As I’ve said before, there are two kinds of historical fiction readers: those who can’t get enough of World War II settings and those who would prefer to read about any other era. Today’s post goes out to everyone who can’t get enough of this time period. While I love all manner of historical fiction, many World War II novels are among my favorites. I’m drawn to true stories of unsung heroines and depictions of the war from a different vantage point than I’ve encountered before.
WWII fiction has been around since the war itself but it seemed to grow in popularity in the 2000s. That shows no signs of abating any time soon. Many theories have been posited about why readers and authors gravitate toward this historical fiction subgenre and there’s probably a grain of truth in most of them. But at this point, it might boil down to the simple fact that these books sell. Because so many World War II novels exist, it’s incumbent for authors to find a new angle so their book will stand out from the rest. That fresh take is likely why readers gravitate toward it and keep the interest going.
World War II novels cover a vast historical fiction landscape. While I’m sharing some of my favorites today, this list is a tiny fraction of what’s on offer. That’s where you come in. I hope you’ll share your favorites in the comments.
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This novel tells the story of Nancy Wake, the unsung French Resistance leader who was #1 on the Gestapo’s most-wanted list by the end of the war. The real Nancy was larger than life; bold, bawdy, and brazen—a woman who, as the only female among thousands of French men, was not only respected as an equal, but revered as a leader. The story is set during WWII, yes—a setting the author says she came to kicking and screaming, because there are a lot of WWII stories these days—but at its heart this is a story of friendship, and of love. Nancy leaps off the page with her Victory Red lipstick, snappy one-liners, and incredible bravery. More info →
The titular hotel is a real place: it’s Seattle’s Panama Hotel. In this fictional story, an old man looks back to his 1940s childhood and fondly remembers his friendship—and maybe something more—with his young Japanese friend Keiko. They lose touch when Keiko and her family are evacuated during the Japanese internment. (I learned so little about this in my U.S. history classes that when I first read the book ten years ago I kept googling Ford’s historical references to see if they really happened. They all did.) More info →
Mah draws readers in to her historical/family saga with diary entries and a dual timeline, as Kate unearths the secrets her family hid for decades. Kate heads to her family’s vineyard estate in Burgundy, in need of a retreat while she studies for the Master of Wine Examination. She can’t afford to fail again and she hopes this will allow her to reconnect with family while learning about Burgundian vintages. As she helps her cousins clear out the basement, she stumbles across a diary and a treasure trove of wine. Her great-aunt was a teen during WWII but it’s not clear whether her family sided with the Resistance or the Nazis, nor can she figure out what happened to several bottles of wine missing from the cellar’s collection. More info →
I knew I had to read this when my husband (who beat me to it) couldn’t stop sharing Cleave’s well-turned sentences aloud, and even many years later, I still think about this book all the time. This tale of four young, warm, wise-cracking friends in wartime England is a standout in the WWII historical genre. Through their characters, Cleave throws issues of wartime morality, race, and class into sharp relief. This is for you if you love a great story and admire a beautifully-rendered, wry turn of phrase. Discussing this book with author Chris Cleave in MMD Book Club in 2016 made me love the novel even more. More info →
Few of the WWII historical fiction stories I’ve read focus on the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, a group that was created by the U.S. Army to help defeat Germany and Japan. Ida Mae’s father was a Black pilot who taught her to fly planes, though her race and gender prevent her from following in his footsteps. Eager to soar, Ida is ready to join WASP as a way to fly and to help her brother who is fighting in the Pacific. But when the new organization denies her entry based on her race, Ida’s only choice is to pass as white in order to live her dream. Smith expertly explores identity, family, and legacy while immersing her readers in history in this fantastic YA novel. More info →
You know about the Titanic, and maybe even the Lusitania disaster (the subject of Erik Larson’s Dead Wake). But you’ve likely never heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy of 1945, though the lives lost outnumber the people who died in those two better-known disasters at sea. The ship was hugely over capacity when it sank in the Baltic Sea after being hit by Soviet torpedoes. Told in four distinct characters’ voices, that of a young nurse, a Prussian soldier, an expecting mother, and a delusional Nazi recruit converge. Sepetys excels at writing historically accurate, page-turning YA novels equally beloved by tweens, teens, and grown-ups. More info →
