Best New Historical Fiction - October 2026
Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: October 13, 2026
Synopsis:
Figures of the past find new life in Yiyun Li’s thrillingly imagined saga following two musicians as they mature, study, travel, love, grieve, and, above all, chase their ambitions.
In Dublin, as the eighteenth century nears its end, a young musical virtuoso comes of age. John Field, an awkward and sensitive child, is preternaturally gifted, and his family has visions of him becoming the next Mozart. His talent takes him far—to England, France, and then Russia, where he becomes a famous pianist and composes dreamy, languorous melodies that enchant the night air. John calls them nocturnes, but the prodigy who immortalizes them is Chopin.
Oceans away in Pondicherry, in French India, Adelaide Percheron has a startling rise of her own. Orphaned at a young age, she is raised by her imperious, enterprising grandmother. Her cousins give her the name Percherette, an impish reminder that despite their shared relations, Adelaide is not one of the crowd, owing to her parents’ differing ancestry. Without a connection to aristocracy or the luxury of riches, only marriage seems to offer prosperity—until she sets her sights on a pianoforte. Driven by her secret love of music and a desire to see the world, Percherette engineers her exodus, escaping to Paris and later to Moscow, as Napoleon’s army sets out to conquer the continent.
Peopled by rival prodigies, irate tutors, begrudging guardians, and the true-to-life masters of the trade, Yiyun Li’s magisterial, polyphonic novel depicts two aspiring musicians—destined to be husband and wife—in pursuit of success. Their struggles unfold amid political and artistic upheaval and pit them against the forces of their time. As John and Adelaide each try to chart a path between talent and genius, success and legacy, profit and passion, they must decide what, and even who, is worth sacrificing along the way. Drawing inspiration from the past but finding entirely new forms, Music Against the Night comes to life with the sweep and dimension of the Romantic era and a deep understanding of the demands of living and of art.
Why We Recommend It!
A sweeping story of two aspiring musicians whose lives become entwined, Music Against the Night explores ambition, love, and what art can preserve across a lifetime.
Royal Witch by Philippa Gregory
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: October 20, 2026
Synopsis:
Ambition. Sorcery. Treason. How far will one woman dare to go?
1420. Eleanor Cobham arrives at the court of Henry V. Pretty but not highborn, she hopes for nothing more than to marry well.
It is a golden age for England, its royal family’s dynasty stretching across Europe. But chaos waits in the shadows. Betrayals and shifts of power change the flourishing world Eleanor has stepped into.
Working in the household of a Countess who commands her own army, Eleanor begins to see for the first time what a woman is capable of…what men’s promises are truly worth.
As the safe, comfortable future she’d envisioned begins to shift, Eleanor changes with it. Now she must use her wits to survive – and to rise. Her newfound ambition will to carry her further than any woman before has dared. But if she is to rule England itself, she will need to turn to darker arts.
Why We Recommend It!
Set amid the dangerous ambitions of England’s royal court, Royal Witch follows a woman branded a witch in a story of power, accusation, and the peril of reaching too high.
The Farther Shore by Seth Fleisher
Publisher: Green City Books
Release Date: October 20, 2026
Synopsis:
TWO TIMELINES. ONE DEVASTATING INHERITANCE. Inspired by the true story of Eugène Marais, one of history's most extraordinary and forgotten minds.
Southern Africa, turn of the twentieth century. Marais is a brilliant naturalist whose theories about memory, addiction, and the hive mind are decades ahead of their time—until tragedy strikes and he vanishes into a remote forest, abandoning his newborn son.
Thirty years later, that son Charles—now a professor of Buddhism at Harvard—discovers that the university is weaponizing his father's research to bolster theories of racial hierarchy. Accompanied by a mysterious Jewish graduate student, he must make an epic journey to heal his fractured past and stop a sinister plot at the world's most prestigious institution.
