Italy flag Historical fiction books from Italy

Recommended historical fiction books (16)
Travel the world without leaving your chair. If you are into historical fiction here are some historical fiction books from Italy for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.

11.

The Betrothed : I Promessi Sposi by Alessandro Manzoni EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
“The great plague novel.” —The New Yorker Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant Don Rodrigo, who desires Lucia for himself. Forced to flee, they are then cruelly separated, and must face many dangers including plague, famine and imprisonment, and confront a variety of strange characters—the mysterious Nun of Monza, the fiery Father Cristoforo and the sinister "Unnamed"—in their struggle to be reunited. A vigorous portrayal of enduring passion, The Betrothed... continue


13.

The Chimera by Sebastiano Vassalli EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
Offering a study of hypocrisy and evil, a comic novel of religious corruption and witchcraft in seventeenth-century Italy chronicles the fate of a young orphan named Antonia, who is burned at the stake in the town of Novara in 1610.

14.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco EN

Rating: 5 (15 votes)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
In 1327, Brother William of Baskerville is sent to investigate charges of heresy against Franciscan monks at a wealthy Italian abbey but finds his mission overshadowed by seven bizarre murders.

15.

The Seamstress of Sardinia by Bianca Pitzorno EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
An immersive and vividly written historical novel for anyone who loved Ferrante's Neapolitan novels or Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.

16.

The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
Against the backdrop of a Naples that is as seductive as it is perilous and a world undergoing epochal change, this story of a lifelong friendship is told with unmatched honesty. Lila and Elena clash, drift apart, reconcile, and clash again, in the process revealing new facets of their friendship.