Top Historical Fiction Series by Algorithm

Top 3

#1
Micheal D. O’Brien

The Island of the World

Island of the World is the story of a child born in 1933 into the turbulent world of the Balkans and tracing his life into the third millennium. The central character is Josip Lasta, the son of an impoverished school teacher in a remote village high in the mountains of the Bosnian interior. As the novel begins, World War II is underway and the entire region of Yugoslavia is torn by conflicting factions: German and Italian occupying armies, and the rebel forces that resist them—the fascist Ustashe, Serb nationalist Chetniks, and Communist Partisans…

#2
Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale

With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France—a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women…

#3
Wendell Berry

That Distant Land

Originally published in 2005, That Distant Land brings together twenty-three stories from the Port William Membership. Arranged in their fictional chronology, the book is not an anthology so much as it is a coherent temporal mapping of this landscape over time, revealing Berry’s mastery of decades of the life lived alongside this clutch of interrelated characters bound by affection and followed over generations.

Top 50

  1. Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry
  2. The Man Born to be King Dorothy Sayers
  3. The Green Mile Stephen King
  4. The Complete Short Novels Anton Chekhov
  5. Musashi Eiji Yoshikawa
  6. Homegoing Yaa Gyasi
  7. The Chestry Oak Kate Seredy
  8. The Saxon Warrior 1-3 Peter Gibbons
  9. Sweep Jonathan Auxier
  10. Roots Alex Haley
  11. Beneath a Scarlet Sky Mark Sullivan
  12. To Wake the Giant Jeff Shaara
  13. The Welsh Guard Mysteries 1-3 Sarah Woodbury
  14. Not by Sight John Bloom
  15. Viking Blood and Blade 1-3 Peter Gibbons
  16. We Were the Lucky Ones Georgia Hunter
  17. East of Eden John Steinbeck
  18. Lion of War 1-3 Cliff Graham
  19. Gates of Fire Steven Pressfield
  20. The Fall of the Phoenix Daniel Kelly
  21. The Henry Family 1-2 Herman Wouk
  22. Jayber Crow Wendell Berry
  23. Once an Eagle Anton Myrer
  24. The Book Thief Markus Zusak
  25. Long War 1-3 Christian Cameron
  26. Hannah Coulter Wendell Berry
  27. Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand
  28. Troy 1-3 David Gemmell
  29. Conquerer 1-3 Conn Iggulden
  30. Warlord Chronicles 1-3 Bernard Cornwell
  31. The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky
  32. Richard the Lionheart 1-3 Ben Kane
  33. Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories Agatha Christie
  34. Monte Walsh Jack Schaefer
  35. A Place on Earth Wendell Berry
  36. Schindler’s List Thomas Keneally
  37. The Complete Stories Dorothy L. Sayers
  38. Miss Marple Omnibus Volume 1 Agatha Christie
  39. A Soldier of the Great War Mark Helprin
  40. The Lords of Discipline Pat Conroy
  41. The Memory of Old Jack Wendell Berry
  42. 11/22/63 Stephen King
  43. The Bruce Trilogy Nigel Tranter
  44. Sir Gibbie George Macdonald
  45. The One Man Andrew Gross
  46. The Code of the Woosters P.G. Wodehouse
  47. The Killer Angels Michael Shaara
  48. All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr

Details on how the algorithm works