Reading the Past: The latest trend in historical fiction: the 1960s

Has everyone come around to the realization that novels written now and set in the ’60s are considered historical fiction?  Even more, this tumultuous era is the hottest thing in the genre, with themes zeroing in on civil rights, the counterculture movement, women’s empowerment in the workplace and at home, and the Vietnam War.  One of my guest contributors had called this, over a decade ago, and if you haven’t read Richard Sharp’s engaging essay “The Sixties: The New Frontier for Historical Fiction,” I think you’ll find it rings just as true today.  “There are many shelves to fill,” he wrote (in 2014) about the scarcity of fiction that grappled with the complexity of the era. Now, it seems, an increasing number of authors are beginning to do so, recreating the fabric of the times for readers who didn’t live through it (as well as those who did).  The fourteen novels below focus on women’s experiences, generally speaking. Needless to say, many social issues from the ’60s are still very relevant.

In 1965, a cast of suburban women struggles with complex personal and family issues, with unexpected changes arising after a pregnant teen moves in with a Jewish couple and their family, in order to help out after they learn they’re expecting a second child.  Harper, June 2025.

Friendship, jealousy, competition, and betrayal form the backdrop to the complicated relationship between two female writers in the star-studded atmosphere of 1960s Los Angeles.  Berkley, August 2025.

Members of book club for suburban housewives in early ’60s Virginia awaken to the empowering possibilities of feminism after reading and sharing thoughts about Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking and controversial new book, The Feminine Mystique. Harper Muse, April 2025.

After Ruth Feldman overstays her welcome at her daughter-in-law’s home, the two women, both widows grieving their late husbands, struggle to get along but may find a way of moving forward in quietly playing matchmaker for the other.  Gently humorous family-centered fiction set in 1963.  Lake Union, August 2025.

Summer by the water on sun-kissed Martha’s Vineyard: what could be more relaxing?  Not so much for a Columbia grad student who returns home at her mother’s request and uncovers old family secrets; a split-time novel (1965 and 1978). Gallery, July 2025.

Graham, a bestselling Canadian novelist, sets her latest novel in ’67 Toronto and overseas in Vietnam as two women living in the same apartment building deal with personal, political, and social turmoil in the city they call home. Simon & Schuster Canada, April 2025.

In this novel of survival and resilience, set in 1967, an independent young woman who can see ghosts returns to her long-estranged ancestral home in Arkansas, meets up with a Vietnam vet, and finds herself unexpectedly craving interpersonal connections. Kensington, March 2025.

A young college student in Jim Crow-era Georgia and her daughter, a professional woman in 1992 Chicago, decide what risks to take in the interest of racial justice.  William Morrow, February 2025.

In this dual-period family drama set in 1968 and the present day, a modern genealogical researcher looking into her mother’s family tree uncovers generations-old secrets in a small North Carolina town.  Lake Union, February 2025.

Doris Steele, a Black teenager in 1960s Georgia who’s shocked to realize she’s expecting a baby, travels to Atlanta with her former teacher for an abortion and has her eyes opened wide to experiences that would be considered scandalous back home.  Random House, June 2025.

Each of the six teenage girls in Wayward Girls was confined to the Good Shepherd Catholic reform school in 1968 Buffalo, New York, for different reasons, and forced to work in the institution’s laundry. Can they band together to pursue justice and set themselves free?  William Morrow, July 2025.