Historical Fiction: Roaring 20s

The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin

Of all the glamorous stars of New York high society, none blazes brighter than Babe Paley and her friends, the alluring socialite Swans. But beneath this elegantly composed exterior dwells a passionate woman, desperately longing for true love and connection. Enter Truman Capote. Through Babe, Truman gains unparalleled access to the scandal and gossip of Babe's powerful circle. Babe never imagines the destruction Truman will leave in his wake-- even when the stories aren't his to tell.

A Fine Imitation by Amber Brock

Enduring a life of lonely desperation in spite of her beauty, pedigree, and Park Avenue penthouse, Vera is drawn to a secretive French artist who is painting a mural in her coveted building, a relationship that reminds her about a talented forger from her past who nearly cost her everything.

The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis

1928. For the people who live in New York City, Grand Central Terminal is a crown jewel, a masterpiece of design. For Clara Darden, the terminal is the stepping stone to her future. She is teaching at the lauded Grand Central School of Art, and dreams of creating cover art for Vogue. She's juggling the affections of two very different men-- with no idea they'll soon be blindsided by the looming Great Depression. In 1974 the terminal is full of grime and danger, from the smoke-blackened ceiling to the drug dealers who roam the floor. Recently divorced, Virginia Clay has accepted a job in the information booth to support herself and her daughter. Discovering an abandoned watercolor within the terminal, Virginia embarks on a quest to find the artist.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

Z: a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

A tale inspired by the marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald follows their union in defiance of her father's opposition and her abandonment of the provincial finery of her upbringing in favor of a scandalous flapper identity that gains her entry into the literary party scenes of New York, Paris and the French Riviera.

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

The Jazz Palace by Mary Morris

In the midst of boomtown Chicago, two Jewish families have suffered terrible blows. The Lehrmans, who run a small hat factory, lost their beloved son Harold in a blizzard. The Chimbrovas, who run a saloon, lost three of their boys on the SS Eastland when it sank in 1915. Each family holds out hope that one of their remaining children will rise to carry on the family business. But Benny Lehrman has no interest in making hats. His true passion is piano--especially jazz. At night he sneaks down to the South Side, slipping into predominantly black clubs to hear jazz groups play. One night he is called out and asked to sit in on a group. His playing is first-rate, and the other musicians are impressed.

Jazz by Toni Morrison

In Harlem, 1926, Joe Trace, a door-to-door salemsan in his fifties, kills his teenage lover. At the funeral, his wife Violet slashes the dead girl's face and then desperately searches to find why Joe was unfaithful. The profound love story is immersed in the sights and sounds of Black urban life during the Jazz Age.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill

Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1914. Before long, their talents emerge: Pierrot is a piano prodigy; Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routines, the children fall in love with each other and dream up a plan for the most extraordinary and seductive circus show the world has ever seen. Separated as teenagers, sent off to work as servants during the Great Depression, both descend into the city's underworld, dabbling in sex, drugs and theft in order to survive. But when Rose and Pierrot finally reunite beneath the snowflakes the possibilities of their childhood dreams are renewed, and they'll go to extreme lengths to make them come true.

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

Working as a typist for the NYC Police Department in 1923, Rose Baker documents confessions of harrowing crimes and struggles with changing gender roles while clinging to her Victorian ideals and searching for nurturing companionship before becoming obsessed with a glamorous newcomer and her world of bobbed hair, smoking and speakeasies.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

A chance encounter with a handsome banker in a jazz bar on New Year's Eve 1938 catapults Wall Street secretary Katey Kontent into the upper echelons of New York society, where she befriends a shy multi-millionaire, an Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, and a single-minded widow.

The Forgotten Room by Karen White & Beatriz Williams & Lauren Willig

1945 : when the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion. Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother? In their pursuit of answers, they find themselves drawn into the turbulent stories of Gilded Age Olive Van Alen, driven from riches to rags, who hired out as a servant in the very house her father designed, and Jazz Age Lucy Young, who came from Brooklyn to Manhattan in pursuit of the father she had never known. But are Kate and Cooper ready for the secrets that will be revealed in the Forgotten Room?

A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams

Falling in love with her paramour but unable to divorce because of societal conventions, married Jazz Age socialite Theresa Marshall tries to make the best of the situation but reconsiders her values when her lover falls for her soon-to-be sister-in-law.

American Duchess by Karen Harper

New York Times bestselling author Karen Harper tells the tale of Consuelo Vanderbilt, her 'The Wedding of the Century' to the Duke of Marlborough, and her quest to find meaning behind 'the glitter and the gold.' Consuelo finds the inner strength to make the best of a life she did not choose.