This list outlines notable historical novels by the current geo-political boundaries of countries for the historical location in which most of the novel takes place. This list includes only the most notable novels within the genre, which have been included in Wikipedia. For a more comprehensive automatically generated list of articles on Wikipedia about historical novels, see :Category:Historical novels. For a comprehensive list by time period on historical fiction in general see list of historical fiction by time period.
Afghanistan The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield (Alexander the Great's invasion of the Afghan kingdoms in 330 BC) Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser (1840s, First Anglo-Afghan War) Caravans by James Michener (post-World War II)
Argentina On Heroes and Tombs by Ernesto Sabato (19th century, during the Civil War) Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism by Domingo F. Sarmiento (19th century) Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez (20th century, Eva Perón)
Australia The Playmaker and Bring Larks and Heroes by Thomas Keneally (18th century colonial Australia) Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough (end of the 18th century) Destiny in Sydney by D. Manning Richards (1787–1902 Scots-Irish, Aboriginal, and Chinese family saga story) The Lambing Flat by Nerida Newton (mid-19th century Australian gold rushes) The Secret River by Kate Grenville (19th century colonial Australia) Jack Maggs by Peter Carey (19th century colonial Australia) The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (end of the 19th century) True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (Kelly Gang, 1878–1880) An Angel in Australia by Thomas Keneally (World War II) Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (1960s Western Australia) Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss (19th century indigenous New South Wales)
Austria The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil (World War I)
Bangladesh The Black Coat by Neamat Imam (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's rule in Bangladesh, 1972–75, including famine of 1974)
Belgium The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak by Charles De Coster (Protestant Reformation in the Netherlands) The Sorrow of Belgium (Het verdriet van België) by Hugo Claus (WW II and after)
Bosnia and Herzegovina The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić (1500s–1900s)
Brazil Alfarrábios by José de Alencar (Colonial Brazil) Iracema by José de Alencar (legend from Ceara, 16th century) The Guarani by José de Alencar (Brazil, 16th century) Brazil Red by Jean-Christophe Rufin (France Antarctique, 16th century) As Minas de Prata (The Silver Mines) by José de Alencar (Minas Gerais, 18th century) Time and the Wind (O Tempo e o Vento) by Érico Veríssimo (from the late 18th century to 1945) Rebellion in the Backlands (Os Sertões) by Euclides da Cunha (Canudos Campaign, 19th century) The War of the End of the World (La guerra del fin del mundo) by Mario Vargas Llosa (Canudos Campaign, 19th century)
Canada The Orenda by Joseph Boyden (17th-century Quebec) The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe (19th century western Canada) All That Matters by Wayson Choy (1920s–1940s Vancouver) Journey by James A. Michener Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje Jalna by Mazo de la Roche The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy (1930s–1940s Vancouver)
Caribbean (multiple countries) Unburnable by Marie-Elena John (the African origins of Caribbean culture and the original inhabitants of the Caribbean, the Kalinago (Carib Indians)). Caribbean by James A. Michener
Chile My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel
China Empress by Shan Sa (Wu Zetian, 1st century) Chia Black Dragon series by Stephen Marley (2nd century, 7th century) Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong (3rd century) The Journeyer by Gary Jennings (Kublai Khan, 13th century) The Deer and the Cauldron by Jin Yong - Early Qing dynasty during the rule of the Kangxi Emperor. (1654–89) The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin (18th century) Tai-Pan by James Clavell (Hong Kong, 1841) Peony by Pearl Buck (19th century, Jewish family in China) Imperial Woman by Pearl Buck (about Empress Dowager Cixi) Empress Orchid by Anchee Min (about Empress Dowager Cixi) The Last Empress by Anchee Min (about Empress Dowager Cixi) Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard (World War II) Dragon Seed by Pearl Buck (Life of Chinese peasant family during Second Sino-Japanese War) Noble House by James Clavell (Hong Kong, 1963)
Colombia The General in his Labyrinth by Gabriel García Márquez
Czech Republic Witiko by Adalbert Stifter (Witiko of Prčice, 12th century Bohemia)
Denmark Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (20th century)
Dominican Republic In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (rebellion against Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, mid-20th century) The Feast of the Goat (La Fiesta del Chivo) by Mario Vargas Llosa (Assassination of Trujillo and its aftermath, early 1960s)
Egypt Cheops by Paul West (26th century BC) Pharaoh by Bolesław Prus (fall of Egypt's Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom) Hypatia by Charles Kingsley (late Roman Egypt) The Egyptian by Mika Waltari (reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten) The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George (reign of Cleopatra VII) River God by Wilbur Smith Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf (15th and 16th century)
Estonia Purge by Sofi Oksanen (20th century)
Finland The Adventurer by Mika Waltari (16th century)
France The Jester by James Patterson (11th century) The Badger of Ghissi by (12th century) The Accursed Kings (Les Rois maudits) series by Maurice Druon (14th century) Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott (Louis XI – 15th century) The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (15th century) The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette (16th century, court of Henry II) Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas, père (16th century) The Angélique series by Anne & Serge Golon (mid-17th century in the reign of Louis XIV) The d'Artagnan romances (The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne) by Alexandre Dumas, père (17th century) A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel (French Revolution) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (French Revolution) Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini (French Revolution) Ninety-Three by Victor Hugo (1793, French Revolution) The Rover by Joseph Conrad (Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods) Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (19th century) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père (19th century) Cézanne’s Quarry by Barbara Corrado Pope, (Belle Époque) The Blood of Lorraine by Barbara Corrado Pope, (Belle Époque) The Missing Italian Girl by Barbara Corrado Pope, (Belle Époque) An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris (the Dreyfus affair) The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (World War I)
Germany Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem (Germania, 4th century, Magnus Maximus) Q (1999) by Luther Blissett (15th-century Europe during the Protestant reformation and German Peasants' War) Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann (19th century) Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist by Russell McCormmach (development of physics in the early 20th century) The Seventh Gate by Richard Zimler (1930s Berlin) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (World War II)
Greece Hades' Daughter by Sara Douglass (classical antiquity) Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War by Steven Pressfield The Palaeologian Dynasty. The Rise and Fall of Byzantium by George Leonardos Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield (the Battle of Thermopylae) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (World War I and Greco-Turkish War) The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault (Athens in the time of Socrates) The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault (Greek theatre, 4th century BC) The Athenian Murders (La caverna de las ideas) by Jose Carlos Somoza (classical antiquity) Lion of Macedon by David Gemmell (Alexander's general Parmenion) Fire from Heaven and The Persian Boy by Mary Renault (Alexander the Great) Funeral Games by Mary Renault (the successors of Alexander) Goat Song by Frank Yerby (Peloponnesian War)
Greenland The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley
Haiti Lydia Bailey by Kenneth Roberts (1800s Haitian Revolution) The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier (Haitian Revolution) Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende (late 18th century) Babouk by Guy Endore (Haitian Revolution)
Hungary A Town in Black (1910) by Kálmán Mikszáth (set in the 18th c.) Fatelessness (Sorstalanság) (2001) by Imre Kertész (Nobel Prize winner, set in World War II) Prague (2002) by Arthur Phillips (set in the 1990s)
Iceland Eric Brighteyes by H. Rider Haggard (10th century, Viking Age) The Fated Sky by Henrietta Branford (Viking Age) Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (1820s, Agnes Magnúsdóttir)
India
Bengali Durgeshnôndini and Anondomôţh by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay The Home and the World (Ghôre Baire) by Rabindranath Tagore
English A Spoke in the Wheel by Amita Kanekar (Gautama Buddha/Ashoka) Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi (4th century BC) Empire of the Moghul series by Alex Rutherford (Moghul Empire, Babur to Aurangzeb) Guardian of the Dawn by Richard Zimler (17th century Goa) The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye (British India in the 19th century) The Ibis trilogy by Amitav Ghosh (before and during the First Opium War) The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell (Indian Rebellion of 1857) Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (Partition of India)
Hindi From Volga to Ganga by Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan
Malayalam Marthandavarma, Dharmaraja, Ramarajabahadur by C V Raman Pillai
Tamil Parthiban Kanavu and Sivagamiyin Sabadham by Kalki Krishnamurthy (Pallava dynasty) Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki Krishnamurthy (Chola dynasty) Vengaiyin Mayinthan by Akilan (Rajendra Chola I, 11th century)
Telugu Veyipadagalu by Viswanatha Satyanarayana
Urdu Aag Ka Darya (River of Fire) by Qurratulain Hyder Aangan (Courtyard) by Khadija Mastoor Bano by Razia Butt
Gujarati Karan Ghelo by Nandshankar Mehta
Indonesia This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia), Child of All Nations (Anak Semua Bangsa), Footsteps (Jejak Langkah) and House of Glass (Rumah Kaca) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Dutch colonialism, late 19th early 20th century) Max Havelaar by Multatuli (Dutch colonialism, 19th century)
Iran Cry of the Peacock by Gina B. Nahai (Jews in Iran, 18th–20th centuries) Whirlwind by James Clavell (Iranian Revolution, 1979)
Ireland The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga and The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherfurd (Dublin, 430 to the Great Famine) Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne (7th century) Lion of Ireland by Morgan Llywelyn (High King Brian Boru, 10th century) The Good People by Hannah Kent (1825, County Kerry) The Silent People by Walter Macken (The Great Famine, 19th century) Trinity and Redemption by Leon Uris (19th–early 20th century) A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle (Irish Revolution) Troubles by J. G. Farrell (Irish War of Independence)
Israel The Source by James A. Michener (earliest days to 1964) The King of Flesh and Blood by Moshe Shamir (2nd century BCE) King Jesus by Robert Graves (1st century) Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace (1st century) The Antagonists: A Novel of Masada by Ernest K. Gann (1st century) The Gospel According to Lazarus by Richard Zimler (1st century) Holy Warrior by Angus Donald, second novel in the Outlaw Chronicles (12th century) Jerusalem by Cecelia Holland (12th century) The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott (12th century, Third Crusade) Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch (12th century: Battle of Hattin, Third Crusade) Exodus by Leon Uris (SS Exodus and the founding of Israel) The Haj by Leon Uris (1920s–1950s) The Hope by Herman Wouk (Creation of Israel to the Six-Day War, 1948–1967) The Glory by Herman Wouk (Six-Day War to Peace with Egypt, 1967–1978) Inside, Outside by Herman Wouk (Four generations of a Russian Jewish family in the 20th century)