Ellsworth, Loretta. The French Winemaker’s Daughter. Harper Paperbacks. Dec. 2024. ISBN 9780063371811. pbk. 288p. $18.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Award-winning Ellsworth (Stars Over Clear Lake) writes a dual-timeline story. In 1942, a young girl, fleeing the Nazis, abandons a bottle of wine her father asked her to keep safe. Almost 50 years later, Charlotte acquires the bottle, launching her on a quest to find its origins. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Jackson-Brown, Angela. Untethered. Harper Muse. Dec. 2024. ISBN 9781400241132. pbk. 400p. $18.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Jackson-Brown (Homeward) transports readers to the turbulent 1960s in the American South, where Katia Daniels has spent much of her life as a caretaker, first to her siblings and now in her job at a group home for Black boys. When she rekindles her friendship with Seth Taylor, though, she begins to think about what she wants for herself.

Josaphat, Fabienne. Kingdom of No Tomorrow. Algonquin. Dec. 2024. ISBN 9781643755885. 288p. $29. HISTORICAL FICTION

This novel from Josaphat (Dancing in the Baron’s Shadow) won the 2023 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. In 1968, Haitian student Nettie Boileau lives in Oakland, CA, and becomes involved with the Black Panthers. She falls in love with one of their leaders and follows him to Chicago, where tragic events send her on the run, trying to save herself.

MacIntosh, Kate. The Champagne Letters. Gallery. Dec. 2024. ISBN 9781668061886. 352p. $28.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Macintosh debuts with a story that alternates between 1805 France and the present. In the 19th century, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot has lost her husband but continues to pursue their dream of creating a premier champagne house. In the present, recently divorced Natalie Turner leaves Chicago for Paris and finds inspiration for a new life after reading the widow Clicquot’s published letters.

Tuck, Lily. The Rest Is Memory. Liveright. Dec. 2024. ISBN 9781324095729. 144p. $24.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Tuck, winner of the National Book Award for The News from Paraguay, fictionalizes the true story of Czeslawa, a young Catholic girl who was sent to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. In this short novel, Tuck imagines Czeslawa’s childhood in Poland and explores how she ended up in a concentration camp.