In 1948, the Empire Windrush arrived in Essex, London, carrying 492 Jamaican immigrants who were recruited by the British government to help rebuild the economy after WWII. In her debut novel, Louise Hare tells a fictional story about recent immigrant Lawrie Matthews who works as a postman by day, a jazz musician by night. In between, he makes time to woo the girl next door. When Lawrie discovers something terrible on his way to work one day, he becomes a criminal suspect, despite all evidence to the contrary. The local community turns against him in a show of xenophobia and racism, dashing his dreams for the future. With vivid historical detail, Hare combines mystery and romance and provides a decidedly hopeful ending. More info →
This WWII adventure will appeal to fans of historical fiction and underdog stories. Nine-year-old Ada has never been allowed to leave her family’s small apartment. Her foot is twisted and her mother is too ashamed of the physical impairment to let Ada out in public. When the war arrives in London, Ada’s little brother is put on a train to safety and Ada makes a daring escape to join him. Out in the countryside, a woman named Susan begrudgingly takes the children into her home. There, Ada experiences a freedom she never experienced in the city, learning to read and ride horses and all the while wriggling her way into Susan’s heart. Readers will be riveted by the danger, daring, and risks that both Ada and Susan take to discover true belonging and a place to call home. More info →
The premise of this 2023 Minimalist Summer Reading Guide selection is rooted in real life. In 2003, Anne Berest’s mother Lelia received an old postcard addressed to Berest’s deceased grandmother. The card is blank except for four names written in a shaky hand: Ephraim, Emma, Noemie, and Jaques. These names belong to her grandparents, aunt, and uncle, all of whom were murdered at Auschwitz. Anne was about to give birth so the postcard was put away and then forgotten. But when Anne remembers the postcard nearly two decades later, she becomes determined to find out who sent it and why. This sweeping French novel deals with history and memory, hope and grief, past and present French culture, and trauma. Translated from the French by Tina Kover. More info →
When Georgia Hunter started getting curious about her family history, a few questions put to the right relatives uncovered something she didn’t expect: a sweeping multi-generational drama just begging to be written down—and so she did. Told over the span of six years, the story follows the Jewish Kurc family as they face exile, escape death, and struggle to survive during WWII. While the war scatters the siblings across the globe, they never give up the hope of one day being reunited. To hear more about Hunter’s writing experience, listen to WSIRN Episode 157: The stories behind the stories we love to read. Readers may also be interested in Hunter’s newest WWII novel called One Good Thing, just released in March 2025, about two female Jewish friends living in Italy during the war. More info →
Talk about a strong premise! In 1960s London, a young woman named Hazel unwraps a parcel from America while working at Hogan’s Rare Book Shop. She is gobsmacked to find an illustrated children’s book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. This book shouldn’t exist, because only two people in the world know about Whisperwood: Hazel and her sister Flora, who created the fairy tale together while billeted in Oxfordshire during WWII. Hazel believes the book is proof that her sister didn’t die, as presumed, back in 1940, and embarks on a quest to find her. A heartfelt historical novel about the power of stories, forgiveness, and love. More info →
Potok’s best-selling debut about two Jewish boys growing up in 1940s Brooklyn, published in 1967, is now considered a classic. Danny is Orthodox, while Reuven is Hasidic. While Reuven recovers from an eye injury courtesy of baseball, he listens to coverage of D-Day on the radio. After the war ends and the horrors of the Holocaust emerge, Danny and Reuven’s fathers have very different ideas about their sons and what role Israel should play in their future. Nominated for the National Book Award, this explores the nuances of religious differences, assimilation in the US, and the gift of friendship. More info →
