WWII Based Books

In terms of the holocost: The tattoist of Auschwitz was both heartbreaking and compelling. The diary of Ann Frank also. And Viktor Frankl: Man's Search for Meaning, which is about survival and hope.

"The Resistance" by Matthew Cobb - about the French Resistance. I was absolutely gripped by this book and sat up reading it into the small hours. There's also "Eleven Days in August" by the same author, about the fall of Paris (which is touched upon in The Resistance) but I didn't find this so easy to read - it's full of information and has very detailed references/notes but to make any progress with it I found I had to keep referring to the notes which broke up the flow of the book

The Railway Man by Eric Lomax - war in the Far East

I knew there was another one - Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks. He worked at SOE on the codes side. He's quite a strange character but it's an insidious book - you're reading, thinking 'God you're bonkers' but it gets under your skin. Fascinating.

Yes to A town like Alice and suite francaise! And men at arms.

Also the pursuit of love.

If you can face reading about the Holocaust then the books by Primo Levi, especially If This is a Man and The Truce, are well worth reading. I'm glad to see others have recommended them.

There are many good books about the SOE. Also recommended above.

My main recommendation would be The Unwomanly Face of War which tells stories which have largely been hidden. But a quick warning, the Soviet women soldiers had an extremely rough time both during and after the war.

Another vote for A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute.

I also adore Pied Piper by Nevil Shute which is a wonderful fantasy - the story of an older British man on holiday in France when war breaks out. I don't want to ruin it by saying more, but I can't recommend it enough.

And I'm also reading Coming Home at the moment - suddenly felt the need to dig it out.
Munich by Robert Harris is a good read about the approach to war.

I second @BikingBeatrix! I do wish Sarah Helm would hurry up and write another one, but I suspect her research takes years.

I visited Dachau after reading them both partly to see this memorial in the gas chamber.

Another by Sarah Helm is If this Is a Woman. About the women‘s concentration camp Ravensbrueck which imprisoned mostly political prisonersand resistance people.

The Night Watch is one of my favourite books. The BBC adaptation from a couple of years ago was brilliant too, with a great cast.

I also enjoyed The Welsh Girl, which tells a very different side of the war from the Blitz.

I’m currently reading Tamar by Mal Peet, technically for teenagers, about the Dutch resistance and SOR during the war.

Second A Life in Secrets - it's amazing.

For another fiction suggestion, I'd recommend Restless by William Boyd. Espionage set between WW2 (early years) and the 1970s. Really well written.

Great thread, I love a lot of the books mentioned and so many new ones to try as well. Carrie's War is one of my favourite books of all time, so poignant and so well written. Also the PP who mentioned The Seige, god I couldn't stop thinking about that book for ages after I read it. Even now I sometimes still think of it - and I read it about 10 years ago!

The Pat Barker Regeneration trilogy is good OP. Also Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard and A Town Like Alice (which starts off with the war).

The first book in Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, Men At Arms, is brilliant. They get progressively more bitter and less funny after that.

An amazing and not very well-known novel about the rise of Nazi Germany is The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes.

Non fiction, A Life in Secrets by Sarah Helm. It's about Vera Atkins trying to trace what happened to all the female SOE agents who disappeared. Heartbreaking but beautifully written, extremely well researched and there's even a twist!

Fiction, A Town Like Alice, Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Avoid The Tatooist of Auschwitz.

I would recommend Motherland by William Nicholson.

I read it about 3 years ago and I still find myself thinking about it nowadays, and in fact I’m very tempted to re-read it.

Oh and I absolutely second what a pp said about The Silver Sword. Marvellous book.

I've just finished reading "Do The Birds Still Sing in Hell?" By Horace Greasley. That's real life about a POW who escaped regularly and always went back.

Then there the diaries of Edith Appleton. A nurse in the First World War on the front line. I know it's not WW2 although it IS interesting. It's called "A Nurse At The Front" and is by Ruth Cowen.

I tend to be less about WW2 than WW1, don't quite know why. On my to read list is "Undertones of War" by Edmund Blunden, got that in a lovely Folio Society version.

So many books to add to my list too!

I read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr recently. I know they are meant for children but my dd was reading them. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fugitive Pieces Anne Michaels
Enigma Robert Harris

An old one which is a woman looking back on her life including the major story taking place in the war is Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively. Easy to read but thought provoking with a fab central character and a great narrative.

The English Patient is also good with a lot of ideas about race and nationality and of course 'that' story.

Belinda Alexander’s Tuscan Rose is set in WWII Italy, which makes it a bit different. I listened to it as an audio book and thought it dragged on a bit, but it’s an eventful story.

Susan Isaacs “Shining Through” is an oldie, but a goodie.

I highly recommend Simon Garfield's We Are At War, a collection of Mass Observation diaries kept by people living through the war.

I've also been telling everyone I know about a beautifully-written and touching novel about an evacuee - Doreen by Barbara Noble (it's a Persephone book).

Suite Francaise is great, I also loved 'The Nightingale' by Kristin Hannah.
' Storm of Steel' by Ernst Junger is good for a different perspective as is 'Hiroshima' by John Hersey. The rise and fall of the Third Reich is interesting too.

I’m reading Coming Home by Rosemary Pilsner at the moment and really enjoying it..