Discovering History Through Fiction: My Current Reads
It’s been a while since I last wrote a Medium article — 80 days to be precise. Playing around with a few ideas, the true challenge has been overcoming procrastination and finding the will to sit down and write. Yet, here I am, after a sleepless, anxiety-riddled night, and a shocking sixteen books behind on my Goodreads challenge.
One aspect of novels that I cherish is the chance to explore lives set in times unlike my own. Whether imagining Kerala through the pages of Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water or delving into the life of a princess in Renaissance Italy in Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, each story enriches my sense of empathy and understanding. And that’s the thing about reading these works. Over time you recognize patterns in human behavior and the cyclical nature of empires and civilizations. Ok I realize I went a little meta there.
My current reads are steeped in historical fiction. The first, Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro, a dark fantasy set in Victorian era. It tells the tale of children with special gifts — known as talents — who are being hunted by an entity from another dimension.
Margaret Harrogate arrived in London in the thick of the pea-souper, the fog dense and brown and choking. Miss Quicker was with her. Their hansom crawled through the streets, blind, it’s…
