10 Canadian historical fiction books to read this summer
Looking for a good summer read? Transport yourself with these historical fiction works by Canadian authors.
Finding Flora by Elinor Florence
In Finding Flora, Scottish newcomer to Canada, Flora, escapes her abusive husband to the Alberta prairie, determined to rebuild her life. But when a hostile government threatens their land and her violent husband is on the hunt for her, Flora forms a bond with her neighbours — a Welsh widow with three children, two American women raising chickens and a Métis woman training wild horses. United, the women come together to face their challenges.
Elinor Florence is an author, journalist and member of the Métis Nation of B.C. Her debut novel was Bird's Eye View, and her second novel, Wildwood, was one of Kobo's Hundred Most Popular Canadian Books of All Time. Florence holds degrees in English and journalism. She grew up in Saskatchewan and currently lives in Invermere, B.C.
Peggy by Rebecca Godfrey, with Leslie Jamison
Peggy tells the story of Peggy Guggenheim from her early beginnings in New York as the daughter of two Jewish dynasties to her adventures in the European art world. Throughout the novel, she is forced to balance her loyalty to her family and her desire to break free from conventions and live her own original life.
Rebecca Godfrey was an author and journalist known for her books The Torn Skirt, which was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the true crime story Under the Bridge, which was adapted into a Disney+ series. She grew up in Canada but lived in upstate New York. Peggy is her final novel, completed by Leslie Jamison after she died.
Jamison is the Brooklyn-based author of essay collections The Empathy Exams, The Recovering, the novel The Gin Closet and the memoir Splinters. She won the 2025 Weston International Award for her body of nonfiction work.
The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
The Paris Express provides a vivid account of late 19th-century France, exploring the fears and desires of the time through a group of passengers — diverse in their social class, age and occupation, aboard the Granville-Paris express. The fascinating stories of the passengers, including a young boy traveling solo, a pregnant woman on the run, a medical student and the devoted railway workers, are woven around the central, suspenseful plot of a young anarchist on a mission. But this is no ordinary journey...the story unfolds on the day of the infamous 1895 French railway disaster.
Emma Donoghue is an Irish Canadian writer whose books include the novels Landing, Room, Frog Music, The Wonder, The Pull of the Stars, Learned by Heart and the children's book The Lotterys Plus One. Room was an international bestseller and was adapted into a critically acclaimed film starring Brie Larson.
The Riveter by Jack Wang
The Riveter follows a Chinese Canadian man named Josiah Chang who is a soldier during the Second World War. Buoyed by his love for Poppy, a singer who works with him in the shipyard, Josiah is determined to survive the battlefields and make it back home — but finds himself fighting injustice on all fronts.
Wang is a N.Y.-based writer and professor originally from Vancouver. He teaches in the department of writing at Ithaca College and his writing has appeared in publications such as Joyland Magazine, The New Quarterly and Fiddlehead. Wang's debut short story collection, We Two Alone was longlisted for Canada Reads in 2022, shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award.
The Resistance Painter by Kath Jonathan
Jo Blum, an emerging sculptor who creates sculptures for her dying clients' gravesites, begins to notice eerie similarities between Stefan's wartime story and that of her grandmother's, an artist turned resistance fighter in the Second World War.Switching between timelines of Warsaw in 1939 and Toronto in 2010, The Resistance Painter tells the story of of two artists, grandmother and granddaughter, as they discover shocking revelations about each other in past and present.
Kath Jonathan is a Toronto writer. She has been shortlisted for the Marina Nemat Award and was a finalist for The Janice Colbert Poetry Award. She attended the University of Toronto where she holds a MA in English literature and a certificate in creative writing.
Curiosities by Anne Fleming
Weaving together different fictional accounts, Curiosities novel recounts the lives of Joan and Thomasina, who goes by Tom, the only two survivors of a village ravaged by the plague, and how they eventually find each other again — in a tale of witchcraft, forbidden love and the very nature of truth itself.
Anne Fleming is an author based in Victoria. Her books include Pool-Hopping and Other Stories, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. She has also written a middle-grade novel, The Goat, which was a Junior Library Guild and White Ravens selection. Curiosities was shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
The Immortal Woman by Su Chang
In the novel The Immortal Woman, Lemei's daughter, Lin, struggles finding her place as a Chinese immigrant while studying in America. At the same time, she is taken aback by her mother's increasing nationalism toward China — this shift is especially surprising considering her mother had once been a student Red Guard leader who had witnessed the atrocities of the Tiananmen Square protests. The Immortal Woman jumps back and forth in time, telling the stories of Lemei's childhood and adulthood in China, her hopes and dreams for Lin, and how Lin has different hopes for herself.
Su Chang is a Chinese Canadian writer born and raised in Shanghai. The Immortal Woman is her debut novel. Her writing has been recognized in numerous contests, including Prairie Fire's Short Fiction Contest, the Master Review's Novel Excerpt Contest and the Canadian Authors Association Toronto National Writing Contest, among the others.
The World So Wide by Zilla Jones
The World So Wide tells the story of Felicity Alexander, a mixed-race opera star, who spends her life chasing love and validation and finds herself caught up in the military coup during the 1983 Grenada revolution and is placed under house arrest. What unfolds next is a saga that spans decades and reflects on race, love, belonging and revolution.
Zilla Jones is a Winnipeg author and has been a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize on four occasions, and the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2024. She's also won many literary awards including the Journey Prize, the Malahat Review Open Season Award, the Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction and the FreeFall short fiction award.
The Unweaving by Cheryl Parisien
The Unweaving tells the story of one Métis family in 1869 as surveyors arrive in Red River to negotiate joining Confederation. Each member of the family reacts in their own way, but all are hoping to protect their way of life in one way or another.
Cheryl Parisien is a Winnipeg-based Red River Métis writer. The Unweaving is her first novel, which is loosely based on her own family's history.
A Different Hurricane by H. Nigel Thomas
A Different Hurricane, is on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and in Montreal. It's about two young men, Gordon and Allen, who become secret lovers until 1960s society forces them apart. After returning home from studying in Canada, Gordon's wife's journal threatens to expose his affair — putting his and Allen's lives in danger — and they must do everything in their power to keep it under wraps.
H. Nigel Thomas is a Montreal-based Vincentian Canadian writer. He is the author of 13 books that span the genres of fiction, poetry and literary criticism. He has won many awards, including the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize in 2022, the Jackie Robinson Professional of the Year Award, the l'Université Laval's Hommage aux créateurs Award and the Black Theatre Workshop's Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award.
