Thanks to several high-profile successes and a slew of mainstream literary awards in recent years, historical fiction is attracting more general-interest reading attention than it’s done in many a year saturated with lit’rary fiction. And the entire genre of historical fiction has been subtly aided by the growing realization on the part of readers that they themselves are living through an epoch that will be in the history books (will there be COVID-19 historical novels coming out in 2050?). 2021 saw a slew of first-rate historical novels, and these were the best of them:

10 Sergeant Salinger by Jerome Charyn (Bellevue Literary Press) — A small set of readers have always eagerly anticipated anything new by Jerome Charyn, and adding an element of weird only intensifies that. And in a way, what could be weirder than a novel about the youth of an author who’s most famous for being a recluse? Charyn does his customary elegant, subtly subversive job here.

9 The Gates of Athens by Conn Iggulden (Pegasus) - The first of Iggulden’s “Athenian” novels grippingly centers on the only bits of Ancient Greek history that general readers tend to know, Marathon and Thermopylae, and brings everything to life through the character of Xanthippus, who’s a bitter, eloquent witness to all the key events of his time. 

8 China by Edward Rutherfurd (Doubleday) — Edward Rutherford is best known for his enormous door-stopper historical novels whose action spans centuries.This latest novel has a much tighter focus, on the years of China’s first opening to the West, and in some ways it’s all the stronger for that change, with the fate of characters feeling more immediate.

7 Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday) — Bohjalian’s latest historical novel is a study of resilience that builds some truly impressive cumulative force, the story of a courageous young Puritan woman who gradually falls under suspicion of witchcraft. The author marvelously manages what ends up being a large and very varied cast.

6 Matrix by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books) - Much like in the case of Chris Bohjalian, so too here Lauren Groff writes the best book of her career so far by turning to historical fiction, in this case the story of an expelled medieval courtier who finds a new life among her sisters as the prioress of a ramshackle abbey.

5 The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Viking) — This book about an oddly heroic teenager in 1950s America is every bit as discursive as the author’s A Gentleman in Moscow (despite having a very tight narrative time frame) and every bit as shimmering with human insights as Rules of Civility - a remarkably textured and subtly unpredictable novel.

4 The Fort by Adrian Keith Goldsworthy (Head of Zeus) - This first book in the author’s “City of Victory” series is set in the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan, when a new centurion is sent to a remote post on a part of the Dacian frontier that’s about to erupt in violence, and the book continues this author’s remarkable double-act as historian and novelist. 

3 A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago (Flatiron Books) - Lucy Jago’s historical novel set in Jacobean times stars Frances Howard, the unlucky wife of Earl of Essex, and the whole deceptively slim book shimmers and ripples with sheer literary skill; quite apart from the intriguing historical setting, this is just a beautifully written gem.

2 Hold Fast by JH Gelernter (WW Norton) - Very unusual for a debut novel to appear on this list, much less so close to the top spot, but this first novel in Gelernter’s “Thomas Grey” series is outstanding in every way. It’s the story the twists and turns of the main character’s quest to avenge the death of his wife, and even seasoned spy thriller readers won’t be able to guess where the narrative is taking them next.

1 The Duchess by Wendy Holden (Berkley Books) — The best historical novel of the year is also the most infuriating! In these pages, Wendy Holden attempts the impossible: renovating the reputation of Wallis Warfield Simpson, the twice-divorced American gold-digger who manipulated King Edward VIII into abdicating the throne so he could be a louche do-nothing full time. I should stress that Wendy Holden’s attempt fails - Mrs. Simpson was and will remain a ghastly monster - but oh my, what a glorious attempt!