The other day, someone asked me to name some of my favourite historical novels - other than the six I have written. I reeled off some of the books listed below, then came home and thought of several more. All have educated me about significant events of the past and narrative techniques. These are my current favourites.
Isabel Allende's novel, A Long Petal of the Sea, has compelling characters who survive the Spanish Civil War and come to Chile, where they experience the 1973 right wing coup.
Amy Bloom's, White Houses, set during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, shows First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickock trying to sustain a relationship during this time of economic depression and world war.
Barbara Kingsolver's, The Lacuna, centres on an American author who crosses paths with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky in Mexico in the 1930s, and then pays for it during the Red Scare.
Kingsolver's award-winning Demon Copperhead is an update of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield from 19th century England to 21st century, suggesting implicitly that life for the underclass in the latter place and time was almost as bad as in the former era.
Elizabeth Lett's, Finding Dorothy, is written from the point of view of L. Frank Baum's wife. Baum was the creator of The Wizard of Oz. It shows us the couple's struggles in early 20th century America and gives us a glimpse of Hollywood when Judy Garland was starring as Dorothy.
Laura Moriarty's novel, The Chaperone, shows us, among other things, the hard-won happiness of a woman who, as a child, was shipped west on an orphan train. It's also about a film star of yesteryear and a significant journey they made together.
Charles Portis's True Grit is an oldie set in the post-Civil War American West, about a thirteen year old girl who enlists the help of a disreputable old sheriff to find her father's killer. The Coen brothers' movie of the same name is worth seeing.
Sofia Segovia's Tears of Amber is a Second World War novel with two children as the main characters, but it is not a kiddies' book.
Cherry Smyth's novel, Hold Still, is presented from the point of view of a would-be painter who works as a model for Whistler and his circle of artists.
Colm Toibin's, The Magician, takes us into the world of author Thomas Mann.
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