We recommend six terrific works of historical fiction inspired by real-life events that give readers insight into the past – and prompts us to question how it shapes our present and future.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

When Elwood Curtis arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide ‘physical, intellectual and moral training’ which will equip its inmates to become ‘honourable and honest men’, he is shocked to find the true nature of the school is cruel and vicious. Based on the history of a real reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and destroyed the lives of thousands of children, this devastating novel earned author Colson Whitehead his second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction earlier this year.

The White Girl by Tony Birch

Odette has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. But when a new policeman arrives in town, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy. With this work, Tony Birch takes readers back to the 1960s and shines a spotlight on the devastating government policy of taking Indigenous children from their families.

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

Hà Nội, 1972. Hương and her grandmother, Trần Diệu Lan, cling to one another in their improvised shelter as American bombs fall around them. Her father and mother have already left to fight in a war that is tearing not just her country but her family apart. For Trần Diệu Lan, forced to flee the family farm with her six children decades earlier as the Communist government rose to power in the North, this experience is distressingly familiar. Set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War, The Mountains Sing is the stunning English language debut of Vietnamese poet Nguyen Phan Que Mai and draws from her interviews with real people about their experiences of this time.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar

In this acclaimed work, Shokoofeh Azar employs the lyrical magic realism style of classical Persian storytelling to reimagine the 1979 Islamic revolution and its aftermath. The novel is narrated by the ghost of Bahar, a thirteen-year-old girl, whose family is compelled to flee their home in Tehran for a new life in a small village. They hope to preserve their intellectual freedom and their lives, but soon find themselves caught up in the post-revolutionary chaos that sweeps across their ancient land and its people. Shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree speaks of the power of imagination when confronted with horror.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdich

Thomas is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill that is soon to be put before Congress – a bill that threatens the rights of Native Americans. Patrice works at the factory, earning barely enough to support her mother and brother, let alone her alcoholic father who sometimes returns home. But Patrice needs every penny to get if she’s ever going to get to Minnesota to find her missing sister Vera. Louise Erdrich took inspiration from her grandfather’s own efforts to stop the US government from further taking away Native American land in the 50s in crafting this enthralling, kaleidoscopic novel.

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

In 1991, three young African-American teens – Shawn, Ray and Ava – set out across LA to a screening of New Jack City. But they never make it inside the cinema. Nearly three decades later, Shawn tries to ease Ray, fresh out of prison, back into everyday life. Across the country, Grace, a Korean-American pharmacist living and working with her parents, tries to figure out why her older sister still refuses to speak with their mother. Then a shocking new crime strikes the city and the lives of Grace and Shawn are set on a collision cause. While Steph Cha’s novel is fictional, it was inspired by the real-life fatal shooting of Latasha Harlins in the year preceding the 1992 Los Angeles riots.