The Second World War has provided the historical setting for plays, literature and films over the years. In the modern day, WW2 fiction is its own genre. It’s not surprising. Fiction authors see a rich source of material in the contradictions, struggles and fundamental moral questions that arise from the constant conflict of individuals, states and other actors during this pivotal period.
At WW2 Reads we focus primarily on nonfiction which has more than enough drama and excitement to keep any student of the period occupied. However there are depths that can be explored by fiction in a way that cannot be paralleled by true storytelling. We present our Top Ten WW2 Fiction Books of All Time.
10. 
One of the only recent WW2 fiction books on the list, Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize winning work more than deserves its place in among the best. As we said in our review of the book at the time: “Doerr navigates the grey edges of human frailty with prose that causes the reader to stop time and again to reflect on a perfectly worded turn of phrase, metaphor or simile… His gift for description paints the brightest hues even in the mind of the blind Marie Laure and makes the story come alive in a way that few fiction works can, especially ones covering the bleakest period in recent human history. Read the full review here.
9. 
It took the gradual passing of time for the full story of the experiences of Japanese and Japanese-American internees to come to light. Younger Japanese-Americans found that their elderly relatives simply would not talk about what had happened in the wake of Executive Order 9066. When The Emperor Was Divine is a tale of one family’s internment from its first moments to their eventual return. Each portion of the journey is told from a different family member’s point of view. Otsuka, whose mother was an internee, cleverly uses of a lack of identifying information to help the reader feel the events in a matter of fact way. Devoid of an “otherness” that an account like this might engender in non-Japanese-American readers, her fictional telling of this important historical period through the eyes of participants of different ages makes the feelings of the characters universal to all.
8. 
John Hersey is probably most well known for his nonfiction account of survivors in his work Hiroshima but The Wall deserves its own place as one of the best WW2 fiction books of all time. The story is based loosely on journal transcripts recovered in the Warsaw Ghetto and looks at the daily struggle of Jews inside the ghetto under Nazi occupation. The slow, inevitable realization that the Nazis are not simply displacing but exterminating Jews that are removed from within the walls, followed by the fierce resistance to the fascists by those simply trying to survive, makes for an intriguing and compelling read. Even in the midst of the cruel chaos of the ghetto, Hersey’s storytelling reminds readers of the potential for great acts of kindness, bravery and determination by those facing incredible odds.
7. 
In this brilliant book Roth imagines an alternative history where FDR loses the 1940 election to Charles Lindbergh who rides the isolation wave to become president, appease Hitler and spread anti-semitism throughout the United States. Roth takes the turmoil of 1940s Europe and brings it home. Many neighbors are informants, others become unexpected allies like those that teach the protagonist’s father how to fire weapons in self protection for the first time. Everyone grows increasingly afraid. Roth is right to zero in on a period that was the weakest point in FDR’s years as president. In 1938 a second recession had taken hold and FDR’s popularity slipped while many Americans remained committed to stay out of the war as things got worse abroad. Isolationism was an incredibly popular position before Pearl Harbor. Dark horse candidate and former Democrat Wendell Willkie became the eventual nominee, not Lindbergh, but the chaotic Republican convention that year meant it certainly could have been otherwise. Thankfully, it was not.
6. 
Bombardier Yossarian is one of the best known characters in modern literature. He sees the absurdity of his situation yet is unable to escape from it. The Catch-22 of the title is the idea that only an insane person would continue to participate in bombing runs where chance of survival was increasingly thin. So anyone who refuses to do so is “sane” and therefore cannot be relieved from duty. It is certainly appropriate that Heller uses the insanity of the bombardier in his work – before 1944 a completed tour of duty was 25 missions. Only one of every four bombardiers completed their tour. Heller does an excellent job of exploring the issues of good, evil, right, wrong, sanity and insanity that were often part of the every day life of those caught up in the absurdity and random nature of the destruction of war.
5. 
