The most recommended WW2 historical fiction books

Who picked these books? Meet our 417 experts.

417 authors created a book list connected to WW2 historical fiction, and here are their favorite WW2 historical fiction books.
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Book cover of The Reprieve

Diaa Anwar Author Of The Sculptor and the Sacred River

From my list on comics with historical background.

Why am I passionate about this?

In Egypt, we did not have our own Arab comics, but different worlds came to us from translated comics, American (Disney and superheroes), and French comics. I did not like superhero comics, I loved Disney comics and French comics, and n addition to my passion for reading history, some French series combine this, such as the Alix series. I would have loved to have a historical background to the events that prompted me to read more about them and get to know the real characters, how they lived, and how they ended.

Diaa's book list on comics with historical background

Diaa Anwar Why did Diaa love this book?

This comic book is one of the difficult books for the author, unless he is a lover of the work and immersed in its details.

The story is romantic, and takes place in almost one place. Nevertheless, the writer succeeds in not leaving us an opportunity to get bored, especially with the charming Gibrat drawings, which resemble a group of artistic paintings.

The historical background here is the Second World War, and the period of the Nazi occupation of France, which is of the type of war romance, the story of Julien who survived a train accident, to spend a year waiting for a deferred death, in which he recalls his love story with Cecile, and in this year the fates change many persons.

I liked this comic so much when I first read it that I translated it into Arabic, and I recommend you to read this comic.

By Jean-Pierre Gibrat,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Reprieve as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13, 14, 15, and 16.

What is this book about?

Meet Cécile as she tries to help escaped prisoner-of-war Julien Sarlat avoid capture during the Occupation of France in 1943 in this prequel to the award-winning graphic novel Flight of the Raven.

Julien has escaped from a prisoner-of-war train headed for Germany, but fate intervenes when the train is bombed and among the victims a body is identified as his. Dead to the world, he takes advantage of the situation and hides in the small village of Cambeyrac, using his secret observation post overlooking the village square to watch the permanent theater that people offer in the course of the…


Book cover of Message To Adolf, Vol. 1

Nic Watts Author Of Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History

From Nic's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Illustrator Baba (father) Collaborator Comic book fan Activist

Nic's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Nic Watts Why did Nic love this book?

This epic comic book of over 1200 pages in two volumes was an absolute joy to read. It has the fast pace of a Tintin adventure, but with more in depth characters and story.

It interweaves four main characters, each called Adolf. A German Japanese boy who grows up to join the Hitler youth, a Jewish German boy living in Japan as a refugee, Hitler himself, and a reporter who is in possession of documents proving that Adolph Hitler has Jewish blood.

It is really interesting to see this Second World War period from a Japanese perspective and the fact that Japan was taking in Jewish refugees (it took more than the UK) - a fascinating part of history that is rarely discussed in the West.

By Osamu Tezuka,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Message To Adolf, Vol. 1 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

It is 1936 in Berlin, Nazi Germany. A Japanese reporter named Sohei Tohge is covering the Berlin Olympic Games for the Japanese press. As he sits in the Japanese press box watching the many track and field events of the day, he receives a call from his younger brother Isao, who has been studying in Germany as an international student. The two make plans to meet as Isao mentions he has something of importance to share with his sibling. While Sohei initially thinks his little brother may have found a young frau, Isao's tone is clearly that of one who…


Book cover of Everything Is Illuminated

William Landay Author Of All That Is Mine I Carry With Me

From my list on faux-nonfiction novels for a skeptical age.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have written four novels that involve crime in one way or another, but I do not consider myself a crime novelist. I simply find crime stories offer a compelling way to explore universal human experiences. I was a prosecutor when I was younger, so I try to bring a level of fluency in criminal law to my novels, but the usual warning applies: this is fiction, and it is better that a story be authentic than actually true.

William's book list on faux-nonfiction novels for a skeptical age

William Landay Why did William love this book?

A more modern example of the writer as a character in his own novel, borrowing pieces of his own life and weaving them into something more. It is so polished that it is hard to believe it was the first novel. And so personal, in the way it borrows from Foer’s family history (or seems to), that it gives the reader that distinctive shiver of fiction that threatens to burst through the confines of a novel into something like truth—realism that verges on reality.

I tried to weave my own history into my book in a similar way; this book probably had something to do with that.

By Jonathan Safran Foer,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Everything Is Illuminated as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

This is the story of a young man who visits the Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. In turns hilarious and harrowing, lit with a manic energy, it is narrated in part by a Ukranian translator, who has a murderous approach to the English language, and in part by the young man, who reanimates the lives of his grandfather and ancestors. Eventually the past meets the present, as fiction collides with reality in an unforgettable climax. With breathtaking inventiveness and narrative control, Jonathan Safran Foer has written a book about searching - for people…


Book cover of Andy Catlett: Early Travels

Susan M Soesbe Author Of Bringing Mom Home: How Two Sisters Moved Their Mother Out of Assisted Living to Care For Her Under One Amazingly Large Roof

From Susan's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Bible nerd Fiction book coach Organizer of stuff History buff English language acquisition facilitator

Susan's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Susan M Soesbe Why did Susan love this book?

