WW1 + WW2 Novels

[kingofashes]

While in the thread about great battles I got to thinking about Birdsong and All Quiet on the Western Front and how much I loved those books. Not only because they are well written novels but also because I love reading about the two world wars.

Does anybody else jump at the chance to read books set during these times? any* recommendations would be much appreciated.

Edit:* I like watching documentaries aswel so I'd like to know of any decent history books not just fiction.

[UndergroundMan]

I enjoyed "The Painted Bird". Also, "Catch 22", and "A Farewell to Arms" come to mind. But "All Quiet on the Western Front" is probably still my favorite war novel of all time. Oh, and "Slaughterhouse Five".

[Maithanet]

The best history/nonfiction I've ever read of World War Two was Japan at War: An Oral History. It does a fantastic job of portraying the thoughts of Japanese people during the war, the decisions they made, the sacrifices and the madness. Some of the vingettes are really heartbreaking, and it really captures what it is like to lose a war.

Two good nonfiction WWII survival stories:

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. The story of Louis Zemperini, an American Olympic distance runner who became a bomber pilot in WW2, is shot down in the Pacific, and then survives months in the ocean and then years in Japanese captivity. His physical feats and survival were truly amazing. Hillenbrand is a good author too, she wrote Seabiscuit, if you're into horses.

We Die Alone by David Howarth. A Norwegian commando, Jan Baalsrud, is trapped and alone in occupied Norway, and must endure the impossible to survive.

In both those stories, if what happened were fiction, I don't think I would believe that someone could survive what they went through. I know I wouldn't.

[deleted01]

I recently read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which I'd rate as one of the best books I've read in a long time. Leah Fleming also writes a lot of war stories, usually based in England.

[3CityApache]

I enjoyed "The Painted Bird". Also, "Catch 22", and "A Farewell to Arms" come to mind. But "All Quiet on the Western Front" is probably still my favorite war novel of all time. Oh, and "Slaughterhouse Five".

I second The Painted Bird, Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse Five and I would add Mother Night by Vonnegut and All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque.

Edit. Oh, and of course The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hašek, if you are interested in a somewhat original view on WWI.

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

Thin Red Line.

[Peadar]

I would definitely recommend Storm of Steel, a first-hand account of WWI combat written by a German soldier.

[Red Templar]

I recently just finished Ken Follett's Fall of Giants. Excellent historical fiction based on WWI and the events that led up to it. Personally, I've always been more fascinated with WWI than it's more popular sibling WWII, mainly due to all the unresolved and mishandled issues left hanging at the end of WWI, effectively paving the way and ultimately causing WWII.

This is the first book of an intended trilogy, BTW. I've started reading the second book, Winter of the World, which covers the events of WWII and follows the same familes introduced in the first novel. I'm only a few pages in, though.

I'm very impressed with Follett's ability to weave the history in with the narrative. Especially his ability to illustrate the lack of desire by all sides to engage in a war, yet everyone inevitably sees coming anyway.

[TrackerNeil]

A must-read for all WWII buffs is Fateful Choices, by Ian Kershaw. Totally changed my thinking about the way war decisions were made.

[Darth Richard]

Is Fall of Giants filled with rape?

[Larry of the Lawn]

I don't know if plays count but Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht is one I appreciated reading.

[Larry.]

Well, let's see...I'll list both fiction and relevant non-fiction for the periods:

World War I

Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (one of THE WWI cultural histories to read, but it was a popular bestseller back in the day as well)

Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring (non-fiction; covers the rise of modernism with the WWI and interwar periods being the main focus)

Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front; The Road Back; Three Comrades (first two form a duology, the third a sort of thematic companion to the two; second book covers immediate post-WWI Germany)

Ernest Jünger, Storm of Steel (another good fictional perspective from the German point of view)

Jaroslav Hašek, The Good Soldier Svejk ("unfinished," but a great comico-tragic look at the war from a Czech perspective)

John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers (excellent look at the war from an American perspective; author was a soldier)

Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun (anti-war novel set in WWI featuring an American soldier whose devastating injury was the inspiration for Metallica's "One")

