r/suggestmeabook • u/lacy-pearl • 11h ago
Historical Fiction Books set over a long period of time
hello! i've recently been getting into more historical fiction, and I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for books (set in history) that cover a long period of time or multiple generations, and explore the change and transformation that happens in that time
books in this category I've enjoyed:
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen (my gold standard for this type of story)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (though less so, it captures a similar atmosphere)
I assume something like Dune would be similar, though I haven't read it yet (and I would prefer if it wasn't sci-fi, though fantasy is welcomed)
thank you!!
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u/NuancedBoulder 10h ago
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Simply brilliant.
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u/sai_gunslinger 9h ago
Ken Follett is great for this exact thing.
The Century Trilogy follows multiple families through the leadup to WWI and through the aftermath of WWII.
The Kingsbridge series follows multiple generations of families in medieval England.
Both were great reads.
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u/Fred_the_skeleton 8h ago
The Century Trilogy is my absolute favorite!
Didn't care for the Kingsbridge series very much though (not my time period of interest, I guess).
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u/Careless-Patient9380 6h ago
I loved both of these series! I did the century series in audiobook. It was great!
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u/BadDentalWork 2h ago
Honorable mention for Pillars of the Earth, also an amazing set. Long days and pleasant nights, sai
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u/judicial51 8h ago
North Woods
Cloud Atlas
Pachinko
Timeline not quite as expansive but East of Eden is the greatest novel ever written
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u/No_Device9450 10h ago
Ha, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas is creatively set over several millennia, I think. Very unique narrative structure.
I’d say the same for Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land.
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u/Subliminal_Kiddo 10h ago
If SFF is alright, Woolf's Orlando is set over the course of 400 years. The core theme is the exploration of change both at personal and macro level. It's only focused one continuous character, but that character contains multitude of selves as they change and evolve with the passing of time. Woolf manages something unique, she creates a paradox where Orlando changes (both outwardly and inwardly) while some how keeping these difference selves inline with the soul we meet at the start of the novel. Orlando never stagnates but they never betray their true self.
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u/Bad-River 10h ago
100 years of Solitude. The names get confusing but spans generations
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u/TrumperineumBait 5h ago
There’s magical realism and while it references actual history, it’s not grounded in reality. Treat it more as a fairy tale than a historical novel.
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u/JediRhyno 10h ago
I’d check out pillars of the earth and the other 5 books in the kingsbridge series. It follows people all all in a town in England. Each book is a different timeframe (dark ages, medieval, renaissance, etc) and shows how the city and families involved change.
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u/red_034 9h ago
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is fantastic, spanning roughly 250 years of history. What amazes me most is how Gyasi manages to introduce so many protagonists across multiple generations, making each one compelling enough to carry a book of their own. It’s an incredible achievement to create so many memorable characters and tell their stories in a way that feels meaningful within the larger narrative. I highly recommend this one.
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u/Tennis_Nut247 11h ago
London by Edward Rutherford
He also wrote one called Sarum
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u/vikinxo 8h ago edited 7h ago
I've read it. The family-lines the that are being told about starts in Londinium / Roman times and goes all the way up to our days.
With some centuries leaps in time, hear and there.
All the things that happened on and around the London Bridge are extremely interesting.
Also cool to get to know the origins of the names of different parts of the city.
A terrific read. About 1100 pages
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u/imalwayscar1 10h ago
North Woods by Daniel Mason would be amazing for this! It is set over hundreds of years from the point of view of different things happening around a house in the woods. It's so good!
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u/hrviolation 10h ago
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is beautiful and follows two different generations from a missionary family in the Congo during a challenging period in history.
Previously recommended, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is simply phenomenal, multi-generational story of a Korean family experiencing so many challenges throughout the 20th century.
Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali is just one generation but highlights different experiences of women growing up in Iran.
Horse by Geraldine Brooks explores two different time periods in one novel which was really beautiful.
East of Eden is a classic for a reason!
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u/ScarletSpire 11h ago
If you're okay with sci-fi, check out Children of Time or The Years of Rice and Salt.
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u/Complex-Safety-2389 11h ago
Yeah children of time is definitely set over a long period time haha, very long.
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u/LongjumpingJaguar308 1h ago
Even though its Kim Stanley Robinson, I wouldn't even call The Years of Rice and Salt sci fi!
