A good historical novel has the power to transport us back to a different time and make it seem as real and immediate as our present moment.
When it’s done well, a period piece shouldn’t feel like a textbook, or like an exercise in showing just how much research the author has accumulated (however impressive that might be). Instead, it breathes life into historical characters we might already be familiar with, or gives a voice to forgotten figures, making us see the era from a different perspective.
