A Dozen Unconventional Works of Historical Fiction
(The cliché would suggest that a work of historical fiction is, roughly speaking, a bulky novel that treats minds and how they might be represented on the page as a matter long since settled. Here are twelve novels, listed alphabetically by author, that violate that cliché.)
An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by César Aira
Silk by Alessandro Baricco
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
The Gift of Stones by Jim Crace
West by Carys Davies
Silence by Shusako Endo
Gould’s Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish by Richard Flanagan
The King David Report by Stefan Heym
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer
Awake by Harald Voetmann
Augustus by John Williams
— August 16, 2022