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u/janetlwil 9h ago
The North and South Trilogy by John Jakes might be of interest. It takes place before, during, and after the Civil War. He also wrote the Kent Family Chronicles. Might consider those.
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u/Former-Chocolate-793 9h ago
Louis L'amour's Sackett series starts in England and rapidly moves into the old west. Can't speak to historical accuracy.
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u/MacfromPredator 9h ago
There’s a Jeffrey archer series of seven books that is highly rated. Set over different families/multiple generations. I forget the name.
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u/sqplanetarium 9h ago
If you're up for a graphic novel, Here by Richard McGuire explores thousands of years of life on one specific spot. Meditative and beautiful.
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u/Kinderventure 8h ago
I love Amor Towles. Have you tried Lincoln Highway? That's good too. Also The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah or The Women. Both good historical fiction in my view. I learned a lot anyway!
And Pachinko as others have said is ace.
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u/sullivnc 6h ago
Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, as well as the sequels. We're going on an adventure!
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u/Dazzling_Suspect_239 10h ago
ope, deleted because it's definitely not historical fiction what with the return of magic to England and all (though it does take place in the Napoleonic War!)
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u/Oaktown300 5h ago
Which book were you going to recommend? (for the benefit of those of us who do read fantasy.)
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u/Dazzling_Suspect_239 5h ago
yeah sorry that’s kind of annoying right? Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke. It takes place over years with huge amounts of social change and character growth. It’s the one novel that’s really made me feel like actual time was passing for the characters instead of just story progression.
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u/Plus-Season-272 9h ago
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee if you’re looking for lit fic/multigeneratial sagas. For sci fi, the Ender’s Game series, of three body problem. I highly recommend three body problem it’s my favorite sci fi series of all time and im pretty sure it happens over the longest time period of any other series lol
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u/BrosephZeusThe2nd 9h ago
Power Of The Dog trilogy is loosely based pn reality and covers the war on the Mexican cartels and the cartel wars themselves. It covers multiple generations on both the cartel and agent side. Not sure if this would qualify for you but deserves a shout.
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u/douxsoumis 9h ago
Jerusalem by Alan Moore
Starts about 1000BC and goes into the heat death of the universe.
Set in Northampton.
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u/hundredpercentpears 8h ago
It's fantasy but I think you'll like of based on your examples and it's really good: The Long Price quartet by Daniel Abraham
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u/Ambitious_Soil_5666 8h ago
100 years of solitude is already mentioned but I'll second that. I'd also suggest the Pyatt series (trilogy?) by Michael Moorcock. The protagonist is born 1/1/1901 and while not really multiple generations it spans the whole 20th century...
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u/GlobalAfternoon5437 8h ago
If you're in the mood for an old classic, The Fall of the King by Johannes V. Jensen follows the life of a man in medieval Denmark from the late 15th century to mid-16th century. The book is all about the concept of 'the fall', how time, doubt, and indecision causes decay and corruption in both nations and individuals.
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u/nom-d-pixel 8h ago
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi follows two lines of a family over centuries and makes you care about everyone in it.
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u/ScaryAd7384 7h ago
Neither are as expansive but I'd recommend Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen and The Thousand Autumna of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell may be up your alley.
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u/swhissell 7h ago
The “A Dream Of Eagles” series by Jack Whyte is excellent! Based around the fall of the Roman Empire, the creation of Britain, and the rise of King Arthur. A truly fantastic series spanning multiple generations.
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u/ratbastid 7h ago
Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson covers about 700 years of alternate-history.
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u/Oaktown300 5h ago
I recommend this one too. Also his Mars trilogy: Red Mars, Greem Mars, Blue Mars.
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u/thelaser69 7h ago
Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun. Won the Nobel Prize in 1920. Guy starts a farm in the middle of nowhere. Takes place over a pretty long time frame, several decades.
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u/JustinSensei412 7h ago
Not a huge time span, but The World and All It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon has that sweeping, epic feel.
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u/AppropriateDust6054 7h ago
Mosaic is amazing. It’s an older book that starts in Russia I think, with a large Jewish family. It then follows the family members through wars, the holocaust and eventually into the 1990s. I loved it.
