Historical Fiction Stars: 2004

Lists of historical fiction titles receiving starred reviews.

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless otherwise noted.

Historical fiction is loosely defined on this page - a book set 25 years ago may qualify for inclusion.

Categories on this page include general (period setting), romance, mystery & suspense, and also worthy of note (time slip, alternate history, generational sagas, etc.)

• The Clerkenwell Tales
  Author: Ackroyd, Peter
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385511213 Date: 2004
  Kirkus PW
  This clever and colourful novel begins with "The Nun's Tale, and continues with "The Friar's Tale, "The Merchant's Tale and "The Clerk's Tale. Thus, story by story, Peter Ackroyd builds his portrait of medieval London. The people are disenchanted with the Church, with its wealth and corruption, its Pope in Rome and its Pope in Avignon. But heresy is dangerous -- almost as dangerous as rebellion. This is a novel about spies and counterspies, radicals and idealists, murderers and arsonists, sects and secret societies. It is a tale richly atmospheric and satisfying in its historical detail. - Publishers Marketing.
  Updated 7.19.04
• The Secrets of Jin-Shei
  Author: Alexander, Alma
  Publisher: Harper SF $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060563419 Date: 2004
  LJ
  The epic story of seven women in ancient China and their loyal bond of sisterhood--jin shei.
  Updated 3.1.04
• Ironfire: A Novel of the Knights of Malta and the Last Battle of the Crusades
  Author: Ball, David W.
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385336012 Date: 2004
  LJ
  In the Mediterranean, 16th-century, a mighty struggle looms between the Christian kingdoms, roiled by religious strife and political intrigue, and the surging Ottoman Empire. All that stands in the sultan's way is a tiny island and its small band of defenders--the Knights of Malta.
  Suggested Reading: Pirate Stars
  Updated 11.18.03
• The Stone That the Builder Refused
  Author: Bell, Madison Smartt
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 29.95 ISBN: 037542282x Date: 2004
  Kirkus LJ
  The finale in the Toussaint Louverture trilogy spans the last two years of Toussaint's life, his triumphant struggle and the compromises made for a free Haiti. Toussaint was the legendary leader of the only successful slave revolution in history.
  Updated 10.19.04
• Katya
  Author: Birdsell, Sandra
  Publisher: Milkweed $ 24 ISBN: 1571310436 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Published in Canada as The Russlander, this historical novel is set in 1917 Russia and depicts peaceful lives uprooted by revolution.
  
