Historical Fiction Books About Resilience & Survival

Imagine waking up one morning to discover there is a wall separating your city. Now imagine that your sick baby is in hospital on the other side of that wall. It’s like the beginning of a parent’s worst nightmare. This is the starting point for this powerful, poignant and courageous debut novel.

Moving between the months following the construction of the Berlin Wall and the end of World War II, we watch the characters as they try to survive in the darkest of times. And what makes this book all the more harrowing is that the things that happen on these pages are taken from real moments in history. A mesmerising debut that you won’t forget.

This compelling story blends fact with fiction, reimagining the story of a group of needlewomen who made the Rajah Quilt.

London, 1841. The Rajah embarks on a long and arduous voyage from London to Australia with almost two hundred female convicts on board. Their life on board is bleak and they have no one but each other, and their needlework. Until someone is found murdered and everyone is a suspect.

Moving between past and present, the story is narrated by three compelling women - Kezia, Clara and Hattie - who offer us an insight into the minds of the convicts. We learn that their crimes were committed out of desperation and a need to survive and follow as they not only try to survive their perilous voyage, but the killer who is also on board. 

Beautifully written, Songbirds explores the world of migrant and transient workers, showing why they leave behind their families and travel thousands of miles to work for people who mistreat and abuse them in a desperate effort to survive.

These are people who are unseen and unheard, but with this story Christy Lefteri gives a voice to the voiceless. It follows Nisha, who left her home to try and give her child a better future and now spends her days caring for Petra’s child. Then one day she vanishes. The authorities refuse to search for her so it’s up to Petra and her secret lover, Yiannis, to try and find her.

Harrowing, heartbreaking and powerful, this story will move you, anger you, and hopefully spark a greater understanding for those whose story it tells.

I’ve always been fascinated by the Titanic, so I knew this was going to be one I’d love.

It follows Elinor, a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage. When her father gifts Elinor and her family tickets on the Titanic’s maiden voyage, she sees it as a welcome escape and a chance to finally spend time with her son, Teddy. When the iceberg hits, Elinor and Teddy make it into a lifeboat, but her father, husband and their maid perish in the icy sea. 

Faced with losing her son if she goes back home, Elinor seizes the chance to start a new life in America, taking on her maid’s identity to start again. Powerful and uplifting, this is a story of courage, resilience, survival and taking chances that you don’t want to miss.

I couldn’t write a list of stories of survival without including at least one Holocaust story. And the first to come to mind was this poignant read.

Lale is one of the Jewish men in his village ordered to go to work at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He soon realizes that certain positions mean privileges that help you survive, and soon he is the apprentice of Pepan, the Tätowierer. He now has greater protection, a bed to himself and more food. But Lale doesn’t only try to survive himself, he helps others, sharing his food and smuggling in items to help others live.

This story is a stark reminder of the horrors experienced by prisoners of the camps, but also of their ferocious will to survive and the ways they found happiness, friendship and even love in the most dark and barbaric of circumstances. 

Mercy makes her dramatic entrance into the world on a freezing Winter’s day in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1962. Life in Mercy’s large family is chaotic and she misses the calm solace of her mother’s womb. As she gets older, books offer Mercy an escape from her father’s violent outbursts and the taunting from siblings who don’t understand her. But as life at home becomes increasingly dangerous, Mercy realizes she must make a stand and finally make herself heard to give herself the chance of a better future.

After reading this book it’s easy to see why its author was named one of the best new novelists for 2025 by The Observer. Powerful, heart-wrenching, tender and witty, it lingers long after reading and Mercy will always have a place in my heart.