
Chios, Greece
Prague, Czech Republic
Key West, Florida USA
Moscow, Russia

Five books with stories reimagined

  • Submitted: 11th May 2021

Novels which add stories to tales already told

There is such a strong interest for novels which reimagine stories already told or which introduce real people from history and imagine what might have happened…

There’s something really clever about novels like this. There’s an awful lot of research which goes into them as they have to cleverly evoke the time and speech of that era, but place real people from history into situations that could have happened..


Five books with stories reimagined

Popular retellings have taken us back to the time of the Titanic and Jack the Ripper. Both iconic tragedies and the subject of numerous conspiracy theories but there are many other tales of this type. Reimaging a person or event from history is compelling stuff. Sometimes an author takes a fictional tale such as Pride and Prejudice and puts a new spin on a well told story, even taking us back to a different part in the story…

Five books with stories reimagined

Event from history: The Titanic

The Deep by  Alma Katsu

We all know what happened on  The Titanic, don’t we? What if there was something or someone haunting the ship that night? Something that really can’t be explained. Was it really as simple as an iceberg that caused the ship to sink?

Five books with stories reimagined

Event from history: Jack the Ripper

People of Abandoned Character

What would have happened if Jack the Ripper had been married and his wife became suspiciuos of where he was on the nights five prostitutes were murdered? How would she have reacted? What could she have done? Would we have known who Jack the Ripper really was and why he did what he did?

Five books with stories reimagined

Event from history: The Belgica Antarctica expedition of 1897

Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton

August 1897: The Belgica set sail, eager to become the first scientific expedition to reach the white wilderness of the South Pole. The ship really did sail and it really did run into problems. Its crew suffered a multitude of problems….

This is the story of that sailing expedition from the crew on board the ship itself. This is their story….

The Metal Heart Caroline Lea

Event from history: Orkney and its Italian prisoners who arrived in 1940

The Metal Heart by Caroline Lea

Orkney, 1940. Five hundred Italian prisoners-of-war arrive to fortify the remote, windswept islands. This is the story of what might have happened, how the islanders might have felt about the new arrivals and what the consequences of the war really was on the small Scottish isle.

The Rose Code Kate Quinn

Event from history: Bletchley Park and the cracking of Enigma

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

The Bletchley story has to be one of the most fascinating story ever. What the breaking of the Enigma meant for the war and the lives it saved. What was it like to have worked there and to have been part of the secrecy? This novel looks at that and imagines the work done by the women in the huts. Who were they? Where did they come from? What kind of life did they leave behind? What was life like at Bletchley? Find out in The Rose Code.



See here for more #BookTrailLiterarySettings

Five novels set in the world of academia

The Magic of a Locked Room mystery

Five books set in bookshops

Books set on a beach

Books set on an island

Novels set on ghostly ships

Books set in schools

Books set on the marshes

Five great books set in wartime

Time for five books set in lovely locations

Five books with a foodie twist

Five books set at sea

What about five books set in hotels

Books set in the art world

Scary Books set in the woods

Travelling Books set on a train

Books set in the animal world


Back to Blog

Featured Book

The Book Lover’s Bucket List

Travel literary style!

Read more