I recently read “The Zone of Interests” and I really enjoyed this book, found it insightful, engaging, with a hint of dark humour even. I’m looking for something similar – good historical fiction book set during WWII. I’ve read many bad books from this genre and I’m looking for something that’s well researched, historically accurate but not necessarily only about fighting on the front or surviving in a camp. So nothing like “The Tattooist from Auschwitz” and other poorly researched cheap stuff. Thank you in advance!
by bright_heart_raccoon
5 Comments
HHHH — Laurent Binet
If you want more Martin Amis, his book *Time’s Arrow* starts after WW2, but the story is told backwards (in the most literal interpretation of that phrase) and so moves back into WW2.
*A Piece of Cake* by Derek Robinson is about the British air war in the first year or so of the war, has a dark sense of humor, and is meticulously researched.
*Declare* by Tim Powers is a spy novel/fantasy novel that weaves the real, researched history of the intelligence services during WW2 and the 1960s, but slots a fantastical narrative of djinns into the spaces left by the historical record.
Some much lighter pulpy-er fiction that is still very well researched includes Alistair McLean’s books — *The Guns of Navarone* and *HMS Ulysses* are two of his best.
The Cruel Sea. Written by a veteran of the Atlantic convoys.
The Book Thief?
I really enjoyed David Downing’s Station series – it’s set mainly in Berlin, and it mostly focuses on what life was like for ordinary people in the period before, during and after WW2. The historical details are very well researched and described.