  Updated 8.16.04
• Handsome Harry
  Author: Blake, James Carlos
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060554789 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  The renowned author pens his most commercial novel to date--a thrilling retelling of the John Dillinger story.
  Suggested Reading: Biographical Fiction
  Updated 11.12.03
• Shooting the Sun
  Author: Byrd, Max
  Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553802089 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From historic novelist Byrd comes an enthralling novel of fact and fiction as eccentric genius Charles Babbage and free-spirited astronomer Selena Cott set out to use the dawning technology of 1839 to record a total solar eclipse.
  Updated 10.8.03
• The Cloud Atlas
  Author: Callahan, Liam
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385336942 Date: 2004
  Kirkus LJ
  In a richly inspired debut reminiscent of Snow Falling on Cedars and The English Patient, this stirring novel, set against a magnificent Alaskan backdrop, reveals one of the most closely guarded secrets of World War II in a tale that is both a heart-quickening mystery and a unique love story.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | World War Stars
  Updated 3.1.04
• A Deal With the Devil
  Author: Carlyle, Liz
  Publisher: Pocket $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0743470036 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  The USA Today bestselling author of The Devil You Know pens a shimmering novel about a Scottish noblewoman on the run from her past and a powerful English lord brought to his knees by desire.
  Updated 3.11.04
• Bright Starry Banner: A Novel of the Civil War
  Author: Carter, Alden R.
  Publisher: Soho $ 27 ISBN: 1569473552 Date: 2004
  Kirkus PW
  December 1862, outside Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the 43,000 men of Gen. Rosencrans' Army of the Cumberland faced the 38,000 Confederate soldiers of Gen. Bragg's Army. In arenas dubbed "the Slaughter Pen" and "Hell's Half Acre," Blue and Gray collide.
  Suggested Reading: Civil War Stars
  Updated 2.16.04
• The Children's War
  Author: Charlesworth, Monique
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400040094 Date: 2004
  Kirkus PW
  Interweaving the stories of Ilse, a half-Jewish girl, and Nicolai, a Hitler Youth, The Children's War is a gripping, unforgettable story of growing up in a world gone mad.
  Updated 8.16.04
• The Lady and the Unicorn
  Author: Chevalier, Tracy
  Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525947671 Date: 2004
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  An extraordinary story exquisitely told, Chevalier's The Lady and the Unicorn weaves history and fiction into a beautiful, timeless, and intriguing literary tapestry that rivals in grace and grandeur the masterpiece that inspired it.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 12.8.03
• Kate Hannigan
  Author: Cookson, Catherine
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0743237730 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  A sweeping historical romance about love across the social divide, this classic first novel--the one that launched the career of England's late, great Cookson--is now available in the U.S. in hardcover for the first time.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 11.24.03
• Crofton's Fire
  Author: Coplin, Keith
  Publisher: Putnam $ 21.95 ISBN: 0399151125 Date: 2004
  Kirkus Booklist
  A highly original first novel, in which a green second lieutenant barely escapes Little Bighorn - only to find that his life's adventures have just begun.
  Suggested Reading: Western Stars | Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 11.25.03
• Sharpe's Escape
  Author: Cornwell, Bernard
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060530472 Date: 2004
  PW
  The newest Sharpe adventure--after New York Times bestselling Sharpe's Havoc--takes place in the fall of 1810 at the battle of Bussaco, Spain, the sack of Coimbra, Portugal, and at the Lines of Torres Vedras.
  Updated 3.15.04
• Life Mask
  Author: Donoghue, Emma
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 26 ISBN: 0151009430 Date: 2004
  Kirkus PW
  The bestselling author of Slammerkin turns her attention to the Beau Monde of late 18th-century England, transforming the private drama of three celebrated Londoners into a robust, full-bodied portrait of a world, and lives, on the brink of revolution.
  Updated 7.26.04
• Birth of Venus
  Author: Dunant, Sarah
  Publisher: Knopf $ 21.95 ISBN: 1400060737 Date: 2004
  LJ
  The Birth of Venus is a tour de force from one of Britain's most innovative thriller writers. It brings alive the history of Florence at its most dramatic period, telling a compulsively absorbing story of love, art, religion and power through the passionate voice of Alessandra, a remarkable heroine with the same vibrancy as her beloved city.
  Updated 12.29.03
• The Divine Husband
  Author: Goldman, Francisco
  Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871139154 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Acclaimed and award-winning author Goldman delivers his third novel, a masterpiece love story, supported by an unforgettable cast of characters striving for love or success in the heady late 19th-century atmosphere of Guatemala City and New York.
  Updated 8.13.04
• Confessions of Max Tivoli
  Author: Greer, Andrew Sean
  Publisher: FSG $ 23 ISBN: 0374128715 Date: 2004
  PW LJ Booklist
  A beautiful and daring feat of the imagination, The Confessions of Max Tivoli reveals the world through the eyes of "monster," a being who confounds the very certainties by which people live and in doing so embodies in extremis what it means to be human.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Immortalism Fiction Stars
  Updated 2.5.04
• Holy Fools
  Author: Harris, Joanne
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060559128 Date: 2004
  PW LJ
  From the bestselling author of Chocolat comes a novel of love and betrayal, friendship and revenge, set in 17th-century France.
  Updated 12.29.03
• The Changeling of Finnistuath
  Author: Horsley, Kate
  Publisher: Shambhala $ 22.95 ISBN: 1590300483 Date: 2004
  LJ
  A young girl who is raised as a boy searches for identity and redemption in this compelling and provocative coming-of-age story set in 14th century Ireland--from the author of Confessions of a Pagan Nun.
  Updated 3.15.04
• Breaking the Tongue
  Author: Loh, Vyvyane
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393057925 Date: 2004
  Kirkus PW
  This brilliant novel chronicles the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in World War II. Central to the story is one Chinese family. Expatriates, spies, fifth columnists, and nationalists--including the elusive young woman Ling-Li--mingle in this exotic culture as the Japanese threat looms.
  Suggested Reading: World War Stars
  Updated 2.2.04
• Empress Orchid
  Author: Min, Anchee
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 0618068872 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Empress Orchid is the story of a fascinating, strong-willed woman who for generations has been vilified as a grand seductress and murderer. Min draws a vivid portrait of a flawed yet utterly compelling woman and, through her life, of the world of the Chinese court and the sexual and political lives of the royal concubines.
  Suggested Reading: Asian American Stars | Biographical Fiction
  Updated 11.25.03
• The Singing Fire
  Author: Nattel, Lilian
  Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743249666 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From the acclaimed author of The River Midnight comes a remarkable tale of two women who abandon everything they know for the maelstrom of London at the turn of the century.
  Updated 10.28.03
• Cottonwood
  Author: Phillips, Scott
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345461002 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  The author of The Ice Harvest and The Walkaway returns with a novel set in 1870s and 1880s Kansas and California.
  Updated 11.24.03
• The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great
  Author: Pressfield, Steven
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385500998 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  In the brilliantly imagined first-person voice of Alexander the Great, acclaimed novelist Pressfield brings to life his epic battles, his unerring command of his forces, and the passions and ambitions that drove him.
  Suggested Reading: Ancient Greece
  Updated 7.26.04
• The Retreat
  Author: Rimbaud, Patrick
  Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871138778 Date: 2004
  PW Kirkus
  A gripping historical novel focused on Napoleon's dramatic invasion of Russia, The Retreat is a stirring follow-up to The Battle, winner of France's Goncourt Prize.
  Updated 11.22.04
• The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga
  Author: Rutherfurd, Edward
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 27.95 ISBN: 0385502869 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Rutherfurd has introduced millions of readers to the human dramas that are the lifeblood of history. His latest is a sweeping panorama steeped in the tragedy and glory that is Ireland, epitomizing the power and richness of Rutherfurd's storytelling magic.
  Updated 3.15.04
• The Painting
  Author: Schuyler, Nina
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 22.95 ISBN: 1565124413 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Set in 1870s Japan and France, this atmospheric novel tells the story of a Japanese woman who escapes her arranged marriage by painting memories of her lover, which she secretly sends to an importer in Paris.
  Updated 9.20.04
• Dreaming the Bull
  Author: Scott, Manda
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 25 ISBN: 0385336713 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  The second part of the stunning fictionalization of the life of Britain's warrior queen, Boudica, immerses readers in a world of druids and dreamers, warriors and lovers, passion and courage.
  Updated 4.21.04
• The Snow Fox
  Author: Shaeffer, Susan Fromberg
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039305814x Date: 2004
  PW
  A great samurai and a beautiful poet fall in love in a novel that captures medieval Japan in breathtaking detail. The heartbreaking story of their renewed love is fraught by the Japanese concept of "mono no aware"--life's ephemeral nature--that weighs on the lovers.
  Updated 10.20.03
• A Black Englishman
  Author: Slaughter, Carolyn
  Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374113998 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Set against the backdrop of India in the 1920s, this novel is the tale of a powerful and erotic love affair that combines the themes of colonial exploitation, political and ethnic tensions, race and sexuality, and the many forms of partition, both secular and religious.
  Updated 10.19.04
  