Pat Barker, Regeneration Trilogy (published in the early 1990s, these three novels dealing with Siegfried Sassoon and other British soldier-poets received wide critical/popular acclaim)

Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That (Graves' memoirs focuses on his experiences as an officer in the Western trenches)

Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (novel based in part on his experiences as an ambulance driver on the Italian front)

World War II

Paul Fussell, Wartime (a look at soldiers' humor, language, and storytelling that is presented in an engaging fashion)

Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (brilliant novel that captures the absurdity of war/command)

Most of the other WWII-era novels and histories that come to mind focus much more on National Socialism and the Holocaust than anything related to what you seem to be asking for here. With one exception, I tried to limit things to either cultural histories or novels written by those who participated in the fighting.

[Toby Frost]

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household - set in Britain just before WW2, involving a big-game hunter on the run from Nazi spies. Has one of the best "how will he escape?" scenes ever. Apparently the sequel has an awe-inspiring body count, including a fight with a lion. A subtle, philosophical work.

The Garden of Evening Mists and The Gift of Rain by Tan Twang Eng - 2 more serious novels about the war in the East and its effects on civilians. Grim, but very good indeed.

Enigma by Robert Harris is a thriller set around the Bletchley Park decoding centre during WW2.

Fatherland, also by Harris and The Plot Against America by Philip Roth are interesting alternate histories related to WW2.

Quartered Safe Out Here by George Macdonald Fraser - war memoirs by the author of Flashman. At times funny, sad and very exciting. Fraser comes across as an angry and sometimes sour old man, and there's a lot to think about here. It feels very convincing.

Road of Bones by Fergal Keane - an account of the pivotal battle between the British Empire and Japan. Not a novel, but told in a very journalistic way, quite like In Cold Blood. The same campaign is explained in Defeat Into Victory by General Slim, which is larger-scale but still a good read. Likewise Slim, Master of War by Robert Lyman.

[Schlimazl]

You can't go wrong with Remarque, however I would add A Time to Love and a Time to Die to his works previously mentioned.

Other WWII novels, all of Russian origin:

Mikhail Sholokhov They Fought for Their Country, it's not his best work, but still quite strong.

Vassily Grossman Life and Fate, simply a masterpiece.

Vasil Bykov, most of his novels are really good.The Obelisk, The Ordeal, The Sign of Misfortune, To Live till Sunrise...

Boris Vasilyev The Dawns Here are Quiet, a touching story about female AA squad, with one caveat that I wasn't able to determine if there is an english language translation.

Viktor Nekrasov Front-line Stalingrad, a novel about Stalingrad from first hand experience.

Vladimir Bogomolov In the August of '44 also known as The Moment of Truth, about Soviet counter-intellegence, it's almost documental, to the point of including copies of real documents.

Polish:

Janusz Przymanowski Four Tankists and a Dog, once again don't know about it availability in english.

French:

Antoine de Saint Exupery - Flight to Arras

[Bora_Horza]

Alan Furst writes historical spy novels set during the run up to WWII, in the late 1930's and during the war itself. Well worth looking into IMO!

[TempusFugit]

The Middle Parts of Fortune, Frederick Manning. WWI, fiction. A quasi-fictional account of the Battle of the Somme as seen through the eyes of a junior officer with the British Expeditionary Force, based on Manning's own experiences of the war. First published anonymously in 1929, it is surprisingly modern in tone. I actually prefer this to All Quiet on the Western Front.

Goodbye to All That, Robert Graves. WWI, non-fiction. Graves is best known as a poet and author of the I, Claudius and Claudius the God historical novels. An autobiographical account of his early years, Goodbye to All That covers his time as an officer in the Royal Welch fusiliers during WWI and includes harrowing accounts of trench warfare in the western front.

The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman. WWI, non-fiction. The winner of the 1963 Pulitzer Price for Non-Fiction, this is perhaps the classic historical account of The Great War. A narrative history, it reads almost like a novel in places.

War Story, Hornet's Sting, Goshawk Squadron, Derek Robinson. WWI, fiction. A loosely related series of novels following a fictional squadron in the Royal Flying Corps during WWI. Robinson was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1971 for Goshawk Squadron.

