The Women
Kristin Hannah
A young American nurse serves in Vietnam and struggles to be seen when she comes home.
Cold War · Late 20th century · Military & war · Family saga
Cold War · Literary · ~1945–1991
Literary historical fiction books: Cold War
Looking for historical fiction in the literary lane set during the Cold War (~1945–1991)? Literary historical fiction books: Cold War collects historical novels that match both filters—Spies, partition, civil rights, decolonization. Character- and prose-forward novels set in the past HisFic is a free historical fiction discovery app: open a full reading journey with the same era and story-type filters, then add region, themes, or audience. Shelves mix curated historical fiction picks with Open Library titles so even thin combinations still have books to explore.
Shelf · 20 titles
Curated HisFic picks first.
Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi
Linked stories follow two half-sisters’ lineages across centuries of African and American history.
Early modern · Victorian / Gilded Age · Family saga · Literary
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee
Four generations of a Korean family navigate life under Japanese rule and in Japan.
World War II era · Cold War · Family saga · Literary
The Help
Kathryn Stockett
Black maids and a young white writer risk everything to tell the truth about life in 1960s Mississippi.
Cold War · Late 20th century · Literary · Family saga
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
A boyhood betrayal in Kabul echoes through war, exile, and a chance at redemption.
Cold War · Late 20th century · Literary · Family saga
A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles
Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in Moscow’s Metropol Hotel as the Soviet century remakes the world outside. Over three decades he builds a life of friendship, purpose, and quiet resistance within the hotel’s walls.
Interwar · World War II era · Literary
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver
An evangelical family arrives in the Congo on the eve of independence—told through the daughters’ voices.
Cold War · Late 20th century · Family saga · Literary
A Dangerous Friend
Ward Just
American idealism collides with Vietnam’s reality (SAH Prize co-winner 2001).
Cold War · Literary · Military & war
Gain
Richard Powers
A corporation’s rise and a woman’s illness braid American industrial history (SAH Prize 1999).
Victorian / Gilded Age · Cold War · Literary · Family saga
Hungry Ghosts
Kevin Jared Hosein
A Trinidadian epic of hunger, ambition, and a missing boy (Walter Scott Prize 2024).
World War II era · Cold War · Literary · Family saga
In the Lake of the Woods
Tim O'Brien
A politician’s marriage unravels under the shadow of Vietnam (SAH Prize 1995).
Cold War · Late 20th century · Literary · Mystery
Matterhorn
Karl Marlantes
Marines fight for a hill in Vietnam—brutal, unforgettable (SAH Prize 2011).
Cold War · Military & war · Literary
On Canaan's Side
Sebastian Barry
An Irishwoman looks back across a century of war, migration, and loss (Walter Scott Prize 2012).
World War I era · Cold War · Literary · Family saga
Saint Monkey
Jacinda Townsend
Two Black girls from Kentucky—and the different Americas they enter (SAH Prize 2015).
Cold War · Literary · Family saga
The Garden of Evening Mists
Tan Twan Eng
A judge in Malaya tends a Japanese garden and confronts wartime memory (Walter Scott Prize 2013).
World War II era · Cold War · Literary
The Land in Winter
Andrew Miller
Two couples weather Britain’s Big Freeze of 1962–63 (Walter Scott Prize 2025).
Cold War · Literary
The Long Take
Robin Robertson
A D-Day veteran drifts through postwar American cities in verse-novel form (Walter Scott Prize 2019).
Cold War · Literary
The Narrow Land
Christine Dwyer Hickey
Cape Cod summer intersecting the world of Edward Hopper (Walter Scott Prize 2020).
Cold War · Literary · Biographical
There There
Tommy Orange
Urban Native lives converge toward a powwow in Oakland (SAH Prize 2019).
Late 20th century · Cold War · Literary · Family saga
Tightrope
Simon Mawer
A female SOE agent’s wartime courage and Cold War aftershocks (Walter Scott Prize 2016).
World War II era · Cold War · Literary · Military & war
Other story types in Cold War
Looking for a broader list? See Cold War historical fiction or literary historical fiction.