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Historical Fiction -- World War II Era
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The Only Woman in the Room
by Marie Benedict
A beautiful woman escapes her Austrian arms-dealer husband to become Hollywood legend Hedy Lamarr while hiding a secret double life as a Jewish scientist and sharing vital information about the Third Reich. By the author of The Other Einstein.
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Dream When You're Feeling Blue
by Elizabeth Berg
After sending their men off to fight in the war, sisters Kitty and Louise Heaney join their flirtatious younger sister, Tish, in writing letters to servicemen overseas, in a study of life during World War II from the perspective of the young men on the battlefield and the women left behind on the home front.
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The Postmistress
by Sarah Blake
The stories of a small Cape Cod postmistress and an American radio reporter stationed in London collide on the eve of the United States's entrance into World War II, a meeting that is shaped by a broken promise to deliver a letter.
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Skeletons at the Feast
by Chris Bohjalian
During the final months of World War II, a small group of people--including teenager Anna Emmerich, daughter of Prussian aristocrats; Callum Finnela, a twenty-year-old POW; and a young Wehrmacht corporal hiding his true Jewish identity--make their way westward across a ravaged Europe in a desperate attempt to reach British and American lines.
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Everyone Brave is Forgiven
by Chris Cleave
Shocking her blueblood political family by volunteering for the war effort in 1939 London, socialite Mary teaches evacuated and marginalized children and bonds with her employer, Tom, before their romance is challenged by a painful love triangle and the grueling realities of the war. By the author of Little Bee.
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The Gods of Heavenly Punishment
by Jennifer Cody Epstein
Yoshi, a Japanese teenager, faces the destruction of everything she knew and a new life living among the enemy after her home city is bombed with napalm in this new novel from the author of The Painter from Shanghai.
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Crooked Heart
by Lissa Evans
A precocious orphan evacuee and a debt-ridden widow con artist forge an unlikely alliance to take advantage of unscrupulous money-making opportunities in the bombed suburbs of World War II England.
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Under Occupation
by Alan Furst
A historical novel based on the true stories of Polish prisoners in Nazi Germany finds a young member of the French resistance in occupied Paris navigating increasingly dangerous assignments and the machinations of an enigmatic spy.
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The One Man
by Andrew Gross
When a World War II physics professor with information vital to Allied forces is sent to a Nazi concentration camp, intelligence officer Nathan Blum is sent undercover to infiltrate Auschwitz and bring the professor to safety. By the best-selling author of The Dark Tide.
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We Were the Lucky Ones
by Georgia Hunter
A novel based on the true story of a Jewish-Polish family recounts how the Kurcs are scattered throughout the world by the horrors of World War II and fight respective hardships to survive, reach safety and find each other. Includes a family tree.
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The Orphan's Tale
by Pam Jenoff
Cast out after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby, 16-year-old Noa snatches a Jewish infant bound for a concentration camp before passing herself off as a circus performer and inciting the wrath of rival aerialist, Astrid. By the best-selling author of The Kommandant's Girl.
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Shame and the Captives
by Thomas Keneally
A tale inspired by true events follows the experiences of a World War II prisoner's wife who befriends an Italian anarchist in the hopes of alleviating her husband's suffering, only to be swept up in a violent prison break.
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The Baker's Secret
by Stephen P Kiernan
A baker's apprentice in Normandy endures shame and anger as her kind mentor is targeted and arrested for his Jewish heritage, a violation that compels the young woman to engage in discreet resistance activities, baking contraband loaves of bread for the hungry using surplus ingredients taken from occupying forces. By the author of The Hummingbird.
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Code Name Hélène
by Ariel Lawhon
A novel based on the life of spy Nancy Wake follows a woman who kills a Nazi and becomes one of the most decorated women in World War II. By the New York Times best-selling author of I Was Anastasia.
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The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse
by Alexander McCall Smith
A heartwarming tale of hope and friendship is set during World War II and traces the intersection of a British farm girl, an American pilot and a German soldier who are brought together by an adorable border collie. By the best-selling author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.
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The Last Year of the War
by Susan Meissner
A German-American teen finds her life and identity turned upside-down when her father is accused of being a Nazi sympathizer, triggering her family's forced relocation into a Texas internment camp. By the award-winning author of Secrets of a Charmed Life.
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Suite Française
by Irène Némirovsky
Published more than sixty years following the author's death at Auschwitz, a remarkable story of life under the Nazi occupation includes two parts--"A Storm in June," set amid the chaotic 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion, and "Dolce," set in a German-occupied provincial village rife with jealousy, resentment, resistance, and collaboration.
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A World Away
by Stewart O'Nan
Set during World War II, a new novel by a prize-winning author recently named by Granta magazine one of America's best young writers follows the fortunes of one American family divided by infidelity.
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The Huntress
by Kate Quinn
Stranded behind enemy lines, brave bomber pilot Nina Markova becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress and joins forces with a Nazi hunter and British war correspondent to find her before she finds them.
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The Ventriloquists
by E. R. Ramzipoor
A tale based on true events finds a misfit journalist, a forger and a street urchin joining a band of resistance fighters who risk their lives to publish a satiric newspaper mocking the Nazis. A first novel.
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A Thread of Grace
by Mary Doria Russell
In September 1943, fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum and her father flee across the Alps into Italy with thousands of other Jewish refugees seeking safety, only to find an open battleground among the Nazis, the Allied forces, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italians struggling to survive the harsh realities of World War II.
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To Wake the Giant: A Novel of Pearl Harbor
by Jeff Shaara
The best-selling author of The Frozen Hours draws on extensive research and unprecedented access to the Pearl Harbor memorial and museum archives in a high-suspense, historically accurate thriller inspired by the 1941 attack.
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Beside a Burning Sea
by John Shors
When the World War II hospital ship Benevolence is destroyed by a torpedo, a small group of survivors manages to find refuge on the shore of a nearby island, including a wounded Japanese soldier who rescues a young nurse from death. By the author of Beneath a Marble Sky.
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The Girl from Venice
by Martin Cruz Smith
A new standalone novel by the award-winning author of Gorky Park follows a turbulent love affair between a fisherman and a Jewish woman on the run in occupied 1945 La Serenissima.
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Beneath a Scarlet Sky
by Mark T Sullivan
A teenage boy in 1940s Italy becomes part of an underground railroad that helps Jews escape through the Alps, but when he is recruited to be the personal driver for a powerful Third Reich commander, he begins to spy for the Allies.
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The Madonna of the Mountains
by Elise Valmorbida
A woman survives in the hardscrabble Italian countryside, oppressed by both a patriarchal society and by Mussolini’s iron-fist rule, but determined to protect her family throughout the war—by any means possible.
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The Night Watch
by Sarah Waters
A tale set in World War II London finds a rescue worker struggling for composure after a bombing, a young woman longing for her soldier lover, and a convict who watches a battle through the bars of his window. By the author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith.
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