Reading Reflections June 23- Historical Fiction (or history in fiction, if you prefer)

One of my favorite aspects of reading fiction is learning about history through a character's lense. History textbooks are often drab, and nonfiction, while informative, is designed to teach rather than to engage. But strong works of fiction that can captivate my attention while giving me a history lesson make are even more well-rounded than simply stories themselves.

I recently read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. Set in post-independence Nigeria throughout the Nigerian Civil War, the novel explores the intertwined narratives of Ugwu, a young boy from a village, Olanna, the daughter of a well-off Nigerian businessman, and Richard, a British expatriate in Nigeria writing a novel. Adichie educated me on the three major Nigerian ethnic groups, causes of the war, and historical impact without drawing away from the narrative.

The novel uses each character's experience to educate readers about different aspects of the war. Ugwu takes us into the lives of young men plucked off the streets to become child soldiers. Olanna journeys to the north for the Hausa ethnic group's point of view. Richard narrates his account of the Biafran movement for independence from Nigeria. I was immersed in the beautiful character-driven narrative, which helped me understand each character on an emotional level. But it was history coming to life on the pages that really drew me in, leaving me much more knowledgeable than I was before.

This isn't the first time I've walked away from a novel with a history lesson. Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns taught me about the Soviet-Afghan War through the lense of characters who actually went through it. Hosseini's works serve as additional examples of strong, character-driven narratives that delve into historical events without boring, textbook explanations. And when the same Soviet-Afghan war popped up in a novel I recently read (Shantaram, for those following my reading list), I could easily immerse myself in the characters' world, deepening my understanding of the story.

People tend to think of historical fiction as stories where the history is critical to the story (think A Tale of Two Cities or The Grapes of Wrath). I would argue that historical fiction encompasses history in fiction–works whose setting includes historical events but doesn't necessarily rely on them. In Adichie and Hosseini's novels, the authors could've easily kept the same themes and crafted the same narratives without the respective wars influencing certain character decisions or plot events. But without a grounding in their specific times and places, without the inclusion of the social and political forces that shaped the time periods, the narratives wouldn't have been nearly as impactful or moving.

In my eyes, fiction is one of the greatest teachers of history. If you're looking to learn about a certain point in time, I highly recommend reading a novel or memoir that takes place during it. I'll leave you with a few examples below, in addition to the ones I've already mentioned.

• Slavery in the United States: Roots by Alex Haley

• The American Civil War: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

• World War I: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

• World War II: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

• The American Civil Rights Movement: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

• The Sierra Leone Civil War: A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah*

• The Kashmir Hindu Exodus: Our Moon Has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita*

*Narrative memoirs