War Horse, Private Peaceful, Michael Morpurgo. WWI, fiction. These books are targeted at the older child/young adult market so they're lighter in tone than work targeted at a more mature market. However, they're still very engaging and surprisingly affecting. Morpurgo is perhaps best known for War Horse but I rate Private Peaceful just as highly.

Bomber, Len Deighton. WWII, fiction. A fictionalized account of a night-bombing raid conducted by the RAF against targets in the Ruhr. The story is told from the point of view of RAF aircrew, German night-fighter aircrew and German civilians.

Brave Men, Ernie Pyle. WWII non-fiction. Pyle was a war correspondent embedded with various units in different theatres throughout the war. Brave Men is a compendium of his dispatches from the frontlines.

Piece of Cake, Derek Robinson. WWII, fiction. Follows an RAF fighter squadron through the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain. Robinson's other WWII RAF novels, A Good Clean Fight and Damned Good Show, are also worth reading.

Stalingrad, Anthony Beevor. WWII, non-fiction. An engrossing, highly detailed account of one of the most gruelling battles of the war. Beevor manages to provide a high-level strategic view of the battle without losing the human face through his liberal use of first-hand accounts.

Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Anthony Beevor. WWII, non-fiction. In the same vein as his previous book Stalingrad, focusing on the closing days of war in the west.

D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, Anthony Beevor. WWII, non-fiction. Again, in the same vein as his other books, Stalingrad and Berlin, this time focusing on the Allied invasion of Normandy through to the liberation of

Paris. I didn't find this book to be as effective as either Stalingrad or Berlin.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L Shirer. WWII, non-fiction. If Edward Gibbon were to have lived in Berlin during the pre- and early-war years, this is the book he would have written. A classic.

Barbarossa: The Russian-German Conflict 1941-1945, Alan Clark. WWII, non-fiction. A highly readable, engaging account of the Eastern Front focusing on four major conflicts: the advance on Moscow in the winter of 1941, Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk in 1943 and the Russian invasion of Germany in 1945.

The Big Show, Pierre Clostermann. WWII, non-fiction. The war memoirs of a highly-decorated Free French fighter and fighter-bomber pilot who flew Spitfires and Tempests with the RAF in the Western European theatre. Clostermann writes with great wit and charm and these are possibly the best wartime memoirs I have ever read.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl. WWII, non-fiction. Although best known as a children's writer, Roald Dahl fought as a fighter pilot with the RAF in the Mediterranean theatre during the war. These are his memoirs.

The Second World War, Winston Churchill. WWII, non-fiction. Among his other accomplishments, Churchill was an excellent historian and author. This six-volume history covers the post-WWI years, the events leading

up to the outbreak of WWII through to the end of the war in 1945 as seen through his eyes and was largely responsible for his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat. WWII, fiction. A now classic account of the Battle of the Atlantic as seen through the eyes of a young officer in the Royal Navy.

Thunderbolt, Martin Caidin and Robert S Johnson. WWII, non-fiction. A boys-own style memoir of one of the top-scoring USAAF fighter aces, Johnson flew P-47 Thunderbolts in the Western European theatre.

Stuka Pilot, Hans Ulrich Rudel, WWII, non-fiction. A fervent Nazi, Rudel was the most highly-decorated German combatant of the war. A Stuka dive-bomber and ground-attack pilot, he flew over 2500 combat missions and claimed over 2000 targets destroyed, including over 500 tanks. Even after having his leg blown off by anti-aircraft fire he simply had a prostethic leg fitted and continued to fly combat missions. Incredibly, he somehow managed to survive the war. Although he's an utterly reprehensible human being, his memoir is an incredible read.

[Toby Frost]

I'd definitely second The Cruel Sea. A great book.

[sologdin]

solzhenitsyn's red wheel cycle.

gravity's rainbow.

[Alarich]

"The Boat" by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. Great story, based on his experience as officer on a German submarine in WWII.

[Baitac]

If you want non-fiction, my favorite is A Man Called Intrepid about Sir William Stephenson. Stephenson was a senior member of British intelligence for the western hemisphere. This is the stuff of fiction, except it isn't.