Historical Novels Today: A Reading

A young Swedish immigrant finds himself penniless and alone in California in Hernan Diaz’s novel, In the Distance, a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in fiction. As the first wave of pioneers travel westward to settle the American frontier, two women discover their inner strength when their lives are irrevocably changed by the hardship of the wild west in The Removes, a historical novel from award-winning author Tatjana Soli. Wayétu Moore’s She Would Be King, is a novel of exhilarating range, magical realism, and history―a dazzling retelling of Liberia’s formation.