Wars have always made good material for novelists, and World War II provides a backdrop for these recent books.
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Billy Boyle : a World War II mystery / |
A Boston cop with family connections to General Eisenhower becomes involved in a diplomatic mission to Norway. His ambitious mother's recommendation to "Uncle Ike" has the new lieutenant in over his head until he is unexpectedly called on to use his forensic skills to investigate the curious death of one of the diplomats. |
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Articles of war : a novel / |
Heck, an eighteen-year-old farm boy from Iowa in France after D-Day is so afraid in combat that he commits a cowardly act. Shamed by his fear, he struggles to uphold the image of American strength when, in an ironic twist, he is asked to participate in an unnamed mission requiring excellent marksmanship. This is well-crafted, short, and devastating. |
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A memory of war / |
Long-ago wartime events involving the parents of New York City psychologist Alex Lescziak suddenly break into his complacent life like a tidal wave when a man claiming to be his half-brother shows up for an appointment and reveals that he is the son of their Jewish mother and a German POW. Alex's neatly-ordered world is turned upside down when revelations from his family's past open doors to understanding his present. |
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This cold country / |
Young English bride Daisy Creed journeys to County Waterford, Ireland, to live on the dilapidated Anglo-Irish estate of her husband's family while he is away at war. Her curiosity about her adopted country allows Davis-Goff to explore Ireland's rich history, including its wartime neutrality. Daisy's enterprising skills save the estate from financial ruin, helping to secure a new life for her and her husband after the war. |
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Dark voyage : a novel / |
This renowned master of WWII spy fiction (The Foreign Correspondent, Blood of Victory) never disappoints with his realistic, historically accurate and gripping plots in which unremarkable characters must react to extraordinary circumstances. The hero of Dark Voyage is a dour Dutch freighter captain who is pressed into service for the Allies. Disguising his ship as a neutral Spanish freighter, he embarks on several dangerous missions in ports of call from North Africa to Sweden. |
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When the elephants dance : a novel / |
In order to survive atrocities committed by their Japanese occupiers in early 1945, the Karangalan family and their friends and neighbors hide in underground cellars on the outskirts of Manila in the Philippine Islands. Telling each other their stories and folktales, they are able to muster the courage and self-respect needed to survive. |
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Consequences / |
The lives and loves of three generations of women in an English family reflect the social and cultural changes in London as a result of the war. Booker Award-winning author Penelope Lively's compelling characters populate an intricate and moving narrative that begins when Lorna Bradley and Matt Faraday meet in St. James Park in the 1930s and ends when their granddaughter Ruth becomes curious about her family history, bringing the story full circle. |
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Breaking the tongue / |
A Chinese family in Singapore living in allegiance to British colonialism faces torture and racism as the political climate shifts towards nationalism on the eve of the Japanese invasion. Claude, the youthful son unsure of his identity, reaches a turning point when he asks his grandmother to teach him Chinese. |
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Miracle at St. Anna / |
The heroism of the 92nd segregated black Buffalo Division fighting the German army in Italy earns the respect of Italian villagers traumatized by the German massacre of their neighbors at the church of St. Anna. James McBride also wrote the memoir The Color of Water. |
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Suite française / |
Two novellas of her proposed "symphonic" novel about wartime France make up this suite. In "Storm in June," families panic to escape Paris when the Nazis march in, revealing the bravery of some ordinary citizens and the pettiness of others. "Dolce" is set in a fictional Burgundian village most likely based on Issy-l'Eveque during the Nazi Occupation where "malicious intent" simmered behind closed doors. |
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When the emperor was divine : a novel / |
This meticulously researched portrait of life in Japanese internment camps in the American west tells the story of five families subjected to unimaginable injustice, written in dignified and restrained voices. |
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Liberation road : a novel of World War II and the Red Ball Express / |
After the D-Day invasion, the success of the Allied forces largely depended on the strength of the supply line nicknamed the Red Ball Express. Written by the "Homer of WWII" (Kirkus Reviews), this well-researched action novel about that vital lifeline benefits from diverse points of view: a Jewish chaplain who is a vet of the first World War, a tough downed B-17 pilot who is also a black market profiteer, and a college-educated African American truck driver who is struggling against discrimination. |
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The visible world / |
An American son of Czech émigrés moves to Prague in an effort to uncover his parents' past, including his deceased mother's tragic love affair with a member of the Czech resistance. When he fails to learn all that he hoped, he writes a novel in order to imagine the rest. Vivid and romantic, Slouka's story beautifully demonstrates the importance of storytelling to cope with personal loss. |
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Ordinary heroes / |
Restless after the breakup of his marriage, retired journalist Stewart Dubinsky stumbles upon some old letters his deceased father wrote during the war, letters which allude to an affair and a court martial which Stewart's parents never discussed with him. His journalistic instincts kick in, and his investigations lead him to the man who served as his father's lawyer in the court martial case and who holds the key to unlocking the story of his father's transfomation from a young innocent into a battle weary survivor. |