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Original poster

Recommendation needed: fiction set in WWII

39 replies

tilleuls · 30/10/2016 20:31

Hi all! I'm looking for a new (historical fiction) novel to read set in WWII. Mostly interested in anything about the Home Front. Any ideas?
Thanks

OP posts:
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Kai1977 · 04/11/2016 19:34

Life after Life Kate Atkinson

Sosidges · 04/11/2016 09:04

Mrs Sinclair's suitcase is a lovely read. A lady finds a letter in a suitcase and unravels a wartime love story.

OlennasWimple · 04/11/2016 01:58

Owen Shears' Resistance is a great read: it's set in an alternative WWII where the German invasion of Britain was successful, and focuses on women in Wales navigating the new world they are now in

EverySongbirdSays · 04/11/2016 01:48

Yes to many of those mentioned

The Michelle Magorians, Night Watch, Coming Home, the Kate Atkinson books. Also Guernsey Pie LOVED Guernsey Pie

Thought I might put this query on here, I think I asked on a Chat thread a while ago, does anyone recognise this series?

The one I read was about a young girl in the Wrens, but they had one for each of the Army disciplines in the war, they were aimed at teenage girls to promote the role of women in wartime. Roughly 1994. I have been racking my brains trying to think what it was called, thought someone else might have read same series as a girl.

boldlygoingsomewhere · 03/11/2016 21:56

Alone in Berlin is a fantastic novel set in Germany in WWII. A really good portrayal of ordinary citizens and how they tried to deal with life under Nazi rule.

SweetestThing · 31/10/2016 21:24

A Little Love Song by Michelle Magorian (Goodnight Mr Tom author) - two sisters evacuated and living in the country.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 31/10/2016 20:52

Sorry. I've completely ignored the 'Homefront' part of the OP!

I enjoyed 'The Welsh Girl' which is set, surprisingly enough, in Wales.

walruswhiskers · 31/10/2016 20:36

Dominion by Sansome is fab - it imagines how GB might have been if we had appeased Hitler and become a German protectorate. It's about a sort of English resistance. Vg.

SatsukiKusakabe · 31/10/2016 20:34

I loved HHhH, one of my best reads of the year, its focus is more on the Nazis and the Czech Republic, but really powerful and well researched. Also gripping.

I quite enjoyed A Town Like Alice, though it's more concerned with the POW experience. The Railway Man is non fiction, but an incredible book about POWs.

Off to look up The Pied Piper!

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 31/10/2016 20:15

LOVE 'A Town Like Alice" and thought "Pied Piper" v good too.

All the Light we Cannot See was good (except the ending)

HHhH has divided us on the '50 books' threads a little, but I thought it was sublime.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 31/10/2016 20:05

Eliza Graham writes about this period and she has a Young Adult novel, Blitz Kid, which I found interesting and well researched.

PhantomPringles · 31/10/2016 19:57

Home Front Girls by Rosie Goodwin. The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

The Shellseekers and Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher are also brilliant.

London Pride and A Time to Love by Beryl Kingston.

iseenodust · 31/10/2016 19:46

How could I forget Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice & The Pied Piper

SatsukiKusakabe · 31/10/2016 19:44

Life After Life has some good stuff on London in the blitz - its linked to God In Ruins, suggested upthread.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 31/10/2016 19:21

Yes to The Book Thief and Goodnight Mr Tom.

I'm currently reading Ben Elton's 'Two Brothers'. It's quite annoying in lots of ways, but the characters are interesting. Will report back when I've finished it!

Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series.

If you don't mind non-fiction, I can recommend LOTS! :)

BikeRunSki · 31/10/2016 19:19

Parts of Roald Dahl's autobiography "Going Solo" recount his time in the RAF in WW2.

iseenodust · 31/10/2016 19:18

The Book Thief - set in Germany but recommended.
Agree Guernsey Literary...

Sadik · 31/10/2016 19:11

The Provincial Lady at War is very good (and very funny) - was originally published as 'diary entries' in Time and Tide magazine.

lemonpuff · 31/10/2016 19:06

Place marking for later....

FormerlyCatherineDeB · 31/10/2016 18:54

Not fiction but I recently finished 'They Fought in the Fields', about the women's land army, really enjoyed it.

Available as an ebook at my county library.

Mittensonastring · 31/10/2016 18:45

I am 15 and I do not want to die, haunting stuff.

GiddyOnZackHunt · 31/10/2016 18:44

Might have been "Nine Wartime Lives"

GiddyOnZackHunt · 31/10/2016 18:40

I can't remember the title or editor (doh) but there is a collection of Mass Observations from Ww2

hackmum · 31/10/2016 18:28

I want to second Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans. It's absolutely brilliant. As is the other book she's written about WW2 - Crooked Heart. They're both quite funny and show the other, less heroic side of the home front.

readitagain · 31/10/2016 14:27

oops sorry - wrong thread

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