the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the 2019 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.
LISTEN | Michael Crummey on The Next Chapter:
Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue
Learned by Heart is a riveting account of the boarding school romance between Anne Lister, a brilliant and headstrong troublemaker, and Eliza Raine, an orphaned heiress banished from India to England. The novel draws on Lister's secret journal and extensive research to craft two long-buried stories.
Learned by Heart was shortlisted for the 2023 Writers' Trust Atwood Gibson Prize.
Donoghue is an Irish Canadian writer known for her novels Landing, Room, Frog Music, The Wonder, The Pull of the Stars and the children's book The Lotterys Plus One. Room was adapted into a critically acclaimed film starring Brie Larson.
LISTEN | Talia Kliot recommends three historical fiction books:
The Laundryman's Boy by Edward Y.C. Lee
Hoi Wing's aspirations of education are dashed when the 13-year-old is forced to work in a Chinese laundromat in St. Catherines, Ont as The Laundryman's Boy. There, amid the mindless toil of handwashing clothing, he meets Heather. The Irish scullery maid shares Hoi Wing's love of books, and their friendship — and reading hideout — blooms in secret. An entrepreneur, Jonathan Braddock, is the founder of the Asiatic Exclusion League and if he wins his mayoral bid, Hoi Wing will be deported.
Edward Y. C. Lee was born in Montreal and now lives with his wife and daughter in Toronto. His writing has been published in literary magazines and publications like the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. The Laundryman's Boy is his debut novel.
The Secret History of Audrey James by Heather Marshall
The Secret History of Audrey James tells the story of Audrey James, a pianist who is about to graduate from music school. Living with her best friend Ilse Kaplan, she dreads returning home to England and leaving Ilse behind. But as the Nazi party's power increases, Ilse's family is targeted. Her parents and brother disappear and her house is confiscated by Nazi officials. Little do they know, Ilse is hiding in the attic and Audrey becomes their housekeeper in the hopes of saving her friend.
Heather Marshall is a writer from Toronto. She holds two master's degrees in Canadian history and political science and pivoted to writing fiction after working for many years in politics and communications. Her debut novel, Looking for Jane, was named one of Indigo's Top 10 Books of 2022 and Globe & Mail's Top 100 Books of 2022.
A History of Burning by Janika Oza
A History of Burning is an epic novel about how one act of rebellion can influence a family for generations. It's 1898 and a 13-year-old boy in India named Pirbhai needs to make money to support his family, and ends up inadvertently being sent across the ocean to be a labourer for the British. He has a choice to make, and what he does will change the course of his life, and his family's fate, for years to come. The story takes readers to Uganda, India, England and Canada in the wake of Pirbhai's choice as the novel explores the impacts of colonialism, resistance, exile and the power of family.
A History of Burning was shortlisted for the 2024 Amazon First Novel Award and the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.
Janika Oza is a writer, educator and graduate student based in Toronto. She won the 2019 Malahat Review Open Season Award in fiction for her short story Exile, the 2020 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award and the 2022 O. Henry Award. Oza made the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for her story The Gift of Choice, which is a chapter in A History of Burning. Her writing is published in a number of journals, including The Columbia Review, Into The Void, Hobart, and Looseleaf Magazine.
LISTEN | Janika Oza on The Next Chapter:
The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
Kit McNair was born Kathleen to an Irish farming family in Ontario and, a tomboy in boy's clothes, doesn't fit in with the expectations of a farmgirl set out for them. When Rebekah, a German-Canadian's doctor's daughter comes to town, she, Kit and Kit's older brother Landon find themselves in a love triangle which tears their families apart. All three of them separate and join different war efforts but all eventually return home — and they'll have to move forward from their challenging and storied past.
Loghan Paylor is an Ontario-born author currently based in Abbotsford, B.C. They have an MA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and their short fiction and essays have previously appeared in publications including Room and Prairie Fire. Their debut novel, The Cure for Drowning, is a historical work that centres queer and non-binary characters and was published in 2024.
The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn & Janie Chang
The Phoenix Crown is a novel that follows the intersecting paths of two women in the year 1906. Gemma is an opera singer struggling to become a star; meanwhile Suling is an embroideress in Chinatown escaping an arranged marriage. When they both meet Henry Thornton, a collector of Chinese antiques, his sponsorship may be the answer to both Gemma and Suling's problems.
That is, until an earthquake hits San Francisco — leaving the two women to piece together the mystery of both Thornton's disappearance and the legendary Phoenix Crown.
Janie Chang is a B.C.-based historical fiction writer who draws inspiration from her family history, ancestral tales and the stories she was told as a child about life in a Chinese small town pre-First World War. Her other novels include Three Souls, Dragon Springs Road and The Library of Legends.
Kate Quinn is an American writer. Her other novels include The Alice Network, The Huntress, The Rose Code and The Diamond Eye.
LISTEN | Kate Quinn & Janie Chang on The Next Chapter:
The Jazz Club Spy by Roberta Rich
Set in the 1930s, The Jazz Club Spy follows Giddy Brodsky, a Jewish girl who makes a living serving cigarettes at a Manhattan jazz club called Sid's Palace. When she thinks she recognizes the man who burned her Russian village to the ground decades earlier, she agrees to become a spy. Betrayals and intrigue ensue as Giddy finds herself in the middle of a political conspiracy on the eve of the Second World War, and has to choose between justice and forgiveness.
Rich is a former lawyer and the bestselling author of a series of historical novels set in Venice in the 16th century that revolve around the life of a midwife. Her books include The Midwife of Venice, The Harem Midwife and A Trial in Venice.
In The Upper Country by Kai Thomas
In In The Upper Country, young Lensinda Martin is summoned to interview an old woman who has killed a slave hunter. The woman, who recently arrived in Dunmore, Alta., via the Underground Railroad, refuses to confess but instead proposes a deal: a story for a story.
In The Upper Country won the 2023 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction prize and was a finalist for the 2023 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.
Kai Thomas is a writer, carpenter and land steward. Born and raised in Ottawa, he is of Black and mixed heritage descended from Trinidad and the British Isles. CBC Books named Thomas a Black writer to watch in 2023.
LISTEN | Kai Thomas discusses In The Upper Country: