The Most Anticipated Historical Fiction of Fall 2026

From the #1 internationally bestselling author of Conclave and Dictator, a gripping tale of ancient Rome’s descent into dictatorship. Agrippa was a mere commoner, a plebeian, but he earned the respect and fear of his peers. He defended a bullied young boy, Octavius, who turned out to be the nephew of Caesar himself, a chance encounter that would change the trajectory of his life. When Caesar is murdered in the Senate, Octavius inherits the empire in name only. To assume the mantle he will have to fight for it, and Agrippa, forever by his side, will be his closest advisor and the merciless agent of his military will …

A “captivating villain origin story” (People, Book of the Week) reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine. Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the crosscurrents between her heart’s deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play. Now in paperback!

A thrilling tale of post-World War II London, where the peace proves as tricky to navigate as the past, from the #1 international bestselling author of Life After Life. With her unique voice and her skill at conjuring the past, Kate Atkinson turns her light on a nation reconstructing its image and the lengths to which some might go to manipulate the outcome. Witty, brilliantly plotted, and with an unforgettable cast of characters, Our Noble Selves paints a vivid portrait of a former empire struggling with its identity in the aftermath of war.

The last living member of a family of historians who has been hunted by dark forces associated with Dracula finds himself in peril at the hands of a new threat in this thrilling novel from the #1 bestselling author of The Historian.

A magical legacy, both a curse and a gift, haunts three women across centuries in this spellbinding story. With lyrical prose and captivating characters, this riveting tale is a story of love, courage, and motherhood, as three women across history test the bonds of magic running through them all.

They were an unlikely pair — a blond bombshell and a photographer determined to be taken seriously — but Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold would make a deal that would change their lives in this dazzling new novel from the national bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure.

A collectible tenth-anniversary edition of a modern classic that has captivated millions. In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

Based on the true story of Alessandro de’ Medici, this sweeping novel follows a Black woman’s secret plot to put her son on a Renaissance throne.

A gothic tale in two timelines in which the lives of two women intersect through a series of mysterious, eerily beautiful photographs of the dead.

She had always felt that she must stay in the shadows, that if she asked for little, she could not feel loss. But here was life and joy. A mesmerizing coming-of-age story of an extraordinary young woman in turn-of-the-century France as she rises to find a life she’d never dreamed possible. Odette is a heroine for the ages — complex and flawed, but compelling and full of warmth — and we share her joy as she begins to soar.

Lady Georgiana Rannoch never expected to be more than a guest at the coronation of King Edward VIII but murder and some international intrigue make for a change of plans …

In this boldly rendered novel, a meditation on creativity in the darkest of times, Elif Shafak imagines in vivid color the life of legendary writer Gustave Flaubert and all the women who possessed him — the fictional ones he conjured and the real ones who shaped him — particularly Madame Bovary.

From New York Times bestselling author and creator of the beloved Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney mystery series comes a continuation of Jane Austen’s famous unfinished novel. Bestselling author Claudia Gray expands this story into a vivid tale of love, sorrow, social class, honor, and, as in any Austen novel, the ways these all become intertwined for a young woman in Regency-era England. Transforming The Watsons from an unpolished draft into a riveting ensemble novel filled with romance, humor, and social commentary, Gray recaptures the spirit of Austen’s most enigmatic story.

Charlotte Holmes — aka Sherlock Holmes — becomes entangled in a puzzling missing person case that hits close to home for her beloved Mrs. Watson in this Victorian-set mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of A Ruse of Shadows.

Caught between her family back in Harlem and her glamorous new life, Louise Lloyd finds that her knack for solving crimes translates when she’s called to investigate un meurtre in Paris.

In this haunting historical novel, a light-skinned Black man goes undercover to investigate lynchings in the South, only to be confronted by the very evil that pursued him since childhood … Inspired by the life of civil rights activist Walter White, who passed as a white man to expose the brutality of lynchings from the South to the Midwest, American Nightmare is a gripping historical thriller that reveals the most terrifying monsters aren’t those that go bump in the night but those that walk among us.

In an ancient Indian kingdom, a young courtesan — trained to become the king’s assassin — is sent to stop the conqueror who would destroy her homeland. A stunning blend of historical and speculative fiction, The Poison Palace tells the story of Alexander’s invasion of India as it has never been told before.