World War II Novels

World War II Novels

World War II Novels

This year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, a historical event that, due to its horror, still lives on in the hearts and collective imagination. Almost everything has been written about this particular event: novels, poetry, essays, and so on. However, not all proposals show the respect they should towards the victims and their terrible fate.

However, There are titles that contain extensive research on the war, or that portray pain in such a human way that it is impossible not to imagine oneself there, amidst the noise, the loneliness and the fear. These volumes represent some of the greatest tributes that certain authors have made to the society that had the misfortune of being born in the wrong time and place.

Best novels about World War II

A woman in Berlin (2013), anonymous

This would be a wonderful novel if it were fiction, but it turns out to be an autobiography. The identity of the person who wrote it is unknown., but two things are known: that survived the Second World War, and that she was a lady. However, having entered, crossed and returned from hell did not exempt her from subsequent suffering, because, after the defeat of the Germans, the Russians entered.

The Nightingale (2016), by Kristin Hannah

The story follows the lives of two sisters living in occupied France. In this context, The author shows her different ways of facing martyrdom and the loss of resistance due to the presence of the Germans. in her country. Many readers were introduced to Kristin Hannah through this captivating novel, which is worth revisiting to understand indirect victims.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2023), by John Boyne

It presents the friendship between two children who experience the war from different sides of the concentration camp's barbed wire fence. Despite their differences, they are still innocent little boys fantasizing about what they will be in the future. As the plot progresses, the reader can understand that the ending will be touching. and devastating in equal parts, and that is a turning point from which there is no return.

28 days (2016), by David Safier

Can a comedian create one of the most dramatic stories ever written about World War II? If he has David Safier's level of insight, yes, it is possible. This novel narrates the twenty-eight days that the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw resisted the Nazi siege. To make matters worse, the main character is just a teenager who will be forced to grow up very quickly in one of the worst moments for humanity.

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The greatest love (2025), by Olga Watkins

Some might assume that love is not a priority in war, but this title explores exactly the opposite. The novel tells how a couple separated during the conflict and the post-war period ends up travelling all over Europe in order to see each other again.Watkins' words, settings, and characters demonstrate that this universal sentiment is defined by courage and the need to protect those you love.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018), by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This is an epistolary novel that tells a story of survival on the island of Guernsey. This is one of the British Channel Islands and a strategic position during the war, which determined the fate of most of its inhabitants, who, helpless, can only wait for everything to end while trying to stay on their feet and not lose their sanity or their identity.

The Auschwitz Dancer (2019), by Edith Eger

Here we have another autobiography, although, on this occasion, the author does not hide her identity. Edith Eger was a dancer who worked for Mengele in Auschwitz. Instead of wallowing in the pain of her experience, she uses all her knowledge to create a psychological treatise about her experiences in the concentration camp, also addressing the development of her clinical practice as a mental health professional.

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Man's Search for Meaning (2021), by Viktor Frankl

This book is very similar to the previous one: Both seek relief through the sanitation of the victims' minds. Frankl's novel is divided into two parts: the first recounts his experiences in the concentration camp, the second is an authentic psychological treatise that speaks about the benefits of logotherapy, a theory that he coined, in part, as a consequence of the mistreatment he suffered in captivity.

Ana Frank's diary

No one seeking to understand World War II through letters can skip this volume, and not because it is a masterpiece—that is a matter of listening to each critic—but because It addresses the real life of a young girl who had to resort to a personal diary to be able to express everything she felt. while growing up as a Jew in the midst of a conflict that sought to hunt down her people.

The Auschwitz Librarian (2013), by Antonio G. Iturbe

It is curious how one of the volumes that best demonstrates the love for literature deals precisely with a time when reading freely was almost always prohibited. In addition to this, Iturbe examines love through many prisms: the one we profess to family, to art and to the human being itself. Likewise, the novel presents masterful documentation and an aura of an indisputable bedside book.

The light that you can't see, by Anthony Doerr

Despite the nature of its content, this novel can be considered one of the most beautiful that has been written addressing the context of the Second World War. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2015, the plot follows the adventures of a young blind French girl and a German soldier. who ends up getting involved in war almost by chance, out of pure obligation. In the midst of chaos, these characters find relief in the small, everyday things.


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