Cal Flyn, Deputy Editor

Every year, we ask the chair of the National Book Critics Circle biography committee to talk us through their shortlist of the best new books in the genre. Here, Iris Jamahl Dunkle—the award-winning biographer, poet and critic—introduces us to the winning title, a deeply-researched profile of a special education pioneer, as well as the four runners-up.

To live and to write in South Africa is to engage with history, explains Karen Jennings, the acclaimed novelist and co-creator of the Island Prize for South African writers. Here, she recommends five historical fiction books set in South Africa for those who would like to improve their understanding of the country’s complex past.

World War II forced people of many nationalities into extraordinary circumstances, says Lori Inglis Hall—who works in the archives of WW2 photographer Lee Miller and whose new novel follows twins forced apart by conflict. Here, she recommends five of the best novels set during World War II, both historical fiction and novels written immediately after or during the war by eyewitnesses.

The best historical fiction should transport the reader directly into the past, yet offer insight that reflects upon the present, argues Emily Howes, whose new novel Mrs. Dickens will be released later this year. Here, she recommends five of her favourite historical novels that, like her own books, are drawn from true stories.

English-speaking readers are not always so familiar with the dramatic historical events of Central and South America, says Sofia Robleda—author of a new novel set during the Aztec empire, The Other Moctezuma Girls. But if you enjoy historical fiction with heart and soul, you are bound to love these five vibrant, “hugely relevant” novels set in Latin America.

‘Manifest Destiny’ was an idea brought forward in the United States in the 1830s as a rationalisation for western expansion. But it was always contested, argues Andrew Isenberg, Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Kansas, as he selects five history books that, together, offer insight into what the borderlands of the American West were really like.

Heroic explorer or harbinger of doom? The impact of Christopher Columbus has become the focus of intense debate—in both academia and the arena of popular opinion—in recent years. We asked noted scholar of colonial Latin American history Matthew Restall to recommend five of the best books that explore Columbus’s life and legacy.

The Victorian era—defined by its imperial ambition, strict moral and social codes, and flashes of brutality—serves as fertile ground for historical fiction, argues Virginia Feito, whose acclaimed new book Victorian Psycho satirises the hypocrisy of the age. Here, she recommends five boundary-pushing novels that expose the darker underbelly of a most mannered age.

Shakespeare’s plays and even his life have inspired many other writers over the years. Here, Sally O’Reilly, author of Hagtale: A Macbeth Origin Story, recommends five creative retellings of Shakespearean stories—from a brilliantly absurdist Tom Stoppard play to an elliptical short story by Jorge Luis Borges.

‘Afrofuturism’ is a term that has come to describe books about the Black experience through a speculative lens. We asked Eugen Bacon, the award-winning fantasy author and member of the Sauúti Collective—who, together, have created a shared fictional universe—to recommend five key Afrofuturist books.