20th Century
Pearl Lagoon
On page 207 of Pearl Lagoon, the narrator laments: “I still question my decision that night [but] I then find…
Out of the Clouds of Deceit
In 1948, while training to fly bombers in the RAF, Aiden forms a friendship with another pilot, Dennis. Shortly before…
I Took Panama: The Story of Philippe Bunau-Varilla
The star of Leiton’s taut, unassuming short novel is French Colonel Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla, a pivotal figure not only in the…
The Five Acts of Diego Leon
The Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century disrupted the quiet rural life of the Leon family; loss, disease, and…
Ordinary Grace
Editors' choice
For the people of New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961 would be a summer of death, and that was especially true for…
Is This Tomorrow
Single mother Ava Lark is doing everything she can to raise her son alone. In the 1950s in Waltham, Massachusetts,…
Prisoner B-3087
The story begins in 1939 in Krakow. The Nazis are rolling over Poland when ten-year-old Yanek and his family hear…
Brief Lives that Live Forever
This Russian author writes in French and has been translated into English (are you still with me?). A middle-aged Russian…
Forest Brothers
This debut novel opens in Estonia in 1918, in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, when the country…
The Girl Who Married an Eagle
Julia Newton, a recent American college grad, attends a lecture about missions in Africa and decides she has found her…
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.
