17 must-read historical fiction books like Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Cover of Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Let Us Descend

By: Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congres…

"You must leap. You must do as your people did. You must sink in order to rise."

-Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend

If you liked the historical fiction plot in Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward , here is a list of 17 books like this:

Cover of The Women by Kristin Hannah

1. The Women

By: Kristin Hannah

4.64

Format: 471 pages, Hardcover

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these wor… read more

Similar categories in Kristin Hannah's The Women book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Words were creators of worlds; you had to be careful with them."

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

"Love mattered in this ruined world, but so did honor. What was one without the other?"

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

"Love. A thing to be shouted from the rooftops, celebrated, not cultivated in secret and clipped into shape in the dark."

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

Cover of The Berry Pickers by Amanda    Peters

2. The Berry Pickers

By: Amanda Peters

4.14

Format: 307 pages, Hardcover

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mys… read more

Similar categories in Amanda Peters's The Berry Pickers book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Happiness Falls by Angie  Kim

3. Happiness Falls

By: Angie Kim

3.75

Format: 387 pages, Hardcover

When a father goes missing, his family's desperate search leads them to question everything they kn… read more

Similar categories in Angie Kim's Happiness Falls book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I lost a World - the other day! Has Anybody found? - Emily Dickinson, 1896"

-Angie Kim, Happiness Falls

Cover of The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

4. The Frozen River

By: Ariel Lawhon

4.43

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-cen… read more

Similar categories in Ariel Lawhon's The Frozen River book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

5. Tom Lake

By: Ann Patchett

3.99

Format: 309 pages, Hardcover

In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again prov… read more

Similar categories in Ann Patchett's Tom Lake book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"You can’t pretend this [Covid] isn’t happening,"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"In the summer the pear trees were fine. In the summer, all that is hideous about a pear tree is hidden by leaves and pears. But once those disguises were removed they were nothing but acres of murder…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"Hazel, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something important, you need to be brave.' I then explained to the dog how I have told myself for so many years that my career fell apart because I wasn't …"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cu…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

Cover of Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

6. Let Us Descend

By: Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congres… read more

Similar categories in Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • race
  • magical realism
  • historical
  • adult
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"You must leap. You must do as your people did. You must sink in order to rise."

-Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend

Cover of James by Percival Everett

7. James

By: Percival Everett

4.54

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of North Woods by Daniel       Mason

8. North Woods

By: Daniel Mason

4.15

Format: 372 pages, Hardcover

A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those … read more

Similar categories in Daniel Mason's North Woods book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James   McBride

9. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

4.00

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • adult
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

10. Wandering Stars

By: Tommy Orange

3.89

Format: 315 pages, Hardcover

The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tommy Orange’s breakout best seller There … read more

Similar categories in Tommy Orange's Wandering Stars book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"And in the year 1924 Indian citizenship will have been granted, even though they will mean to dissolve tribes by giving citizenship, dissolve being another word for disappearance, a kind of chemical …"

-Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars

Cover of Real Americans by Rachel Khong

11. Real Americans

By: Rachel Khong

4.04

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny?… read more

Similar categories in Rachel Khong's Real Americans book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"She wasn't normal and so I wasn't either. I resented that part the most."

-Rachel Khong, Real Americans

"It was a habit, with my parents: omitting information, not wanting to worry them unnecessarily. Though they’d raised me so American, I could never manage the sorts of American relationships my friend…"

-Rachel Khong, Real Americans

"With each other they spoke loudly: Their voices periodically rose to excited shouts, and they laughed raucously. In English they were milder mannered, polite. My mother had always spoken English to m…"

-Rachel Khong, Real Americans

Cover of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

12. Martyr!

By: Kaveh Akbar

4.24

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves… read more

Similar categories in Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Absolution by Alice McDermott

13. Absolution

By: Alice McDermott

3.81

Format: 324 pages, Hardcover

A riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War. In Saigon in 1963, two yo… read more

Similar categories in Alice McDermott's Absolution book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Fraud by Zadie Smith

14. The Fraud

By: Zadie Smith

3.30

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

The extraordinary first historical novel from bestselling author of White Teeth Zadie Smith It i… read more

Similar categories in Zadie Smith's The Fraud book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Eliza had long understood her cousin to be beyond the reach of editorial intervention."