Set across two interlocking timelines from the concentration camps of the Boer War to the rise of the Third Reich, THE FARTHER SHORE is an exhilarating novel about memory, love, and identity, and about the vast distances we'll travel to find our way home.
Why We Recommend It!
Inspired by the life of South African naturalist Eugene Marais, The Farther Shore traces a father and son through a story of memory, race, and the histories that shape how we see one another.
Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: October 20, 2026
Synopsis:
From New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas—a sweeping, richly layered Victorian novel about a trailblazing female economist who’s determined to build Britain’s first women’s bank, but she must fight both financial corruption and a system intent on destroying the newly found family she’s created.
In Victorian England, no woman—not even a brilliant economist like Reina Martin—is allowed to open her own bank account. Men will take care of everything, women are told. But Reina knows better. As the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish immigrant mother, she’s haunted by the memory of living with unpaid grocer’s bills and no coal for the hearth.
So together with her mentor, the powerful banker William Farlow, Reina will build the first all-women’s bank, where women can manage their own financial security.
At home, Reina’s domestic staff of recently paroled prisoners are building new lives and becoming a found family. But soon Reina is shocked to discover that her enigmatic butler, John Pembroke, is an undercover police detective. He’s been assigned to investigate Farlow, who’s suspected of financial crime on a scale so massive, it could destabilize the British economy. Pembroke needs Reina’s expertise for a high-stakes nighttime heist to obtain incriminating evidence.
Now Reina faces the agonizing choice of betraying her mentor or turning her back on thousands of working-class families who stand to lose everything. Either way, her dream of the women’s bank may be over.
But courage and sacrifice aren’t limited to the battlefield—they also occur at the kitchen table, where women who believe in compassion and community are working to remake the future. And when the stakes are highest, Reina knows to trust her heart as well as her intellect.
Based on real-life trailblazers such as Mary Paley Marshall, Britain’s first female economist, and financial titan Hetty Green, Queen of Lombard Street brings to light the hidden history of extraordinary women whose achievements should be celebrated. How can we know who we are, if we don’t know who we were?
Why We Recommend It!
In Victorian England, a brilliant economist fights to build a bank for women in Queen of Lombard Street, a story of love, financial independence, and the courage to challenge the rules.
The Stolen Women by Alysandra Dutton
Publisher: Park Row
Release Date: October 27, 2026
Synopsis:
A case of missing noble women and a determined young warrior who sets out to bring them home in this new and exciting ancient historical set just before the founding of Rome, for fans of The Song of Achilles, Circe, and A Thousand Ships.
Safinia is fine to focus on her training as a warrior, providing for her sisters, and minding her own business. She feels no great need to meddle in anyone else's, until women in her town, including her former lover, begin disappearing. Quietly, at first, but disappearing just the same. All of the missing women have vanished from powerful households, but their formidable fathers are in utter denial, claiming their daughters are off on trips, sure to be back shortly, with perfectly reasonable explanations for their absences.
Dissatisfied with the half-hearted attempts to hand wave away the alarming and mysterious cases of the vanishing women, Safinia takes matters into her own hands, embarking on a journey to a neighboring village in search of answers or at the very least clues that might unearth threads she can begin to pull at. Along the way, she meets an unlikely yet helpful search partner, a historian who calls himself Livy. But despite his eerie sense of knowledge, Safinia is unable to uncover to missing women, thwarted more often than not by the girls' fathers themselves. As war with Rome looms on the horizon, Safinia must face the reality that the only one she can trust to bring them home is herself.
Alysandra Dutton has crafted an expertly researched and indepth look at the Sabine women, one of history's most overlooked yet crucial stories that has inspired countless works of art throughout the centuries. It's a fresh, page-turning adventure, perfect for readers of Madeline Miller and Natalie Haynes.
Why We Recommend It!
As women vanish and war with Rome draws near, The Stolen Women reimagines the story of the Sabine women through a young warrior determined to find them and bring them home.
