The Matchbox Girl
Alice Jolly
Published 2025 · Walter Scott Prize 2026
A nonverbal girl’s life in Nazi-era Austria, told with unusual power (Walter Scott Prize 2026).
Lists
What’s selling now (Amazon), or the best-loved books from a decade.
Most accurate free HF sales list
Amazon Best Sellers · Historical Fiction
Amazon ranks books inside the Historical Fiction category (usually newer titles that are selling now). HisFic does not scrape or mirror that list — open it on Amazon for live ranks, then come back here to save Want to read or plan a journey.
Open Amazon HF Best Sellers →Opens amazon.com · HisFic may earn from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate
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Prize picks and NYT charts below — separate from the decade list.
Prize spotlight
Hand-picked from our catalog: newer Walter Scott / SAH titles worth knowing. These are not sorted by the decade chips above, and not Amazon/NYT sales ranks — prestige + recency only.
The Land in Winter
Andrew Miller
Published 2024 · Walter Scott Prize 2025
Two couples weather Britain’s Big Freeze of 1962–63 (Walter Scott Prize 2025).
The East Indian
Brinda Charry
Published 2023 · SAH Prize 2025
A boy from India arrives in colonial Virginia—America’s earliest Asian immigrant story (SAH Prize 2025).
Hungry Ghosts
Kevin Jared Hosein
Published 2023 · Walter Scott Prize 2024
A Trinidadian epic of hunger, ambition, and a missing boy (Walter Scott Prize 2024).
These Days
Lucy Caldwell
Published 2022 · Walter Scott Prize 2023
Two sisters endure the Belfast Blitz over four devastating days (Walter Scott Prize 2023).
A Dangerous Business
Jane Smiley
Published 2022 · SAH Prize 2023
Two women in Gold Rush Monterey investigate murders (SAH Prize 2023).
News of the Dead
James Robertson
Published 2021 · Walter Scott Prize 2022
A Highland glen’s stories across centuries of saints, strangers, and secrets (Walter Scott Prize 2022).
The Mirror & the Light
Hilary Mantel
Published 2020 · Walter Scott Prize 2021
The final act of Thomas Cromwell’s rise and ruin (Walter Scott Prize 2021).
New York Times fiction — likely historical
NYT has no HF-only list. When a key is configured, we scan current fiction bestsellers and keep titles whose jacket copy looks historical. Sales ranks — not ratings, and not tied to the decade chips above. Less precise than Amazon's HF category.
Live NYT · Week of 2026-10-0331 fiction titles scanned · 2 likely historical
#8Likely historicalTHE WOMEN
Kristin Hannah
A nurse follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.
3 weeks on listPaperback Trade Fiction
#12Likely historicalMAY WE FEED THE KING
Rebecca Perry
A curator, who takes a commission to work on the private quarters of a medieval palace, is swept up in the story of a king.
1 week on listPaperback Trade Fiction
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