Books by William Vollmann

“Vollmann yokes together a grand mythological retelling of various myths across the pan-Arctic world, plus the history of the failed settlement, plus his own experiences of what it’s like to be in those regions now. The whole thing is mesmerising, in the way he switches between material that he takes from the historical or quasi-historical Norse sagas and his vision of the underworld, which is absolutely terrifying when Freydis goes into it, and also the ice and glaciers of the real world.” Read more...

The Best Norse Mythology Books

Carolyne Larrington, Literary Scholar

“This novel is about the Nez Perce War, part of the Indian Wars…The novel dramatizes two sides: the American army, who we follow through their campaigns, and the Native American people. If you look at the American army, you see the psychology of the men and of the people as a unit has utterly changed since the Civil War. When more than 600,000 of your countrymen have died—we’re still dealing with that now, and for that to have happened within a decade, the psychologies of people have been immensely affected…If you’re looking for a novel that gives you historical fiction at its most minute and forensic then you should read The Dying Grass.“ Read more...

The Best Novels about the History of the United States

Bernard T. Joy, Literary Scholar