From fairy tales to ancient legends, classic stories have influenced writers for centuries. Retellings are a popular way for authors to offer modern takes on old tales, reimagining myths in new settings or providing different perspectives on fairy tales. The list of recommendations below compiles titles that reinvent a number of well-known works, by embracing the essence and themes of the original texts while reimagining the stories and celebrating new, diverse voices. 

Ancient Myths and Legends 

• Circe by Madeline Miller: This retelling of Homer’s “Odyssey” gives voice to legendary sorceress Circe, the outcast daughter of the Greek sun god, Helios. 

• Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: The Mayan God of Death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this dark fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore. 

• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie: This modern-day reimagining of “Antigone” by Sophocles is set against political tensions in London, following two families caught in the insurmountable gap between love and country, loyalty and desire. 

• An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma: Set in southeastern Nigeria, this story blends Igbo folklore and Homer’s “Odyssey” to tell the story of a lonely farmer, Chinonso, who makes the mistake of falling in love with the wrong woman.

• Shallow Waters by Anita Kopacz: This novel features an Orïsha, a Yoruba deity of the sea, who is ripped from the water and becomes a young Black woman engulfed in the violent maelstrom of 1849 America. 

• She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan: Based on the legend of Mulan, this story reimagines the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, following Zhu as she takes her brother’s place in a monastery. 

• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker: This retelling of Homer’s “Illiad” follows Briseis, a captured queen living in the Greek army camp during the final weeks of the Trojan War. 

Classic Books 

• Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin: This modern homage to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice follows a young Muslim Canadian woman as she navigates the complexities of her career, love, and family. 

• The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo: This fantasy reimagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is told from the point of view of Jordan Baker, the tennis pro on the sidelines of the original novel. 

• Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi: After a corpse he constructs from body parts found on the street goes missing, Hadi realizes he has inadvertently created a monster in this novel based on Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. 

• Macbeth by Jo Nesbø: Set in the 1970s in a run-down, rainy, industrial town, this entry in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, which updates the Bard’s play “Macbeth,” centers on a police force struggling to shed an incessant drug problem. 

• Meg & Jo by Virginia Kantra: In this update to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, the March sisters are living in modern times with modern troubles. 

• Quichotte by Salman Rushdie: Inspired by the Miguel de Cervantes classic Don Quixote, this retelling follows a traveling salesman who falls for a TV star and sets off on a quest across America to prove himself worthy of her hand. 

• Upon a Burning Throne by Ashok Banker: This new fantasy series based on the Indian epic The Mahabharata follows two young princes, both heirs to the magical Burning Throne of the Krushan Empire. 

• Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise: Explore the dark side of Neverland in this fantasy retelling of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, in which Wendy must revisit her past to save her daughter. 

Fairy Tales 

• Burning Roses by S. L. Huang: Riflewoman Rosa, based on Little Red Riding Hood, and Hou Yi, a mythological Chinese archer, embark on a quest to defeat Hou Yi’s former apprentice, who is using firebirds to blaze a trail of destruction through the countryside.   

• The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill: In this contemporary retelling of “The Crane Wife,” one fiercely pragmatic teen forced to grow up faster than was fair will do whatever it takes to protect her family. 

• Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi: This contemporary subversion of fairy tale tropes turns the story of “Hansel and Gretel” on its head to expose the secrets, entanglements, and estrangements within a family. 

• If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy: The classic story of “Cinderella” gets a makeover in this humorous contemporary romance set within the world of a reality television dating show. 

• The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi: A historian seeking to locate a thirteenth-century grimoire has a fateful meeting with the wealthy and mysterious Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada in this gothic fairy tale based on the story of “Bluebeard.” 

• Malice by Heather Walter: Alyce, the Dark Grace, has cursed the kingdom of Briar’s line of princesses to die young, but Princess Aurora changes everything by falling in love with Alyce in this retelling of “Sleeping Beauty.” 

• The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner: Drawing on Eastern European folklore, this fantasy novel follows sisters Laya and Liba as they are confronted with a magical heritage they never knew existed and slowly realize all the old fairy tales are true. 

• Uprooted by Naomi Novik: Agnieszka has no plans to leave her village on the edge of the forest until she is unexpectedly chosen to serve the local wizard, a mysterious man known as the Dragon, in this story steeped in Polish folklore.