Historical fiction

Cover image for The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li: ‘I was a whetstone to Fabienne’s blade’  

I have no idea how I’ve managed not to come across Yiyun Li’s writing before. She has quite a substantial backlist which somehow passed me by. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was that arresting cover that caught my eye on Twitter but it was the blurb that made me want to read it. Li’s novel is the

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Cover image for All of You Every Single One by Beatrice Hitchman

All of You Every Single One by Beatrice Hitchman: Choosing your own family

Back in 2013, I wrote about meeting Beatrice Hitchman at what was supposed to be a summer afternoon Pimms party in a neighbour’s garden, unsurprisingly relocated to their living room thanks to the British weather. Hitchman’s debut, Petite Mort, was just about to be published. I enjoyed it very much and was delighted when All

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Cover image for A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earthby Daniel Mason

A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth by Daniel Mason: Stories of history, science, discovery and outsiders

Historical novelist Daniel Mason’s name will be well known to many readers, I’m sure. I remember The Piano Tuner causing quite a stir when it was published back in 2002 but it didn’t appeal to me. You might wonder, then, why I picked up A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth but its multitude

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Cover image for Tyll by daniel Kehlmann

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (transl. Ross Benjamin): Telling truth to power

I’ve read all of Daniel Kehlmann’s translated novels, each very different from the others but all witty and smart. His last book, You Should Have Left, was a short, gothic number, both chilling and riveting. In comparison Tyll is a lengthy, historical novel set against the backdrop of the Thirty Years War which raged across

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The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff: Several stories for the price of one

I could start this post with yet another protestation that I’m not an historical fiction fan but I’m not entirely sure that’s true, particularly after listing Imogen Hermes Gower’s The Mermaid and the Mrs Hancock amongst my books of 2018. Perhaps I should adopt the term Craig Cliff mentions in his acknowledgements – romanzi storici

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