Salt’s Top 10 Historical Fiction Titles to Read in 2026

by Chris Hamilton-Emery

Discover our definitive guide to the most anticipated historical novels of the year—from industrial epics to intimate Tudor dramas.

Are you looking for the best historical fiction of 2026? From the industrial soot of Victorian Manchester to the untamed wilderness of 1920s Appalachia, this year’s most anticipated stories explore the depths of human resilience. Whether you're a fan of Tudor intrigue, literary epics, or untold history, our definitive guide highlights the top 10 historical novels you need on your bookshelf this year.

For over a quarter of a century, Salt has been at the forefront of independent publishing, championing stories that are as intellectually rigorous as they are emotionally resonant. Each title on this list has been selected not just for its historical accuracy, but for its unique ‘Salt’ voice – a commitment to literary excellence and the uncovering of voices that history nearly forgot. From RSL Ondaatje Prize shortlists to dazzling debuts, these are the novels we believe will define the historical fiction landscape in 2026.

Birdeye by Judith Heneghan

Status: Now Available

One chilly April morning, a stranger named Conor arrives at a fading commune in the Catskill Mountains. Liv, the sixty-seven-year-old founder and cancer survivor, allows him to stay, unaware that her oldest friends are about to deliver a devastating announcement.

• The Story: A novel about tolerance, maternal courage, and the weight of choices made in good faith.

• Praise: Described as "luminous," "haunting," and reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout’s fiction.

• Details: 368pp | ISBN: 9781784633264

Elizabeth and Ruth by Livi Michael

Status: Coming Soon (February 9, 2026)

Based on real correspondence between Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens, this novel is set in 1849 Manchester. Gaskell attempts to rescue a young Irish prostitute from the New Bailey prison, navigating the hypocrisy and censorship of the era to tell the girl's story – a story that will eventually be banned and burned.

• The Story: A "social-realist horror tale" that captures a lost industrial world so vivid you can taste the air.

• Praise: "The best historical fiction brings the past in so close that it feels like a parallel present".

• Details: 304pp | ISBN: 9781784633684

The Catchers by Xan Brooks

Status: Now Available

Spring 1927. John Coughlin is a "song-catcher" scouring the Appalachian mountains and the Mississippi Delta for local musicians. He finds Moss Evans, a Black teenage guitarist running bootleg liquor through the floodwaters of the Mississippi.

• The Story: A picaresque odyssey dealing with capitalism, racism, and the grim realities of exploitation versus the power of music.

• Accolades: Shortlisted for the 2025 RSL Ondaatje Prize and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize.

• Details: 276pp | ISBN: 9781784633202

The Foreshore by Samantha York

Status: Now Available

Set on the remote Scottish island of Eilean Eòin in the early 18th century, a mysterious young woman is found washed up on the foreshore following a deadly storm. Flora McKinnon, an aging islander, and Thomas Murray, a rigid new reverend, form an uneasy alliance to uncover her identity amidst whispers of witchcraft.

• The Story: A debut novel that strikingly summons an isolated community defined by desolation, superstition, and deep-buried secrets.

• Praise: An "accomplished" debut with "flowing and elegant" writing.

• Details: 320pp | ISBN: 9781784633561

The Marriage Contract by Sasha Butler

Status: Now Available

In the summer of 1577, Eliza Litton is forced by her tyrannical father to marry a gentleman named Edmund after her childhood love, Francis, vanishes. While Edmund offers a life of safety and encourages her painting, a hidden deceit causes Eliza to question her own loyalties.

• The Story: A conviction of Tudor England that explores love’s many forms and a woman’s fight for autonomy.

• Recognition: Featured in the Cosmopolitan Book Awards 2025.

• Details: 336pp | ISBN: 9781784633608

The Night-Soil Men by Bill Broady

Status: Now Available

This sprawling generational tale covers four decades of socialist foment in Britain, detailing the origins of the Independent Labour Party in 1893. It follows three unforgettable characters – Fred Jowett, Philip Snowden, and Victor Grayson – through mill towns, parliament, and the interwar years.

• The Story: A "revolutionary, ribald and laugh-out-loud funny" exploration of the dichotomy between power and principle.

• Praise: "Broady takes ideas seriously but he makes those ideas dance".

• Details: 480pp | ISBN: 9781784633189

The Puffin by Michelle Lovric

Status: Coming Soon (October 8, 2026)

Venice, 1817. A revolutionary milliner, a fingerless nobleman, and a mysterious puffin are embroiled in a plot to ransom a Habsburg princess. This genre-defying epic fuses the politics of resistance with lyricism and "midnight-black humour".

• The Story: A tale of passion and resistance that welcomes back a memorable character from The Book of Human Skin.

• Praise: Lovric is noted for a "breadth and richness of imagination" quite unlike anything else around.

• Details: 480pp | ISBN: 9781784633936

The Tribe by Michael Arditti

Status: Coming Soon (March 11, 2026)

The Carraches are a powerful Sephardic dynasty in Salonica during the final days of the Ottoman Empire. After settling in France, the family is torn apart by the Nazi Occupation, only to have long-hidden secrets exposed decades later during the Eichmann trial.

• The Story: An enthralling epic that crosses cultures and continents to explore family, race, and nation.

• Praise: "A tremendous, ambitious novel, richly peopled... An enthralling epic" — William Boyd.

• Details: 576pp | ISBN: 9781784633646

Wash by Erica Wagner

Status: Coming Soon (May 18, 2026)

Washington Roebling is an engineer duty-bound to fulfill his brilliant, domineering father’s vision – the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. This intimate novel follows Wash from his brutal childhood in Pennsylvania through the Civil War to his partnership with his extraordinary wife, Emily.

• The Story: A book about the "road not taken" and the price of achievement, built from as many linked elements as the bridge itself.

• Praise: "Immersive, moving, intensely romantic... tells the hypnotic story of a man and a moment in history with intimate, engrossing precision".

• Details: 272pp | ISBN: 9781784634018

Chris Hamilton-Emery was born in 1963 in Manchester. He has published five collections of poetry, a writer ’s guide, an anthology of art and poems, and edited selections of Emily Brontë, Keats and Rossetti. His latest poetry collection, Wonder, is out now from Salt. He works in publishing and lives in Norfolk.