Best Historical Fiction

 The story starts with Celtic Ireland, a world mired in the druids’s spiritual darkness, where kings defend ancient traditions to death. It further explores the rivalry between ancient tribes and chiefs, the story of St. Patrick, conversion from paganism to Christianity, and its lose ending the existence, only in Ireland, of divorce. It explores many invasions including Vikings, feudalism, and ends with failure of Silken Thomas’ revolt, Irish rebellion against British.  The Irish Saga begins in AD 430 at undisturbed territory of Dubh Linn and with its chieftain Fergus. He takes his daughter Deirdre to Lughnasa festival, high summer harvest offerings. At the ceremonies she notices an attractive athlete, Conall, son of Morna, and the nephew of the High King. At the same time her father arranges a marriage for her with a man from Ulster… 20 yeas later with Bishop Patrick people of Ireland start converting from paganism to Christianity. First Fergus gets baptized by Bishop P...

 The story is set in 1534 during the reign of a flamboyant King Francis I, during French Inquisition against Protestants, and during a time when it is believed that the Earth with its mankind is the center of the universe and the exploration of the subject is forbidden by the Church. Amaury de Faverges, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Savoy, becomes the doctor of theology at the Catholic College de Montaigu, under harsh conditions enduring “beatings, feculence, lice, depravation of sleep, terrible food and trivial disputations. (…) To wipe away the stain of his birth.” His love for the forbidden science takes him on a journey that shapes his decisions. He is put in a difficult situation and agrees to spy for the Inquisition. His undercover work takes him to the court of the King’s sister Marquerite of Navarre, where he uncovers documents written by a man named Nicolas Copernicus from Poland. Documents which claim that the Earth is not the center of the universe. It is the Sun...

 During the reign of King James I, the Jacobean court was marked by a scandalous murder in 1613. The book sets the story in 1615. Frances Howard, is an English noblewoman, and Robert Carr, is a favorite of the King. But there is someone else who stands in the way.  Both, Frances and Robert, get accused of murder. In alternating voices they reveal their own stories, which build up to the murder. Their voices weave through the court of intrigue, where allegiances fluctuate constantly, in this case between Howards and Essex crowd. Frances and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, get married at a young age. “The union was designed to mend an old rift between” both families. The marriage is loveless, at least she tries to be pleasant, but he continues to be rough. Robert Carr climbs the court's ladder from the bottom to the very top by becoming the King’s favorite.  After a year at Chartley castle, Frances and her husband return to the court, where she renews her spar...

 Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1892-1973) was an American writer and novelist. As a daughter of missionaries, she spent most of her life before 1937 in China. She received Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.” She was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.  The author wished to present her story from a Chinese perspective, as her fellow Chinese saw her. In order to do this, she presented Pear’s story through her relationships with her actual Chinese friends. The author “combined a number of Pear’s actual friends from different phases of her life to create the character of Willow.” The story starts in the last days of the 19th century, in a small town of Chin-kiang in southern China. Willow is the only child of a destitute father. They steal to survive. Pearl is a daughter of Christian missionarie...