Historical fiction book · Curated
Conjure Women
Afia Atakora · historical fiction
A healer’s daughter navigates slavery’s end and dangerous secrets (SAH Prize 2021).
About this historical novel
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora is historical fiction set around Civil War / Reconstruction in the Civil War / Victorian / Gilded Age period with key settings including American South. A healer’s daughter navigates slavery’s end and dangerous secrets (SAH Prize 2021).
On HisFic we tag it under 1. Literary historical fiction and 7. Family saga so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include slavery, freedom, mothers, and secrets. It also appears on our prize-winner shelf—useful if you like critically recognized historical novels.
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Plot summary
A healer’s daughter navigates slavery’s end and dangerous secrets (SAH Prize 2021).
Awards
- ★ Society of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction · 2021 (winner)
Biennial US prize (formerly James Fenimore Cooper Prize) for historical fiction on an American subject.
Subgenres
Eras
Browse this mix
More like this on HisFic
Curated titles that share era, story type, or themes.
- The Underground Railroad · Colson Whitehead
An enslaved woman’s escape reimagines the Underground Railroad as a literal train—and faces America’s brutal history.
- North and South · John Jakes
Two families—one Northern, one Southern—are torn by the approach of the Civil War.
- Homegoing · Yaa Gyasi
Linked stories follow two half-sisters’ lineages across centuries of African and American history.
- Gone with the Wind · Margaret Mitchell
Scarlett O’Hara fights to survive the Civil War and Reconstruction in the American South.
- The Long Song · Andrea Levy
A Jamaican woman narrates slavery’s last years and emancipation with wit and steel (Walter Scott Prize 2011).
- Days Without End · Sebastian Barry
An Irish immigrant and his partner fight in the Indian Wars and Civil War (Walter Scott Prize 2017).
Regions & places
North America
American South
Themes
- slavery
- freedom
- mothers
- secrets
Tags
award-winner