“I’ve loved reading historical novels since I was a child. When I finally decided to try my hand at writing one myself, these are some of the books that entertained, instructed, and inspired me. What most of them have in common is that they are either about the lives of ordinary people in the past or about extraordinary events from the point of view of ordinary people, often those who aren’t usually heard in the historical record, such as women, working people, and the enslaved. Some of these books I read many years ago, and some I read while I was writing Sparrow, but they all showed me how to vividly evoke the past for a modern reader through careful research, empathy, and imagination.” 

James Hynes, April 2023