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u/thusnewmexico 7h ago
Two of my favorite books: Poisonwood Bible by B Kingsolver and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.
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u/Healthy-Nature-4022 4h ago
Came here to also recommend Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I could've kept reading that book forever. It follows three generations of a family impacted by a recessive gene.
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u/TheRestIsMemory 7h ago
The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner takes place over more than a century in a medieval convent. It's not a proselytizing book: Townsend is very interested in all the social tensions that a community like that creates/must survive, and she captures the pettiness of people in a very dryly funny way at times.
Maggie O'Farrell's Land focuses on one family, over the course of some decades, but she also connects it backwards over centuries to other people who lived in that place and other events that happened.
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u/mamacrocker 6h ago
Out of the Wilderness and subsequent books by Sara Donati has multiple generations, and it's a beautiful story set during the founding of America.
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u/CouldBeBetterForever 6h ago
It's 13 books, so no small commitment, but The Saxon Tales (adapted into the show The Last Kingdom) cover about 60 to 70 years.
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u/Lady-of-The-Manor 5h ago
Anything by Kate Morton. She has only written 6 so far but they are all excellent!
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u/Flaxscript42 5h ago
He's a sci-fi writer, but Alistair Retnolds is a all about this.
In all his books faster than light travel is impossible, but his characters are traveling at relativistic speed (.9999C).
In the Revalation Space trilogy, our characters spend months (to them) flying around, but centuries are passing outside the ship.
House of Suns takes it even further. That novel plays out over hundreds of millions of years.
I love it because it demonstrates fo deep-space and deep-time are so connected.
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u/hailstonemind 5h ago
As already mentioned, anything by Edward Rutherford.
I’m currently reading The Forest (set in England’s New Forest), and it fits your search criteria exactly: historical fiction, narrative spanning 1,000 years, each chapter a vignette of a family in the area. Charming.
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u/Miskalsace 5h ago
Evolution by Stephen Baxter. It is a series of vignettes about different species at certain times in Earth's history from dinosaurs to the far future.
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u/gatorchrissy 5h ago
Thorn Birds, I know it's a throw back, but I loved this book so much I named my daughter after the main character.
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u/HumanXeroxMachine 5h ago
I recently enjoyed Darkenbloom by Eva Menasse. It's a sweeping multi-generational novel about a small town in Austria. Lots of scandal, twists and turns, a good read!
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u/International_Week60 4h ago
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See is mind blowing. It pulls you in
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u/RodolfoSeamonkey 3h ago
I'm enjoying the Bobiverse books at the moment. The protagonist(s?) is immortal and bopping through space getting into all sorts of hijinks. Large gaps of time (years) are sped past in a single chapter because to the immortal protagonist, a few years is like the blink of an eye.
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u/JackCustHOFer 2h ago
Was coming to recommend Michener. I read a bunch of them when I was in the Peace Corps, Alaska and Hawaii were both standouts to me. They sure are long, though.
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u/haileyskydiamonds 2h ago
Most of these are one or two generations but span the lifetimes of the characters.
Classics
East of Eden
Les Miserables
War and Peace
David Copperfield
Kristin Lavransdatter
The Count of Monte Cristo
Modern
Cloud Atlas
The Cider House Rules
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The World According to Garp
The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood
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u/Pretend-Upstairs-789 1h ago
Steven Taylor - Roma
3 books following 1 family through the history of Rome from founding to fall
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u/BalsamicBasil 58m ago
The Neapolitan Novels aka The Neapolitan Quartet
- My Brilliant Friend
- The Story of a New Name
- Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
- The Story of the Lost Child
Based in Naples, Italy, the Neapolitan Novels follow the friendship of a lifetime, from childhood in the post-war poverty of the 1940s/50s all the way to I think early 2000s. The book series is an intimate portrait of an intense relationship and a social-political portrait of life in Naples throughout history through the perspective of the working class, with themes of class/labor struggle (perhaps the most interesting theme in the book) gender struggle (and it's intersection with class/poverty), fascism and activism, and academia/education.
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u/here_and_there_their 12m ago
-The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Lisa See
-Isola, Allegra Goodman
-Rules of Civility, Amor Towles
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u/ReddisaurusRex 11h ago
Anything by James Michener or Edward Rutherford