Books by Graeme Macrae Burnet

Epistolary novels are told through the form of written correspondence between characters, or sometimes by way of diary entries or fictional documents. Though there were earlier examples, the epistolary novel took off as a form in the 18th century and remains very popular for its immediacy and sense of realism. We’ve put together a selection of  epistolary novels—notable for their literary significance or their evergreen popularity—many of which have previously been recommended by our expert interviewees.

Every year, the judges for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction make a shortlist of the best new historical novels published over the previous twelve months. We spoke to Katharine Grant, prize judge and highly acclaimed author, about the five books that made the 2026 shortlist—from a “haunting and haunted” tale of triple murder on a Scottish island to a “gloriously told” reimagining of real-life intrigue during England’s Wars of the Roses.