Books Set In WW2

[LouReidPark]

What are your favourite books set in WW2?

I liked a few as a child - Carrie's War, the Judith Kerr series and I've read a couple I liked as an adult - Dear Mrs Bird, The Frequency Of Us and The Night Watch.

Looking for recommendations for more. TIA

Just looking at others I've read in recent years not already mentioned:

A view across the rooftops - Suzanne Kelman
Transcription - Kate Atkinson
The Alice Network - Kate Quinn
The Lost Wife - Alyson Richman

Look at the digital publisher Bookouture. They publish lots of books set in this period.

I read QBVII and Exodus by Leon Uris back in the 70s. I don't know if they are still in print but certainly thought provoking .. dealing with the holocaust.

The ones I read as a child like Carrie's War, The Machine Gunners, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, The Silver Sword, all mentioned already (I suspect all read them in school as well)

As an adult I loved Winter Of The World - Ken Follet, and a slightly different WWII book - The Unknown Soldier - Väinö Linna

Suite Française by Iréne Nèmirovsky is about the invasion of France and is wonderful. It is unfinished for the saddest of reasons - the author died in a concentration camp, but it is still immensely readable.

The Cazelet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard; the first one, The Light Years, is set in the run-up to the Second World War.

RF Delderfield’s The Dreaming Suburb and its sequel, The Avenue Goes to War. The first one starts with a soldier’s return to his family in 1918.

HE Bates’ Fair Stood the Wind for France is about a pilot crash-landing in occupied France, trying to avoid capture and hiding out with a French family.

Nevill Shute’s Pied Piper is about an elderly, grieving hero struggling to outrun the invasion of France while rescuing some children who have been landed on him.

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by GB Edwards, covers the occupation of Guernsey, and was recommended to me on another thread - I loved it.

Judith Kerr’s The Other Way Round (also published as Bombs on Aunt Dainty) is the sequel to When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and is set in wartime London when Anna becomes an art student.

Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s Ark (also published as Schindler’s List after the film was made) is a hard read, but a very powerful one.

The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff

Loved this book

I’ve just finished Suite Francaise, which I found very moving. I also loved The Book Thief, A God in Ruins and Life after Life (and the Michelle Magorian books when younger).

I've read a few Rhys Bowen books recently which were really good. (Although the glaring mistake in one of them regarding Jews being gassed in Auschwitz 2 years before that happened annoyed me)

Also Goodnight Vienna by Marcus Gabriel and Night Angels by Weina Dai Randel.

The Beekeeper's Promise and The Dressmaker's Gift by Fiona Valpy

Spy by Danielle Steel

The Pursuit of Love
Mrs Miniver

I recently listened to the audio book of Yours, Cheerfully and enjoyed it.

I like a few that are set not in the UK:

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
Still Life - Sarah Winman

But also the most English book of all time:

A Moment in Time - HE Bates

Love his books

The Nightingale, The Book Thief and All The Light We Cannot See as mentioned above. Also:

The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford - about a dr in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw.

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer - an absolute favourite of mine, about a Hungarian Jewish family. A slightly different take on WW2.

Back Home by Michelle Magorian - an older readers book, about the end of the war and a girl who had been sent to Canada for safety during the war. It’s about her return after 5 years away and getting to know her family again, and also there’s a subplot about her mum finding her feet again when her husband returns from war. Really loved it.

The Undertaking by Audrey Magee - set on the eastern front from a German soldier’s POV.

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield - about a Jewish Austrian family

Tamar by Mal Peet - another older readers type book but tbh I read it again recently as an adult and I’m not sure I’d let my older reader read it if I had one! About two Dutch resistance fighters. Really shows how the paranoia and pressure can get to you. The story is intertwined with one of the characters’ modern day granddaughter in the U.K. Another favourite.

There’s a book set in the Blitz that I loved but I can’t think of the name. Had a red cover, anyone any ideas? Possibly featured a girl who had a typist job?

I think that the Angela Thirkell books set during and before WWII are her best ones, and if we're going old-fashioned, the C P Snow Strangers & Brothers books set during the war are good reading - he was in the civil service as a scientist during the war and was on the list of people to be arrested if the nazis invaded Britain.

Set in Berlin during the war, the David Downing "Station" books are spy(ish) novels and give a good idea of what it was like in Germany.

The Sword of Honour Trilogy - starting with Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh. Probably one of my favourite ever books.

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively, which won the Booker in 1987. The main character, Claudia, is looking back at her life which includes her experiences in WW2 in Egypt.

Similarly, the Balkan Trilogy & the Levant Trilogy by Olivia Manning (filmed in the 80s with Ken Branagh & Emma Thompson as Fortunes of War), which follows Guy & Harriet Pringle from being in eastern Europe when WW2 breaks out over to the Middle East. It's thinly disguised autobiography.

I love the Lissa Evans trilogy mentioned upthread and would also thoroughly recommend it. And Sarah Waters' The Night Watch.

Charlotte Grey by Sebastian Faulks

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson is a wonderful book, as is it's companion novel A God In Ruins.

The Cazalet Chronicles. The Machine Gunners.

Yes!

When the Sky Fell Apart by Caroline Lea set in wartime Jersey
We Must be Brave by Frances Liardet

Casualties by Lynne Reid Banks - about two Dutch children affected by the war in very different ways.

The Diary of Anne Frank.

Spike Milligan
David Niven

Lots of my favourites have already been mentioned but Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T Sullivan is based on a true story of a young Italian man who helped Jews escape across the Alps.