The Help author's 656-page Depression-set historical fiction tackles issues of poverty, body autonomy, women's rights, race, and more within two timelines featuring spirited, determined, underestimated females who prove how strong they are. In Kathryn Stockett's newest, hefty (656-page) historical fiction novel, we dive into dual, linked storylines. It's 1933, the peak of the Great Depression, and in Mississippi, everyone is struggling. We meet two main protagonists: independ

The many points of view within Allegra Goodman's novel made it feel somewhat disjointed, but the peeks into each character's internal struggles, motivations, and emotions coalesced into final gathering scenes that felt poignant and hopeful for individual characters and for the family as a whole. This Is Not About Us is poignant and wryly funny. Allegra Goodman's This Is Not About Us is a story of an extended Jewish-American family. The three matriarchs are split by a death

Skylark gets off to a relatively slow start as the scenes are set, but then I quickly became hooked on McLain's dual-timeline historical fiction, which comes to life through incredible details of life in seventeenth-century and early World War II Paris and showcases characters pushed to their limits in the name of justice. Paula McLain's Skylark is historical fiction set in Paris and told through dual timelines. In 1664, Alouette is the daughter of a master dyer at the famo

Powers's novel is an exploration of the wonders of the ocean and also of the capacity of the human mind and imagination. The marching toward destruction of both of these makes for a nerve-racking, heartbreaking story. Playground 's final section held surprises I did not anticipate, and their exposure colors the entirety of the story that precedes them. We make things that we hope will be bigger than us, and then we’re desolate when that’s what they become. Four people are con

Ian McEwan's new literary fiction looks back upon our present with a cutting 2119 eye. An enthused future academic and a contemporary...

Bug Hollow tracks the Samuelson family from an idyllic mid-1970s Northern California summer through a tragedy that upends already-tenuous...

Death of the Author explores the connection of an author to her work--and how a story can take on a life of its own--in this novel...

This wonderfully creepy lesbian vampire story is largely about female empowerment, but also about love, discovery, reinvention, and...

Knapp's novel explores three life paths for a set of characters, all set into motion by the naming of the youngest child--whimsical,...

Knoll's novel was inspired by real events; Bright Young Women traces a serial killer targeting young women and in the character of...

I loved this summer-camp setting, the slow build of mystery in two timelines, the privilege and working class disparities, the eventual...

The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby is a historical fiction art-focused mystery told in two timelines. I found the story immensely...

The mystery bookends feel largely unimportant to the story, the cast of characters sometimes feels endless, and the story meanders, but...

I loved each of the story's two timelines--following a stewardess on board The Titanic as well as a British spy working with the WWII...

Schwab returns to the world of the four Londons in the first of a wonderfully paced new series featuring established characters, their...

Mason's novel isn't simply a historical fiction story linked through timelines. The book builds to be an often-sinister, Gothic-feeling...

Although the first section felt manic and uneven as Green hurtled through time, the second point of view offered lovely perspective on...

Emily Tesh's debut novel is a space opera about war, duty, brainwashing, escaping limitations, and reinventing oneself--with fascinating...

ICYMI: Morton offers a strong historical fiction mystery, with assumed identities, dual timelines, twists and turns, and a richly wrought...

Morton's newest historical fiction involves two timelines, a decades-old tragedy, and a modern-day descendant's discovery of her family's...