TLDR Interwoven plots of main characters in different time periods. Preferences: weird, gritty, gothic, adventurous/mysterious, not too easy, women pov/orientated, both "special" and ordinary lives interest me, not very focused on romance, time periods that are not very close to eachother. And preferably NO time traveling unless you really recommend a certain book that has it.
hi! i am looking for historic novels that have different plots each in a different time period (especially when they are further apart from eachother). The connection of the plot doesnt matter much to me but for example family, a certain object, a certain place, an important occurence that impacts all plots in some way. For example, The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld. Thats basically the most important requirement and below i have written more about what types of books i (dis)like and a few books like this that i enjoyed.
I prefer it to not be very romance oriented. Or at least not in a sappy or cliche way where its the most important element of the story unless it is written in a more dark/sinister way. I am more into psychological type novels that can be a bit gritty, gothic, mystery and/or action orientated. Can also be thriller or horror but not necessarily. I like reading about the lives of women, witches etc. or just ordinary women but the main character doesn't necessarily need to be a women.
I also prefer if the novel doesnt try to explain too much, for example the book Suikerspin by Erik Vlamink (i donkt think it was ever translated to another language sadly) jumps to a different main character of that time period at the start of each chapter but it is not explicitly stated which one it is. Which was done in a quite interesting and clever way imo. I also liked Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh (does not have different time periods btw) due to its weirdness and medieval setting but her writing style kind of bored me, she pretty much explains everything and it felt like i could read the book without having to think myself.
Some books that i remember reading are (some are not translated to English unfortunately):
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The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld. Three generations of women who we get to know through their connection to eachother and the house at Bass Rock.
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Wolfsroedel by Floortje Zwigtman. A group of boys in Roemenië at the end of the 19th century who have left the regular village life to become bandits. One day they decide to inhabit an abandoned fort on an island with a rich history related to the sultan of 16th century Osmania (i think?).
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Suikerspin by Erik Vlamink. About three generations of men whose life is all kind of shitty. The men have not known eachother directly i think. The oldest was the owner of a freakshow in the 19th century or so and a real douchebag. We get to know his story because someone in the younger generation is contacted by a journalist to write about his families history regarding the freakshow. It also focuses a lot on the life of the female siamese twins who were in his freakshow.
Sorry for the rambling 😅 English is also not my first language and many books that I read have probably not been translated to English unfortunately.
by Expert_Regret_1837