The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah
Two French sisters take different paths of survival and resistance under Nazi occupation.
World War II era · Military & war · Family saga
Historical fiction · ~1939–1945
WWII historical fiction books
World War II era historical fiction (~1939–1945): Global war, resistance, Holocaust, home fronts. From resistance and home fronts to the Holocaust and the Pacific, WWII historical fiction remains one of the most searched corners of the genre. Use HisFic to filter by place and story type—military epic, literary novel, romance, or mystery—without endless keyword scrolling.
Curated on HisFic (18)
Hand-picked titles from HisFic's catalog tagged for this era.
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
A girl steals books in Nazi Germany; Death narrates a story of words and survival.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
Death narrates the story of a girl who steals books in Nazi Germany—and the family that hides a Jewish man.
World War II era · Literary · Family saga
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
A blind French girl and a German boy’s paths converge in occupied Saint-Malo during World War II.
World War II era · Interwar · Literary · Adventure & epic
Outlander
Diana Gabaldon
A WWII nurse walks through standing stones into Jacobite Scotland—and a complicated love story.
Early modern · World War II era · Time-slip · Romance
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee
Four generations of a Korean family navigate life under Japanese rule and in Japan.
World War II era · Cold War · Family saga · Literary
The Rose Code
Kate Quinn
In 1940 three women—society girl Osla, East End clerk Mab, and shy Beth—are recruited to Bletchley Park to break German codes, then torn apart by secrecy and betrayal. In 1947 an encrypted letter pulls them back together to hunt a traitor still hiding in the rose code—World War II historical fiction of friendship, cryptanalysis, and a postwar reckoning.
World War II era · Cold War · Time-slip · Mystery
A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles
Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in Moscow’s Metropol Hotel as the Soviet century remakes the world outside. Over three decades he builds a life of friendship, purpose, and quiet resistance within the hotel’s walls.
Interwar · World War II era · Literary
The Bronze Horseman
Paullina Simons
In June 1941, Leningrad still has white nights when Tatiana Metanova meets Red Army officer Alexander Belov—then Hitler’s armies close the siege and hunger, secrets, and an impossible love take the city. Paullina Simons’s opening Bronze Horseman novel is World War II historical romance of the siege of Leningrad: war, family, and a passion that has to survive the winter.
World War II era · Romance · Military & war
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
A writer corresponds with islanders who survived German occupation—and finds a home among them.
World War II era · Military & war · Romance
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Heather Morris
Based on a true story: a Slovakian Jew forced to tattoo prisoners at Auschwitz falls in love against impossible odds.
World War II era · Biographical · Romance
Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden
A girl sold into Kyoto’s geisha world navigates art, rivalry, and war.
Interwar · World War II era · Literary · Family saga
Hungry Ghosts
Kevin Jared Hosein
A Trinidadian epic of hunger, ambition, and a missing boy (Walter Scott Prize 2024).
World War II era · Cold War · Literary · Family saga
The Garden of Evening Mists
Tan Twan Eng
A judge in Malaya tends a Japanese garden and confronts wartime memory (Walter Scott Prize 2013).
World War II era · Cold War · Literary
The Matchbox Girl
Alice Jolly
A nonverbal girl’s life in Nazi-era Austria, told with unusual power (Walter Scott Prize 2026).
Interwar · World War II era · Literary
The Plot Against America
Philip Roth
Alternate America where Lindbergh wins the presidency (SAH Prize 2005).
World War II era · Literary · Time-slip
These Days
Lucy Caldwell
Two sisters endure the Belfast Blitz over four devastating days (Walter Scott Prize 2023).
World War II era · Literary · Military & war
Tightrope
Simon Mawer
A female SOE agent’s wartime courage and Cold War aftershocks (Walter Scott Prize 2016).
World War II era · Cold War · Literary · Military & war
Story types in World War II era
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