To mark the anniversary of the D-Day landings in June 1944 we have assembled a list of great novels that, in one way or another, embody the unique nature of World War II.
Eighty years ago this June the beaches of Normandy witnessed the largest seaborne invasion in history. Codenamed Neptune and known colloquially as D-Day, this dramatic event helped to turn the tide of the war in the allies' favour, contributing immeasurably to victory in Europe the following year.
World War II irrevocably changed the path of history forever. It cost the most lives, destroyed the most cities, towns and villages, and displaced the most people in modern history. It spawned the Cold War between the twin superpowers of the United States of America and the Soviet Union, and hastened the pace of decolonisation in the third world. And it was fought against a regime whose almost unimaginable barbarism and inhumanity must serve as a grim warning to contemporary and future leaders and societies.
The novels assembled below vary hugely in their tone, message and style, but all of them share an ability to bring this dramatic period of history to vivid life. Whether taut tales of derring-do and heroism in theatres of war, peerless evocations of the home front, or devastating accounts of internment and concentration camp, these books all speak to a time of immense cruelty and immense courage, when lives were constantly in the balance and freedom hung by the thinnest of threads.
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Explosive, subversive, wild and funny, Joseph Heller's fictional landmark is a hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man's efforts to survive it.
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A bewitching novel that perfectly captures the nihilistic romance of London during the Blitz, when normal rules crumbled in the face of potential annihilation, The Heat of the Day places a love triangle at the heart of a deadly game of wartime espionage.
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Claustrophobic, intense and relentlessly realistic, Buccheim’s underwater masterpiece captures better than any other novel the boredom, confusion and terror of being in a submarine under constant threat.
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Collated from two separate but connected narratives of French life under the Nazi occupation, Suite Francaise is a triumph of memorable characterisation and evocative imagery, mercifully rescued from literary obscurity.
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A profoundly emotional modern classic about courage, rebellion and the enduring power of books, Zusak's sweeping novel centres on a nine-year-old girl in Nazi Germany and her daring reclamation of forbidden literature.
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Combining weighty themes of class, pride and nationalism, and rich in irony and suspense, The Bridge on the River Kwai examines the hubris and pragmatism of a trio of prisoners of war forced to construct a bridge for the Burma-Siam railway.
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The king of the wry, realistic espionage thriller turns his attention to an alternate history of the Second World War in this enthralling account of what British life could have been like under Nazi rule.
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Through luminous prose and dextrous characterisation, All the Light We Cannot See paints a transcendent picture of love and companionship during the Nazi occupation of France.
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A ground-breaking work of fiction that expertly details the horrors of battle and war’s effect on civilians, Life and Fate is the saga of the Shaposhnikovs, a Russian family caught in the conflagration of the Second World War.
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One of the most trenchant and scabrous anti-war novels ever written, Slaughterhouse 5 turns science fiction cliches on their head as it pitches the hapless Billy Pilgrim into the heart of the Dresden bombing.
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Written with the grit and authenticity of the author's own maritime experiences, The Cruel Sea thrillingly documents the adventures of the HMS Compass Rose and her courageous Second World War crew.
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Deriving its power from the authenticity of its narrative, Evelyn Waugh’s fictionalised account of his own wartime experiences in Southern Europe has become arguably his most revered work.
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Three days in the life of a small Ukrainian town are rendered with stunning emotional detail and spare, fragile prose in Seiffert’s account of survival in the face of Nazi atrocities.
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A blistering wartime thriller based on the real-life espionage work at Bletchley Park, Enigma finds a talented codebreaker sensing a spy amongst his colleagues when his girlfriend goes missing.
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Disturbing, harrowing and yet also deeply inspiring in its depiction of humanity and moral action, Keneally's masterpiece endures as a classic account of heroism in the face of a barbaric regime and its horrifying ‘final solution.’
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Winner of the Golden Man Booker, The English Patient is an emotionally devastating reflection on love, betrayal and the shifting sands of memory, centred on a nurse and her wounded charges in an Italian villa at the close of the Second World War.
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With pitch-black humour and nuanced characterisation, Robinson delivers one of the most authentic novels of World War II, as the embattled Hornet Squadron prepare for the enormity of the Battle of Britain.
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Intensely haunting and emotionally devastating, Boyne’s delicate fable takes a child’s eye view of one of the twentieth century's defining atrocities and finds resonances lacking from many adult accounts.
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Told in reverse chronology and wonderfully redolent of the austerity and listlessness of the 1940s and the war’s immediate aftermath, Waters’ masterful drama examines the effects of the Second World War in shaping the inner and exterior lives of those who lived through it.
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Profoundly moving and superbly structured, Styron’s great novel of the Holocaust asks searching questions about the desperation of war and the decisions made under extreme circumstances.
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Set on a South Pacific island under Japanese control, Mailer’s uncompromising study of a band of men in extremis pulsates with brutal energy and whip-smart prose.
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Pacy, muscular and thrillingly exciting, Higgins’ bravura blockbuster about a Nazi plot to kidnap Churchill is a wartime rollercoaster ride of action and intrigue.
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Set in a Japanese POW camp during the Second World War, Flanagan's bravura novel mines themes of regret, love and survival in the tale of an imprisoned army surgeon and the weighty responsibility of protecting the men under his command.
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Alighting on a highly engaging protagonist and a story that blends espionage and sensitive character study, Faulks' exploration of resistance in occupied France is a page turning marvel that operates on a number of emotional levels.
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A heartfelt tale of love born in darkness, inspired by the astonishing true story of Lale Sokolov, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is as remarkable as it is life-affirming.
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A dazzling literary thriller and insightful character study from the author of Any Human Heart, Restless explores both the wartime adventures and peacetime intrigues of Russian émigré Eva Delectorskaya.
Comments
Utterly absent are any of the works of Alexander Baron. The classic is his "From The City, From The Plough" a thinly fictionalised autobiography of his time fighting in Normandy in 1944. My late father, an infantry officer in the later stages of the war, said it was the best encapsulation of the infantry's war he ever read. Baron wrote other novels of the soldier's experience in Italy as well.
Philip McCartyNew reply
Please sign in to respond to comments.Please also note;- Rebecca Bryn - TOUCHING THE WIRE: Auschwitz:1944 A Jewish nurse steps from a cattle wagon into the heart of a young doctor, but can he save her?
RavenReaderIt was incredible.
Christoph Fischer;- The Luck of the Weissensteiners
New reply
Please sign in to respond to comments.I would have added two books to this list. Both published sometime ago. The first a true story by Paul Brickhill Reach for the Sky. Story of Pilot Douglas Bader. Secindly CJ Samson Dominion These books have stayed with me since I first read them
Vaughan JonesPaul Brickhill's book is a good overview, but a bit biased in DB's favour, I find! A more rounded view of him is to be found in Dilip Sakar's "Fighter Ace: The Extraordinary Life of Douglas Bader, Battle of Britain Hero" (https://www.waterstones.com/book/fighter-ace/dilip-sarkar/9781445638195)
SteveNew reply
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