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World War II Historical Fiction

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The Vanishing Sky
by L. Annette Binder

A mother in a rural 1945 German community protects her traumatized soldier son from her husband’s escalating nationalism, while her younger son flees the Hitler Youth to embark on a perilous journey home. A first novel.

Dr. B.
by Daniel Birnbaum

A German Jewish journalist escapes to Sweden with his family at the start of Word War II and begins working for a publisher that evades German censorship and ultimately works with British intelligence agents producing anti-Nazi propaganda.

The Italian Ballerina
by Kristy Cambron

A prima ballerina. Two American medics. And a young Jewish girl with no name... At the height of the Nazi occupation of Rome, an unlikely band of heroes comes together to save Italian Jews in this breathtaking World War II novel based on real historical events.

The Race for Paris
by Meg Waite Clayton

Determined to be the first photographer to capture images of Paris' liberation from the Nazis, Liv defies orders and teams up with a fellow woman reporter and a British photojournalist to race to Paris ahead of Allied forces.

The Daughter's Tale
by Armando Lucas Correa

A tale of love and redemption based on the 1944 Oradour-sur-Glane massacre follows an octogenarian's receipt of a cache of letters, written by her mother during World War II, that uncover decades of secrets.

The Queen's Secret
by Karen Harper

Endearing herself to the British people with her kindness and strength, Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the wife of George VI and mother of a future Elizabeth II, orchestrates Edward VIII's exile while hiding damaging secrets.

The Animals at Lockwood Manor
by Jane Healey

Safeguarding a natural history museum collection that has been relocated to a country manor during World War II, Hetty finds herself stalked by an unknown thief who tests the limits of her sanity. A first novel.

The Twilight World
by Werner Herzog

In his first novel, the great filmmaker tells the extraordinary story of Hiroo Onoda, a former soldier famous for having defended a small island in the Philippines for 29 years after WWII, unaware the fighting was over.

Angels of the Pacific
by Elise Hooper

Inspired by the extraordinary true stories of World War II's American Army nurses famously known as the Angels of Bataan and the unsung contributions of Filipinas of the resistance, this novel transports us to a remarkable era of hope, bravery, perseverance, and ultimately--victory.

Basil's War
by Stephen Hunter

An accomplished agent in the British Army, Basil St. Florian embarks on his toughest assignment yet as he, going undercover in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, searches for an ecclesiastic manuscript that holds the key to a code that could prevent the death of millions.

The Fervor
by Alma Katsu

In 1944, Meiko Briggs and her daughter, Aiko, held in an internment camp in the Midwest, discover a mysterious disease spreading among the interned is linked to a demon from the stories of Meiko's childhood, hellbent on infiltrating their already strange world.

Those Who are Saved
by Alexis Landau

As a Russian Jewish émigré to France, Vera's wealth cannot protect her or her four-year-old-daughter, Lucie, once the Nazis occupy the country. Ordered to report to an internment camp, Vera has just a few hours to make an impossible choice: bring Lucie with her to the camp, or put her into hiding? Believing the war will end soon, Vera chooses to leave Lucie in safety. She cannot know that she and her husband will have an opportunity to escape, to flee to America. She cannot know that Lucie will be too far to reach in time.

The Wartime Sisters
by Lynda Cohen Loigman

Reunited after an estrangement at the beginning of World War II, two Brooklyn sisters, one an officer's wife, the other a widow and factory laborer, are shattered by the revelations of a mysterious figure from the past.

The Kew Gardens Girls at War
by Posy Lovell

Inspired by real events, a touching novel about a new class of courageous women who worked at London's historic Kew Gardens during World War II.

The Song of the Jade Lily
by Kirsty Manning

Returning to Australia to attend her grandfather's deathbed, a heartbroken woman learns the remarkable story of her grandmother, a Jewish refugee who forged a fateful friendship with a local in World War II Shanghai.

The Librarian Spy
by Madeline Martin

Posing as a librarian in Lisbon while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence during WWII, Ava, as the battle in Europe rages, connects with a woman who runs a printing press in occupied France through coded messages that bring hope in the face of war.

The Ways We Hide
by Kristina McMorris

Fenna Vos, who uses her honed ability to control her surroundings and elude entrapments to suppress the trauma and tragedy of her youth, is called upon by British Intelligence to create escape tools to thwart the Germans--a mission forcing her to confront her past in a treacherous world.

How to Find Your Way in the Dark
by Derek B. Miller

After losing both his parents in a short period of time in 1938, Sheldon Horowitz moves in with his Uncle Nate’s family where he contends with his cousins, World War II, mafia hitmen and Catskills comedians.

The Whalebone Theatre
by Joanna Quinn

In 1928, 12-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave and the rest of the household build a theatre from a whales skeletal rib cage, where imagination comes to life and where her acting comes into play years later as she becomes a British secret agent on a dangerous mission in Nazi-occupied France.

The Diamond Eye
by Kate Quinn

Known as Lady Death--a lethal hunter of Nazis--Mila Pavlichenko, sent to America on a goodwill tour, forms an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and a connection with a silent fellow sniper, offering her a chance at happiness until her past returns with a vengeance.

Our Darkest Night
by Jennifer Robson

Hiding from the Nazis in the guise of a Christian farmer's wife, a Jewish woman is met with suspicion by a Nazi official who harbors a vendetta against the former seminary student posing as her husband.

The Yellow Bird Sings
by Jennifer Rosner

Poland, 1941. After the Jews in their town are rounded up, Roza and her five-year-old daughter, Shira, spend day and night hidden in a farmer's barn. Forbidden from making a sound, only the yellow bird from her mother's stories can sing the melodies Shira composes in her head.

Roza does all she can to take care of Shira and shield her from the horrors of the outside world. They play silent games and invent their own sign language. But then the day comes when their haven is no longer safe, and Roza must face an impossible choice: whether to keep her daughter close by her side, or give her the chance to survive by letting her go.

The Kitchen Front
by Jennifer Ryan

An indebted young widow, a freedom-seeking kitchen maid, the wife of a wealthy but unkind man and a trained chef navigating sexism compete for a once-in-a-lifetime spot hosting a BBC cooking program during World War II.

Eternal
by Lisa Scottoline

An aspiring writer, an athlete from a professional cyclist family and a mathematics prodigy find their bond tested by a love triangle and the spread of anti-Semitism and fascism in 1937 Italy. By the Edgar Award-winning author of Someone Knows.

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