Could anyone recommend me some good historical fiction WW2/Holocaust books?
Could anyone recommend me some good historical fiction WW2/Holocaust books? I’ve been in the mood to devour as many as I can!
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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I love that book!
@Marisa my favourite too!
only liked half that book (one POV was better than the other)
Yes, love it!
Just reading “We Were The Lucky Ones.”
Excellent !
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Book Thief, A Girl With No Name, The Boy in Striped Pajamas
I did a no no on Book Thief which spoiled the book. I watched movie first. I know! Anyway I did read the book afterwards but no tears. I did like the boy in the striped Pajamas Read book first then watched movie.
TBT is better as a book in every way lol, especially the writing style told from death’s perspective. It’s in my top five fave books?.
A Girl with No Name… So it’s a good plot, but there is a bit of fluff. The writer kind of overdoes it, and I skimmed through those parts. It’s pretty alright otherwise, though!
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Storyteller, The Book Thief, or of course, the Diary of Anne Frank
Storyteller is my favorite and first book I read by Picoult. So good.
The Book Theif! Love that book!!
Mine too! It is a page turner for sure!
Echo. Lilac Girls. The Pianist.
All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (WW II fiction)
Sarah’s Key and Those Who Save Us
And The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
The Maisie Dobbs series starts after WW1 and moves through those decades with lots of history packed in. And the Bruno the Policeman series is Set in southern France and contains tons of history about the resistance.
The Nightingale
First book I read by Hannah and it was so good I want to read all her other books now.
Blackout by Connie Willis
This one isn’t fun to read, but I was grateful I did. Extremely well researched and a very different perspective. The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
“The Taster” by VA Alexander
The light in the ruins. The Nightingale. The Bronze Horseman. Unbroken. ALL EXCELLENT READS!
Unfortunately I never finished the bronze horseman. I started it on my kindle and I hate reading on my kindle. I need to start over again as I did love what I read but just hate kindle reading. lol
The Storyteller
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows; The Alice Network (WWI & WWII); The Chilbury Ladies Choir
Read and LOVED Guernsey and Chilbury!
Exodus, Mila 18
The Orphan’s Tale.
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.
I didn’t know that book was WW2? I just pulled it out from my TBR and put it on my Bailey’s Woman’s fiction shelf. I plan to read it soon.
@Laura It is both WWI and WWII. The protagonist is born in 1910, I think, so her father goes to WW1 and then she is involved in WWII. I didnt think I would like it but I LOVED it.
The one man is great
Night by Elie Wiesel ?
I loved that book too. Still need to pick up the other 2 books I think it’s a trilogy. So many books so little time
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, The Nightengale by Kristin Hannah
In Farleigh field
The classic The Book Thief….
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer; The History of Love by Nicole Krause. The biography of Viktor Frankl and his second wife Elly is a beautiful and painful story of survival: When Life Calls Out to Us by Haddon Klingberg Jr
Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark T. Sullivan
Loved this one
Just finished this one, it was amazing!
The Nightingale, The Storyteller,Lilac Girls, The Chilbury Ladies Choir, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Book Thief, Sarah’s Key, We Were the Lucky Ones, Those Who Save Us, Anne Frank, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Lost Wife, The Lost Letter….
yeah. what she said. ?
@Pratod I’ve always been into books from that period in history. My in laws were survivors but my interest started when I read Anne Frank in 6th grade.
I just have a reader’s digest’s great big illustrated book about the second world war from my great grandfather’s library, I was always so intimidated by its size, but I always liked to look through images when I was a kid. I’ll get around to read it sometime. Cheers ma’am.
Forbidden Places by Penny Vincenzi.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, Beneath A Scarlett Sky, by Mark Sullivan, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Darkest Hour by Anthony McCarten, From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon.
The war that saved my life
The Earth is singing by Vanessa Curtis. I finished it last night and can’t stop thinking about it.
Second world war and Holocaust are recurrent themes in the works of both Imre Kertesz and Patrick Modiano. Patrick Modianos novels, at least the ones I have read are small (would be classified as novellas I think). The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass if you like a touch of surrealism. It provides the perspective of a German author.
Night by Eli Wiesel.
Following
Lilac Girls
Just finished and I am haunted
The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe
The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Amazing book!
Some non fiction also….blitzed, the pharmacist at auschwitz, hitlers children.