I savored this account of a boy’s Christmas visit to his two sets of grandparents. The key to the exquisiteness of this book is its point of view. The narrator is nobody special.

Yet he, like all of us past a certain age, brings the perspective of maturity. He pulls back the curtain and shows readers the quiet love in an ordinary family.

Andy Catlett showed me that wisdom is a treasure painfully earned, which can be shared with those willing to receive it. Berry’s narrative is slow, rich, and beautiful.

By Wendell Berry,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Andy Catlett as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

A young boy takes a trip on his own to visit his grandparents in Kentucky in this luminous entry in the acclaimed Port William series.

In this “eloquent distillation of Berry’s favorite themes: the importance of family, community and respect for the land” (Kirkus Reviews), nine-year-old Andy Catlett embarks on a solo trip by bus to visit his grandparents in Port William, Kentucky, during the Christmas of 1943. Full of “nostalgic, admiring detail” (Publishers Weekly), Andy observes the modern world crowding out the old ways, and the people he encounters become touchstones for his understanding of a precious and imperiled…


Book cover of The Morning Gift

Rachel McMillan Author Of The Mozart Code

From my list on set in Vienna and will create a lifelong love for the city.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the author of the Herringford and Watts mysteries, the Van Buren and DeLuca mysteries, and the Three Quarter Time series of contemporary Viennese-set romances. I am also the author of The London Restoration. My non-fiction includes Dream, Plan and Go: A Travel Guide to Inspire Independent Adventure and A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide. I live in Toronto, Canada.

Rachel's book list on set in Vienna and will create a lifelong love for the city

Rachel McMillan Why did Rachel love this book?

Recalling Ibbotson’s personal experience of leaving Austria for England before Hitler’s Anschluss, The Morning Gift is a witty and warm marriage of convenience story between a witty and intrepid archaeologist, Quinton Somerville, and a brilliant professor’s daughter Ruth Berger. When Ruth is accidentally left behind in Vienna after her family has emigrated to England, Quin marries Jewish Ruth and protects her from oncoming Nazi occupation: under the condition that they will part ways when both are safely back in London. But Quin and Ruth continue to run into each other again and again and again. A deliciously Austrian-flavoured book. Ibbotson’s Viennese set-sequences and memories are a love letter to her city.

By Eva Ibbotson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Morning Gift as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

The Morning Gift is a beautiful, classic romance from much loved author, Eva Ibbotson.

Eighteen-year-old Ruth lives in the sparkling city of Vienna with her family, where she delights in its music, energy and natural beauty. She is wildly in love with the brilliant young pianist Heini Radik and can't wait until they are married.

But Ruth's world is turned upside down when the Nazis invade Austria and her family are forced to flee to England, and through a devastating misunderstanding she is left behind. Her only hope to escape Vienna comes from Quin, a young English professor, who unexpectedly…


Book cover of The Tin Drum

Maithreyi Karnoor Author Of Sylvia

From my list on striking while the ‘irony’ is hot.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write fiction and poetry in English and translate literary works from Kannada, a South Indian language. I was shortlisted for the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, and twice in a row for the Montreal International Poetry Prize. I had the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship in writing and translation at LAF and UWTSD in 2022. As a reader, I admire original and clever use of language, writing that portrays with humour the profundity in the absurdity of life, that which makes the quotidian quotable – writing that strikes while the ‘irony’ is hot. These are qualities that I think are intuitive in my own writing. I've enjoyed the following books for these reasons. 

Maithreyi's book list on striking while the ‘irony’ is hot

Maithreyi Karnoor Why did Maithreyi love this book?

A fantastic work of a surefooted wordsmith takes an equally talented translator to carry it across the linguistic barrier in a way that makes it a literary treat in its own right.

I’m envious of Breon Mitchell’s limpid linguistic manoeuvering that has rendered the German modern classic very enjoyable in English. The narration set in Nazi times as told by a dwarf – who is rather unlikeable by all counts – is an ingenious technique of stripping bad politics to its bare bones and laying out the nonsense that remains.

It is political without being political. There are signs galore in the book for metaphor hunters, but I simply revelled in the language of this remarkable debut work.           

By Günter Grass, Breon Mitchell (translator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Tin Drum as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR On his third birthday Oskar decides to stop growing. Haunted by the deaths of his parents and wielding his tin drum Oskar recounts the events of his extraordinary life; from the long nightmare of the Nazi era to his anarchic adventures is post-war Germany.


Book cover of The Book Thief

Deborah Clark Vance Author Of Sylvie Denied

From Deborah's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Family woman Retired professor Truth seeker Gardener & environmentalist

Deborah's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Deborah Clark Vance Why did Deborah love this book?

This historical fiction novel was beautifully written. Its 1st person omniscient narrator was able to explore the characters in depth as well as include realistic details about life during the rise of Nazi Germany.

By Markus Zusak,

Why should I read it?

35 authors picked The Book Thief as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

'Life affirming, triumphant and tragic . . . masterfully told. . . but also a wonderful page-turner' Guardian
'Brilliant and hugely ambitious' New York Times
'Extraordinary' Telegraph
___

HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE

1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.
Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

SOME IMPORTANT…


Book cover of The Reprieve
Book cover of Message To Adolf, Vol. 1
Book cover of Everything Is Illuminated

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