Full disclosure: This is the only book on the list to feature aliens! This story is a fascinating mix of genres and expectations. Known primarily for its graphic description of the firebombing of Dresden, protagonist Billy Pilgrim moves back and forth in time in a non-linear look at major events in life and beyond. As with other books on the list disorientation and unreality are features of this novel. Vonnegut was a POW in Dresden, Germany during the Allied firebombing and tells this portion of the tale in the graphic detail of a survivor. Like Catch-22 it takes a stark look at the absurdity created by war but goes beyond that to explore the meaning of existence itself.
4. 
“The Boat” in English, Das Boot is one of the most gripping accounts of the war from the German perspective. By the end of the war, submariners serving on U-Boats had a 75% casualty rate. Buchheim does an amazing job of describing the claustrophobic, smelly, death traps that were German U-Boats during the Battle of the Atlantic. Exhausted, trapped and harassed constantly by Allied depth charges, the crew struggles to fulfill mission after mission – not so much for “the Fuhrer” as for the ability to just go home again. A home that no longer existed and was being systematically obliterated by Allied bombs and Nazi collapse. The brilliance of Das Boot is its ability to put you in the shoes of the enemy and see the war from their perspective in its horrible reality.
3. 
Actually two books, Herman Wouk’s brilliant WW2 saga is one of the best fiction accounts of the Second World War. The story follows the Henry family through the beginning of the war through to its completion. Victor “Pug” Henry is the head of the family and a naval officer who Wouk brilliantly and seamlessly weaves into many important historical events. The underlying personal story of the Henry family does not overwhelm the accurate and rich historical narrative. Instead it adds a vital element to understanding the war as not merely a series of chronological historical facts but a personally disruptive event that changed lives and altered the course of families for generations. The story is so compelling that after finishing the nearly 2,000 pages that make up this masterpiece you will be sad that it’s over.
2. 
What is most striking about Fallada’s book is how utterly “alone” its protagonists are. They struggle against incredible odds to get their anti-Nazi message heard. We end up rooting for them strongly. Here, after all, are the Germans that we always wondered about. Those who resisted, those who silently fought back. Despite the reader’s expectation of new recruits and a budding anti-fascist movement, a horrific reality begins to set in. The anonymous messages of the heroes designed to encourage resistance are ignored. Their postcards are quickly turned over to the authorities as other Germans are worried about being seen as collaborating. It is only a matter of time before our heroes meet their sad fate – alone. Alone in Berlin is what happens when fear leads to conformity and makes accomplices of those who are “just going about their daily lives”. It makes former neighbors into informants & dangerous enemies forever despised by history and it serves as a chilling reminder of the hopelessness of resistance once brutality and evil have conquered a society.
1. 
Grossman’s “Life and Fate” is a classic work of WW2 fiction. His depiction of the internal thoughts, attitudes and contradictions inside every human mind during a time of incredible historical turmoil is absolute genius. The pure truth that pours forth from every page is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit under incredible odds and its absolute destruction under totalitarianism, bureaucracy and sycophancy of whatever stripe.
Particularly moving are the letter from Viktor Shtrum’s mother and another section where he describes in great detail the process through which tortured souls arriving on a train get taken through the stages of the gas chamber. Despite the emptiness one feels upon reading the thoughts of these minds so readily extinguished in this great conflict, there is a sense of great lessons for humanity’s future tied up in their stories.
Quite simply this is an exquisite masterpiece of Russian literature and Second World War historical fiction. Written in 1959, having not been printed in English until 1980 due to suppression by the Soviet regime, this work, like the beautiful human spirit that so eagerly presents itself in the pages of this tome, has an irrepressible nature that will continue to inspire those who take the time to learn to its historical lessons.
Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments!
How about “The Kingdom of the Air” by C.T. Wells (published 2016)? Multi-award winning WW2 aviation/espionage thriller…
I will check it out – thanks for the recommendation!