In the Presence of My Enemy by Harry Turtledove
Exodus by Leon Uris.
Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Check out Imre Kertész, for example Fatelessness
The Alice Network is a great read!
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Sarah’s Key, The Book Thief, Zookeepers Wife, Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society, Snow Falling on Cedars
Mila 18 by Leon Uris
Anya by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Forgot about this. Read it many many years ago.
The tattooist of auschwitz
Code Name Verity
Once We Were Brothers by Ronald Balsom
Winds of War and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
Excellent
Lilac Girls all takes place in a concentration camp. It stayed with me awhile hard to pick up another book at first
Karolinas twins
All the light we cannot see by Anthony doerr. Also loved snow falling on cedars.
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz. It is a young adult book, but AMAZING!
The Nightingale, Beneath a Scarlet Sky, Sand and Ash
All of those!!
The Winter Garden, The Orphans Tale, From Sand and Ash,
The Kommandants Girl
Boat of Stone. My Mothers Ring
The girl in the red coat by Roma ligocka
Book Thief. Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Librarian of Auschwitz.
We were the lucky ones. Cannot remember the author.
William Styron, “Sophie’s Choice.”
Such a good book.
Entwined
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Sophie’s Choice.
Schindler’s list
It’s not fiction but the Zookeepers Wife is good. I also just finished Mischling.
We were the Lucky Ones
I’m reading No Less Than Victory by Jeff Shaara right now and enjoying it. It’s one of 4 in a series. But I’m reading it as a stand alone. It covers the Battle of the Bulge. I plan on getting the others.
Anything by Leon Uris
The Book Thief
The Alice Network
The Ladies in the Castle
I know these have already been said but I’ll also recommend The Zookeepers Wife and The Book Thief.
You can read ‘From Salt to the Sea’ and ‘Between Shades of Grey’ by Ruta Sepetys.
Not exactly the Holocaust but as an alternate which gives light on what happened in the Russian Gulags and the genocide by the Soviets during ww2.
I loved both of those books!
I have been reading books about the Holocaust for 40+ years and the best I have read are The Winds of War and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk, Mila 18 by Leon Uris, Night by Elie Wiesel, and Maus. Also read Albert Speer’s book which was very interesting.
Maus is an incredible book
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shuttuck. I just finished it and it is excellent. I second All the Light We Cannot See and The Book Thief. I was a little disappointed with The Nightingale and Sarah’s Key. Most of the others listed are on my TBR list too.
Sarah’s Key really? I thought both book and movie were excellent, just curious what didn’t you like about it?
@Kimberly it didn’t seem very realistic. That someone would live with the pain for so long and then not be able to. I didn’t think The Nightingale was realistic either.
@Kimberly I also was disappointed with Sarah’s Key. It was an interesting story, but I had problems with the writing style, and some of the characters did not ring true with me. I actually thought the film was better!
Also Sophie’s Choice.
The Alice project!!
Ditto
The Book Thief, Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, heard that The Zookeepers Wife is good but haven’t read it. Diary of Anne Frank.
Lilac Girls
The Bronze Horseman
The Nightingale and The Alice Network are two of my favorites.
The Nightingale, and Salt to the Sea.
An old favorite of mine, Shining Through by Susan Isaacs. Made into a movie of the same name starring Melanie Griffith and Micheal Douglas.
Sarah’s Key and The Zookeeper’s Wife, The Lucky Ones all stand out in my memory
War and Remembrance
Susan Elia MacNeal’s Mr Churchill’s Secretary. Philip Kerr’s Bernir Gunther series. Joseph Kanon. James Benn;s Billy Boyle.
The Room on Rue Amelie. The Storyteller. The Nightingale.
Who are the first two written by?
Kristin Harmel. Jodi Picoult.
@Melissa thanx
The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Toy Maker, books by Elie Wiesel (Night, Dawn and Day).
Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy. Hits about every major aspect of WWII.
Have you read Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks? A life-changing book.
It’s not fiction but Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is a lifechanging book.
I was told to read that when I was whining about the breakdown of my marriage. Put things into perspective real quick.
The girl in the green sweater. Wow!
Who is this written by?
herman wouk trilogy the first one is winds of war. i think
The book thief , War Horse, Letters to the Lost, all Kate Morton books. All of them I read on audiobooks and have excellent narrators ,but the book version would be awesome as well. Very well written.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The book thief and the tattooist of Auschwitz