I'm looking for a historical fiction (the 20th century counts as well) that has only a few characters, is set on a small scale, and focuses on the story and adventures of an ordinary person (not an epic about entire kingdoms and their politics). Ideally, it would be set during a perilous time and contain dark existential themes (war, crisis, exploration of the unknown, survival, etc.).
Something in the style of Remarque or Hemingway, or even similar to The Terror by Dan Simmons or The North Water by Ian McGuire.
by spitfire-haga
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Dark Matter, by Michelle Paver
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Between Two Fires, medieval times with unique monsters and just several characters traversing the land (dark historical fantasy)
*All for Nothing* by Walter Kempowski. Rural German society falling to pieces at the end of WW2.
*The Siege of Krishnapur* by J. G. Farrell. An East India Company outpost besieged during the great revolt of 1857. Halfway farcical, but also deadly serious.
*The Year of the French* by Thomas Flanagan. Not exactly “small scale” (it follows quite a few characters, and does get into the realm of politics) but the main narrative is very much one man caught up in the intervention of the new French Republic into the Irish independence struggle, in 1798. Maybe my favorite historical novel ever.