I don’t think it’s any coincidence that many of the historical fiction new releases this February feature incredible stories about Black history just in time for African American History Month in the US. Five of the eight books I’ve highlighted center African American history, from pre-Civil War America to the Harlem Renaissance and early Civil Rights movements. Now there are
Punished by Ann-Helén Laestadius
Release date: Feb 4, 2025
When they were children, Else-Maj, Anne-Risten, Nilsa, and Jon-Ante were taken from their homes in the Arctic and forced to attend a government-run boarding school in Sweden. Forbidden from speaking their native language and practicing Sámi traditions, the children are all but forcibly assimilated by their school and its abusive housemother. Now, years later, they’ve each found different ways to cope with the traumatic experiences of their early years. But when their aging housemother returns, unrepentant, they’ll have to decide whether to dole out the punishment she so rightly deserves, even if it means facing the consequences.
Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher MurrayRelease date: Feb 4, 2025 The woman who discovered Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen and helped usher in the Harlem Renaissance isn’t as well known as W.E.B. Du Bois, but she should be. Jessie Redmon Fauset, literary editor of The Crisis under Du Bois, helped the magazine thrive, finding now-renowned writers and increasing subscriptions until the magazine was synonymous with excellence in African American writing. She dreamed of becoming editor of the magazine, but her complicated relationship with Du Bois, her boss and lover, risked everything she hoped for both herself and The Crisis. |
Let Us March On by Shara MoonRelease date: Feb 4, 2025 When Lizzie McDuffie joined her husband at the White House working for Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, she started as a maid but soon made herself indispensable as the self-proclaimed “Secretary-On-Colored-People’s-Affairs.” Though many people have never heard the name Lizzie McDuffie, she was an important activist and an instrumental part of FDR’s presidency. This is her story. |
Red Clay by Charles B. FancherRelease date: Feb 4, 2025 Red Clay is an epic spanning generations of a Black family and the interwoven lives of the white family who enslaved them, from the Civil War to Reconstruction and Jim Crow. When Adelaide Parker shows up in 1943 after the funeral of Felix H. Parker, a man who shares her name but not her lineage, the family doesn’t quite know what to think. Her family once owned his, and now they’re going to fill in the gaps in their stories. |
The Sable Cloak by Gail Milissa GrantRelease date: Feb 4, 2025 In this story about an upper-middle-class African American family in the 1940s, a husband and wife running a well-regarded funeral home find their lives upended by tragedy. But it’s how they choose to face that tragedy, and its consequences, that changes everything. Grant draws on her own family history to paint a portrait of pre-Civil Rights era St. Louis and the rich community of African Americans in Missouri. |
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-SmithRelease date: Feb 4, 2025 Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, author of Glassworks, illuminates the inner workings of a lavender marriage between an ambitious young woman and a middle manager at a soap company. Vivian intends to mold Oscar into the man she wants him to be and that means rising above his middle management position, teaming up with the scion of a wealthy American family, and founding Clancey & Schmidt, their very own soap and perfume manufacturer. But when the truth about the relationship between Oscar and Squire Clancey threatens to topple their empire, they’ll have to decide what exactly they’re willing to lose in the name of power and love. |
Junie by Erin Crosby EckstineRelease date: Feb 4, 2025 Junie has been enslaved on Bellereine Plantation since birth, but when she learns that the master’s daughter may soon marry, she commits a desperate act that raises the spirit of her dead older sister, Minnie. Along with the help of the coachman, she attempts to free her sister’s tethers to this world. But she soon realizes that Bellereine is harboring darker truths than even Junie was willing to admit. |
Fagin the Thief by Allison EpsteinRelease date: Feb 25, 2025 Allison Epstein crafts an origin story for the infamous Dickensian character in Fagin the Thief. Jacob Fagin was born in a Jewish enclave in East London shortly after his father was executed as a thief. He and his mother, Leah, eked out the best life they could together. But when a pickpocket shows Jacob a means of making more money than he could ever hope to come by honestly, the course of his life changes. His found family grows, but then one of the teenagers he takes under his wing endangers everyone, and he’ll have to decide what kind of man he truly wants to be. |
It’s February now, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to enjoy January’s historical fiction new releases. Or, if you’d rather look ahead, consider preordering or placing a library hold on some of my most anticipated historical fiction books of 2025.
