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
World War II era · Literary · ~1939–1945
Literary historical fiction books: World War II era
Looking for historical fiction in the literary lane set during the World War II era (~1939–1945)? Literary historical fiction books: World War II era collects historical novels that match both filters—Global war, resistance, Holocaust, home fronts. Character- and prose-forward novels set in the past HisFic is a free historical fiction discovery app: open a full reading journey with the same era and story-type filters, then add region, themes, or audience. Shelves mix curated historical fiction picks with Open Library titles so even thin combinations still have books to explore.
Shelf · 24 titles
Curated HisFic picks first.
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
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
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
Schindler's List
Thomas Keneally
In German-occupied Kraków, womanizing industrialist Oskar Schindler runs an enamelworks on Jewish labor—then, as the ghetto is liquidated and Płaszów’s commandant turns murder into sport, he spends fortune and SS credit to keep twelve hundred names on a list that means life. Thomas Keneally’s Booker-winning novel is WWII biographical historical fiction of a war profiteer who gambled everything to pull workers out of the path of the camps.
World War II era · Biographical · Literary
Das Boot
Lothar-Günther Buchheim
In the autumn of 1941 a German U-boat commander—the Old Man—and his crew leave the French coast for another Battle of the Atlantic patrol, hunting supply ships through storms while destroyers and depth charges hunt them. Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s 1973 novel (English translation) is World War II military historical fiction of that boat: a war correspondent aboard, weeks underwater, and a crew the Atlantic is more likely to keep than to send home.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
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
Sarah's Key
Tatiana de Rosnay
In July 1942 Paris, ten-year-old Sarah Starzynski is arrested with her parents in the Vél' d'Hiv roundup—but not before she locks her little brother in a cupboard, promising to come back. In 2002, American journalist Julia Jarmond, assigned to the sixtieth anniversary, traces Sarah’s apartment into her own French in-laws’ history. Tatiana de Rosnay’s novel is WWII dual-timeline historical fiction of occupied Paris, a child’s promise, and a family secret that will not stay buried.
World War II era · Late 20th century · Time-slip · Literary
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
From Here to Eternity
James Jones
In February 1941 Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt reports to G Company at Schofield Barracks and refuses to box for the company, while First Sergeant Milt Warden risks his career with the commanding officer’s wife, and both are still in Hawaii when the attack hits Pearl Harbor. James Jones’s 1951 novel is World War II military historical fiction of the Regular Army in the last months before the United States enters the war.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
Life After Life
Kate Atkinson
Ursula Todd is born in 1910 and dies—then is born again, and again—through the Spanish flu, a London Blitz that may or may not kill her, and lives that reach as far as Hitler’s Germany. Kate Atkinson’s Costa-winning novel is WWII time-slip historical fiction of one Englishwoman’s many lives, and the question of whether a second chance can change the war.
World War II era · World War I era · Time-slip · Literary
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
John Boyne
Nine-year-old Bruno is moved from Berlin to a lonely house beside a fence his sister calls Out-With; from his window he sees people in striped pajamas, and he makes a secret friend named Shmuel on the other side. John Boyne’s 2006 novel is WWII Holocaust historical fiction told as a child’s fable: a friendship through the wire at Auschwitz, and a title readers still search by name.
World War II era · Literary · Military & war
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Louis de Bernières
In 1941, Italian captain Antonio Corelli is posted to occupied Cephalonia with his mandolin, and is billeted on Dr Iannis and his daughter Pelagia, who is waiting for a fisherman fiancé gone to war. Louis de Bernières’s novel is WWII historical romance of an Ionian island: occupation, music, and a love tested when the war’s savagery finally arrives.
World War II era · Romance · Literary
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
On the Mediterranean island of Pianosa in 1944, bombardier John Yossarian is told he can be grounded if he is crazy, and that asking to be grounded proves he is sane, while Colonel Cathcart raises the number of missions again. Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel is World War II military historical fiction of an American bomber squadron, the rule they call Catch-22, and a man the paperwork will not let leave the war.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
Empire of the Sun
J. G. Ballard
In December 1941, eleven-year-old Jim Graham is separated from his parents when the Japanese army takes the International Settlement in Shanghai, and he survives the streets until he is interned at the Lunghua camp. J. G. Ballard’s 1984 novel is World War II military historical fiction of the years he spends there—hunger, American air raids on the field beside the camp, and the march out of Lunghua as the war collapses.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje
In the last months of World War II, a burned, nameless man lies in a ruined Italian villa with a Canadian nurse, a maimed thief, and a Sikh sapper—while morphine brings back the North African desert and a love affair that crossed maps and sides. Michael Ondaatje’s Booker-winning novel is WWII historical fiction of occupation, exploration, and the wreckage four people carry out of the war.
World War II era · Interwar · Literary · Romance
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Richard Flanagan
In 1943, Tasmanian surgeon Dorrigo Evans tries to keep Australian POWs alive on the Thai-Burma Death Railway—cholera, beatings, and a Japanese command that measures men in sleepers laid—while the memory of an affair with his uncle’s wife follows him from the jungle into a decorated postwar life he cannot inhabit. Richard Flanagan’s 2013 novel is WWII military historical fiction of the Pacific war, and the Booker Prize winner readers still search by its long title.
World War II era · Military & war · Literary
Atonement
Ian McEwan
In the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis misreads a moment between her sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the housekeeper’s son, and a false accusation follows them into World War II—Dunkirk, a London hospital, and a guilt Briony will spend a lifetime trying to rewrite. Ian McEwan’s novel is literary historical fiction of class, war, and the stories we tell to atone.
World War II era · Interwar · Literary · Military & war
Other story types in World War II era
Looking for a broader list? See World War II era historical fiction or literary historical fiction.