Books Like The Women: 10 Historical Novels About Women Whose Stories Were Overlooked

If you finished Kristin Hannah’s The Women and immediately wanted another novel about women whose work history has failed to celebrate, start here. Frankie McGrath joins the Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War, learns to save lives under extraordinary pressure, and then returns to a country reluctant to acknowledge what women did there. The homecoming matters as much as the war: she must reckon with trauma while other people try to erase her service. Macmillan’s description of The Women captures both halves of that story.

The ten books below share different parts of its appeal. Some put women in wartime roles, while others follow midwives, librarians, physicians and divers whose labor kept communities alive. They span centuries and countries, so you can choose the particular thread you want to follow. This is a spoiler-light guide, and every selection is a novel, even when its author draws on a real woman or a historical profession.

At a glance: What should you read after The Women?

1. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

For the closest match in emotional intensity, go back to Hannah’s World War II novel. In occupied France, sisters Vianne and Isabelle face different kinds of danger. One must make impossible decisions close to home; the other takes a more openly defiant path. Together, their stories broaden the idea of what wartime courage looks like. The publisher describes the novel as a story of the women’s war.

Why it fits: Like Frankie, these women act under pressure while the better-known version of war tends to focus elsewhere. Read this first if you want Hannah’s sweeping scale, close relationships and heartbreak. It is another intense read, so save it for when you are ready for that emotional weight.

2. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

Nurse Julia Power works in an understaffed Dublin maternity ward during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Over just three days, she and the women around her face a relentless series of medical emergencies. Donoghue keeps the action close to the bedsides, where skilled care, improvisation and compassion are vital. Donoghue’s book page describes the ward and its central characters.

Why it fits: This is the strongest pick for readers who were most absorbed by Frankie’s nursing. Its timeframe and intimate setting make the labor of care impossible to dismiss. Expect a concentrated, sometimes difficult story rather than the decades-spanning sweep of The Women.

3. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

During World War II, Osla, Mab and Beth are recruited into the codebreaking world of Bletchley Park. Their work demands intelligence and discretion; their friendship has to withstand the secrets the job imposes. The novel later brings them together again to confront a mystery connected to their wartime years. Quinn’s description of The Rose Code lays out the three women’s intertwined story.

Why it fits: If the friendships among Frankie and her fellow nurses mattered to you as much as the historical setting, this is the one to try. The women perform crucial wartime work, but secrecy complicates any straightforward recognition of it. The pace is closer to a historical suspense novel than a hospital drama.

4. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

In eighteenth-century Maine, midwife Martha Ballard keeps records of births and deaths. When a body is found in the Kennebec River, her knowledge places her at odds with men who hold formal authority. Lawhon’s novel is inspired by Ballard’s life and diary, turning an often overlooked kind of expertise into the engine of a historical mystery. The publisher’s book description explains that historical starting point.

Why it fits: Frankie’s skills are real whether or not the people around her honor them; Martha faces a similar gap between expertise and status. Choose this if you want an assertive heroine and a mystery alongside the story of women’s work. Martha Ballard was real, but this novel’s dialogue and plot are fiction.

5. The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Belle da Costa Greene becomes J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian and helps shape an extraordinary collection. But the opportunities available to her come with a terrible constraint: to protect herself and her family in a racist society, she passes as white. Penguin Random House’s description centers both her accomplishments and the risk attached to her identity.

Why it fits: The Women asks who gets recorded as a hero. This novel asks what it costs a woman to build a legacy when revealing who she is could destroy it. It is especially strong for readers who want a book-club discussion about recognition, race and the stories institutions choose to tell. It is fiction inspired by a real historical figure.

6. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

In 1930s Kentucky, Cussy Mary Carter carries reading material to isolated families as a pack horse librarian. Her route is difficult, and the prejudice she faces makes the work more dangerous. The novel draws on the historical Pack Horse Library Project and the history of blue-skinned people in Kentucky. Sourcebooks’ description identifies both inspirations.

Why it fits: Frankie’s service changes lives even when other people overlook it. Cussy’s work has the same quiet, concrete value: she brings books and connection to people who have been left out. This is a good choice if you want historical fiction about public service and the power of reading, with a strong Appalachian setting.

7. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

On Korea’s Jeju Island, Young-sook and Mi-ja grow up within a community of women divers known as haenyeo. Their friendship stretches across decades of political upheaval, family change and painful choices. The divers’ demanding work and the relationships that sustain them sit at the center of the novel. Simon & Schuster’s book page outlines its setting and long historical span.

Why it fits: If you came away from The Women thinking about female friendship after a shared ordeal, this is an especially rewarding next read. It shifts the focus away from American military history and toward women whose labor helps sustain an entire community. Be prepared for a longer, generational story with painful turns.

8. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

Inspired by the life of a woman physician in fifteenth-century China, this novel follows Tan Yunxian as she learns medicine and builds bonds with other women. Her knowledge grows within a world that sets strict limits on what women may do and whom they may treat. The publisher describes the historical inspiration and the book’s emphasis on women helping one another.

Why it fits: Read this if Frankie’s skill as a caregiver was the most compelling part of Hannah’s novel. Both stories give serious attention to knowledge passed between women and to the barriers that keep that knowledge from receiving its due. This one offers a very different period and cultural setting.

9. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Elsa Martinelli struggles to keep her family safe as drought devastates their Texas farm during the Great Depression. Leaving home presents its own risks, and survival demands far more than endurance alone. Macmillan’s descriptionframes Elsa’s journey against the Dust Bowl and the country’s economic crisis.

Why it fits: For readers who love how Hannah makes public history painfully personal, Elsa’s story is a natural choice. Her work for her family can be overlooked precisely because it looks like what women were expected to do. This is less about official service than the labor of getting loved ones through catastrophe.

10. The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Quinn’s novel reimagines the life of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a Soviet mother who becomes a sniper during World War II. It follows the gap between her wartime experience and the public image built around her. Quinn describes the book as a novel based on a true story.

Why it fits: Frankie comes home to find that the public has little room for the truth of her service. The Diamond Eyeexplores a different kind of distortion: a woman can be celebrated and still be reduced to a symbol. Pick this if you want a faster-paced war story with a female combatant at its center. It is historical fiction, so use a nonfiction source if you want to separate the novel’s inventions from Pavlichenko’s documented life.

Which book is most like The Women?

Start with The Nightingale if you want another emotionally sweeping Kristin Hannah novel about women in wartime. Choose The Pull of the Stars if the nurses and their difficult work were what stayed with you. Pick The Rose Code if you want female friendship, hidden service and a suspenseful plot. My favorite organizing idea for this list is simple: a person’s contribution does not become small because history gave it little space. Each novel makes a different case for looking again.

Further reading on Books of Brilliance: The Women, The Nightingale

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