• The Ptolemies
  Author: Sprott, Duncan
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25.95 ISBN: 1400041546 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Sprott's wildly imaginative yet historically accurate, and often hilarious work re-creates the early years of the House of Ptolemy (330-23 BC)--the dark, glittering, disastrous and forgotten 10-generation dynasty of Greek pharaohs of Egypt.
  Updated 3.25.04
• System of the World
  Author: Stephenson, Neal
  Publisher: Morrow $ 27.95 ISBN: 0060523875 Date: 2004
  Kirkus PW LJ
  New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson pens the final volume in his hugely ambitious and compelling epic of intrigue, adventure, and excitement, filled with a remarkable cast of characters in a time of genius, discovery, and change.
  Suggested Reading:All Stars
  Updated 9.22.04
• The Confusion
  Author: Stephenson, Neal
  Publisher: Morrow $ 27.95 ISBN: 0060523867 Date: 2004
  Kirkus Booklist PW LJ
  In this profoundly compelling adventure, Stephenson brings to life a cast of unforgettable characters in the late 1600s on the high seas. It is a time of breathtaking genius and discovery for men and women whose exploits define an age known as Baroque.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Pirate Stars | Sea Stories
  Updated 4.5.04
• The Fires of Pride: A Novel of the Civil War
  Author: Trotter, William R.
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 26 ISBN: 0786712236 Date: 2004
  PW
  The Fires of Pride concludes a two-part Civil War saga which brings America's most tragic conflict to life at Fort Fisher, a fortress on North Carolina's windswept coastline.
  Suggested Reading: Civil War Stars
  Updated 2.16.04
• The Forest Lover
  Author: Vreeland, Susan
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670032670 Date: 2004
  PW
  A historical novel that tells the story of painter Emily Carr, who shook up the early 20th century art scene with uncompromising brushstrokes that captured the fading wilderness of an increasingly industrialized British Columbia as well as the indigenous villages, the tribal peoples and their dying customs and art forms.
  Updated 11.24.03
• Prisoners of War
  Author: Yarbrough, Steve
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414789 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Set in a Mississippi farming town in 1943, Prisoners of War is the story of Marty Stark, returned mysteriously from the front and reassigned to guard men he had been trained to kill--German soldiers whose fighting days are over.
  Suggested Reading: World War Stars
  Updated 11.12.03
• Songbird
  Author: Zacharius, Walter
  Publisher: Atria $ 24 ISBN: 0743482115 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  In this haunting and moving debut novel that echoes the emotional intensity of The Pianist, a young woman must rely on her remarkable strength of character in order to survive the devastation of World War II.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | World War Stars
  Updated 6.10.04

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LINKS:

American Historical Fiction Book List
Historical Fiction for Children & Adults
Historical Fiction Bibliography
Historical Mysteries
Soon's Historical Fiction Site
Uchronia: Alternate History
Yahoo - Historical Fiction