-Zadie Smith, The Fraud

"What possesses people? Unhappiness, always. Happiness is otherwise occupied. It has an object on which to focus. It has daisies, it has snowdrifts. Unhappiness opens up the void, which then requires …"

-Zadie Smith, The Fraud

"I know this country well. Well enough to understand that justice takes time, and that the freedoms of a minority are rarely self-evident to the majority. What is perfectly selfevident to God is – unf…"

-Zadie Smith, The Fraud

"God preserve me from novel-writing, thought Mrs Touchet. God preserve me from that tragic indulgence, that useless vanity, that blindness! In a cold dormitory, two hundred miles away, three heartbrok…"

-Zadie Smith, The Fraud

Cover of The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez

15. The Great Divide

By: Cristina Henríquez

3.70

Format: 321 pages, Hardcover

An epic novel of the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived… read more

Similar categories in Cristina Henríquez's The Great Divide book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Ada had always believed that her mother, in rebuilding the house only three miles from where it had once been, had kept her world piteously small, but maybe what mattered, Ada thought as she gazed at…"

-Cristina Henríquez, The Great Divide

Cover of Wellness by Nathan  Hill

16. Wellness

By: Nathan Hill

4.00

Format: 611 pages, Hardcover

The New York Times best-selling author of The Nix is back with a poignant and witty novel about mar… read more

Similar categories in Nathan Hill's Wellness book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"It's an altogether manic and ceaseless conversation, a conversation that feels sometimes like falling down stairs, barely keeping upright, taken by gravity, skipping, grasping, and then somehow landi…"

-Nathan Hill, Wellness

"Behind curtains, this, he thinks, is what lovers do—they are alchemists and architects; pioneers and fabulists; they make one thing another; they invent the world around them. So he says, ‘Yes I beli…"

-Nathan Hill, Wellness

Cover of The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

17. The Vaster Wilds

By: Lauren Groff

3.77

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited g… read more

Similar categories in Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"For what is a girl but a vessel made to hold the desires of men."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"O put the memory away, girl, she told herself sternly. For the sorrow could eat you entire."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"And humans were not made to be always alone; humans survive only in the company of other humans."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"Against the resistance of other minds, one's thoughts are pulled out of their comfortable shapes, and true thinking begins."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

Cover of How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

18. How to Say Babylon

By: Safiya Sinclair

4.47

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s … read more

Similar categories in Safiya Sinclair's How to Say Babylon book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult
  • audiobook
"As I grew older, I knew I would never be his perfect Rasta daughter. I was too headstrong, too curious. Too much of myself, and not enough of him."

-Safiya Sinclair, How to Say Babylon

Cover of The Storm We Made by Vanessa  Chan

19. The Storm We Made

By: Vanessa Chan

3.87

Format: 339 pages, Hardcover

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781668015148. A novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unl… read more

Similar categories in Vanessa Chan's The Storm We Made book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xóchitl González

20. Anita de Monte Laughs Last

By: Xóchitl González

3.82

Format: 342 pages, Hardcover

New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-gener… read more

Similar categories in Xóchitl González's Anita de Monte Laughs Last book and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"we're all just here trying to get you to see your own light because it's strong enough to guide you."

-Xóchitl González, Anita de Monte Laughs Last

"You fall for someone, you get so into them your whole world shrinks, and suddenly barely have a life besides them."

-Xóchitl González, Anita de Monte Laughs Last

19 Best fiction books like Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Transform Your Habits

The Women

Kristin Hannah

4.64

Transform Your Habits

The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

4.14

Transform Your Habits

Happiness Falls

Angie Kim

3.75

Transform Your Habits

The Frozen River

Ariel Lawhon

4.43

View all the books

21 best-selling fiction books like Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

North Woods

Daniel Mason

4.15

Transform Your Habits

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange

3.89

Transform Your Habits

Real Americans

Rachel Khong

4.04

View all the books

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