Lovers of hopeful historical fiction, books about books, and Blitz-era stories, take note: three women are brought together by London’s Bethnal Green library in the early days of the Blitz in WWII London. Juliet is the newly appointed Deputy Librarian, who shocks patrons (and her male bosses) by moving the branch to the nearest tube station to evade Nazi bombers—and bring residents some measure of solace and distraction during the raids. Katie is a young library clerk with a secret, whose imminent departure for university is surprisingly disrupted. Sophie is a Jewish refugee who escaped Germany’s dangers only to find herself employed by a cruel boss in London, but she finds strength from and safety with her library friends. More info →
This historical sticks to the WWII setting of Life After Life and A God in Ruins but stands on its own. It’s 1940, and an eighteen-year-old girl named Juliet, in search of a job, is surprised to find herself plunged into the world of espionage. It took me more than a few chapters to get oriented but this book cemented Atkinson as one of my must-read authors. I especially loved its droll British sense of humor. More info →
The story behind this story is heartbreaking: Irène Némirovsky, a Ukrainian Jew, was a bestselling author in Paris when she began working on this novel in the early 1940s. In 1942, she was deported to Auschwitz, where she died one month later. She had written the first two parts of this planned five-part novel before her arrest, which were hidden in a suitcase. Her daughters had the manuscript for years, not knowing what they possessed, until they finally took a look and did not find the journals they expected. They published this sixty-four years later, as translated by Sandra Smith. The connected vignettes explore the exodus from Paris before the Nazi invasion, as well as the German occupation of a small village. This is possibly the earliest work of fiction about World War II. More info →
Inspired by a true story she stumbled upon in the historical archives (which would totally spoil the big reveal—you’re going to have to read the author’s note to learn all!), Quinn weaves together three perspectives to tell a gripping story set in the aftermath of WWII: Jordan is a Boston teenager who works in her father’s Boston antiques store, Ian is a British journalist determined to bring his brother’s killer— known as “the Huntress”—to justice, and Nina is a Russian fighter pilot and the only woman alive who can identify the Huntress. There’s no weak link in the story; each thread is fascinating—and when they began to come together I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. A mesmerizing tale of war crimes, coming of age, love and fidelity, and the pursuit of justice, with stirring implications for today. More info →
This historical novel is inspired by the life of Mildred Harnack, a real historical figure whose story was previously untold because the U.S. government deliberately buried it after the war. Harnack was one of dozens of members of the network of American and German resistance fighters the Gestapo called die Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra). The bulk of the action takes place between the wars, beginning in 1929, so you see events escalate over time through these women’s eyes. The setup feels leisurely but the payoff is worth it. More info →
Meissner takes us back to the London Blitz through the eyes of two sisters. Fifteen-year-old Emmy Downtree dreams of becoming a fashion designer but her younger sister Julia needs her as they adjust to being evacuated from London and settling into their foster home in Cotswold. When the sisters get separated, one will carry a burden for the rest of her life, until she meets a young American scholar who is eager to learn her secrets. Enjoyable and moving. More info →
The characters in this captivating war novel are fascinating and altogether unexpected, and the book’s setting couldn’t be lovelier: much of the action takes place in Saint-Malo, France, a unique walled port city on the English Channel. Though it is a heavy hardcover, it doesn’t feel overlong: its 500+ pages give Doerr plenty of room to build a believable world, and give his characters depth and feeling. An intelligent, detailed, literary novel that stays with readers long after turning the final page, and the 2015 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. More info →
Nearly all of Morton’s novels are beloved, but in my opinion, The Secret Keeper is her finest. When she was 16, Laurel witnessed a violent crime involving her mother, Dorothy. The family hushed it up, and Laurel hasn’t spoken of it since. Now, fifty years later, Dorothy is dying, and Laurel is determined to unravel the secret while there’s still time. As Laurel pursues her clues, the story flips back and forth in time between today and the years before and during World War II, including the London Blitz, which Morton recreates so vividly you can almost hear the bombs dropping. Filled with twists and turns that will keep you guessing to the end. More info →
What are your favorite World War II novels? Please share in the comments.
P.S. Historical fiction that isn’t set during World War II and 33 historical fiction books avid readers can’t get enough of.
