What do all these books have in common? And no, the answer isn’t that I’ve read them all 🙂
- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
- Tightrope by Simon Mawer
- The Ten Thousand Things: A Novel by John Spurling
- Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
- Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
- The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell
- Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
- Day by A.L. Kennedy
- The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
- Restless by William Boyd
- An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer
- March by Geraldine Brooks
- The Known World by Edward P. Jones
- Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
- The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
- On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry
- The Long Song by Andrea Levy
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanigan
- The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
- Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
- The News From Paraguay by Lily Tuck
- The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
- In America by Susan Sontag
- Pure by Andrew Miller
Yes, you’re right. All are historical fiction (although a few weave in present day portions). And yes, all have won major literary prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction, the Pulitzer prize, the Man Booker prize, the National Book Award and the Costa Book Award.
What can they tell us about successful historical fiction? I’ll be working on that – just as soon as I finish the last round of edits on my current manuscript.
In the meantime, if you’ve read one, two or more of them, let me know why you think they were chosen for awards and what makes them successful.
FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION follow A WRITER OF HISTORY (using the widget on the left sidebar)
M.K. Tod writes historical fiction and blogs about all aspects of the genre at A Writer of History. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union on August 16, 2016. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.
7 Responses
I have only read 3 of those. For me, the most important is very solid background research combined with creative way of presenting it
Research + creativity … sounds like an excellent formula.
Kate Atkinson’s LIFE AFTER LIFE was incredible. The story was incredibly ingenious. And the details of the time period…so vivid and real. Same with ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. Both had such intriguing concepts that I was pulled in right away.
http://www.melissamarsh.net
You are so right, Melissa. I loved both of these novels.