HNR Issue 60 (May 2012)
The Life of Rebecca Jones
Editors' choice
This slim volume was originally published in Welsh to great acclaim. Rebecca Jones looks back in old age to her…
History of a Pleasure Seeker
Editors' choice
Amsterdam, 1907. The protagonist of Mason’s silky bildungsroman (after Natural Elements, 2010), is determined to rise in the world. Handsome…
A Life of Bright Ideas
Editors' choice
In friendships, there’s usually a leader and a follower. Such is the friendship of Winnalee Malone and Button Peters. Winnalee…
Enchantments
Editors' choice
In this novel’s afterword, author Harrison explains that as an 11-year-old she latched onto Robert Massie’s masterful biography, Nicholas and…
The Bedlam Detective
Editors' choice
It’s not often I read a book in one sitting; with this novel, I didn’t leave my chair for so…
The White Pearl
Editors' choice
Strap yourself in, cup of tea at the ready, and prepare for some excellent entertainment; you will struggle to tear…
Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman
Editors' choice
The timespan of this beautifully written and translated novella is less than an hour — the time it takes for…
Into the Free
Editors' choice
Cantrell’s outstanding debut is no ordinary coming-of-age novel. For Millie Reynolds, daughter of a downtrodden, morphine-addicted mother and a wife-beating,…
The Luminist
Editors' choice
When Catherine Colebrook goes to Ceylon to join her husband, a functionary with the East India Company, she’s already obsessed…
Sugar Island
Editors' choice
Sugar Island is inspired by the life of Fanny Kemble – actress, author and anti-slavery activist – and is set…
About our Reviews
Over the last 15 years The Historical Novels Review (the society’s print magazine for our members) has published reviews of some 12,000 historical fiction books. We plan to upload them all and make them searchable here.
