It was my father’s birthday the other day. He would have been 97. And in celebrating, I thought about one encounter he and I had some years ago. We were in a friend’s home library, and Dad pulled a battered paperback volume of poetry from the shelves.
“This is just like the book of poetry I carried with me in the war,” he said. My dad was in the Battle of the Bulge, and was taken prisoner — and was in a prison camp with a high school pal, Kurt Vonnegut.
Anyway, I said to him, “You carried a book of poetry with you in the war? Why?”
And he said, “To remind myself there is beauty in the world.”
In history classes, back in the day, history was taught to us like a confusing and disconnected list of dates we had to remember. But we all remember the moment we realized — wait. History is stories. Stories about real people, and what they did, and how they handled duty and honor and love and family and sacrifice. And beauty.
Remember reading Herman Wouk’s Winds of War so long ago? History came to life for us. Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 became a classic. Those books where real life becomes fiction allow us to understand real life.
When I talk with authors who have immersed themselves in research to unearth the realities of times gone by, it’s always inspirational to hear the passion in their voices, and the truth they reveal in their written words. History is indeed stories, and these very personal war stories — some based on real people and events, others on real emotions — can take us into the past and leave us with a deeper understanding of where we came from.
I’ve talked about the brilliant The Book of Lost Names here before. And remember Susan Isaacs’ page-turner Shining Through? The iconic The Alice Network? And you know the heartbreaking Suite Française. And Kate Atkinson’s riveting Transcription and Kristin Hannah’s irresistible The Nightingale. Stories about regular people who had to make extraordinary choices. If you have not read those, put them on your list.
And these, too:
Book lists like this are impossible. I’m still thinking of new examples to add, and I know you are, too. But I have a copy of that poetry anthology my Dad and I found, you know? All I have to do is look at it and remember. These books help us do the same thing.
The Secret Stealers by Jane Healey
A French teacher at a private school is recruited into the office of strategic services by the persuasive and brilliant Major General William Donovan. She’s only a teacher with no intelligence training. Will she go undercover as a spy in the French resistance? Of course, she will. And in disguising herself as someone else — a person who faces danger and death and impossible decisions — she learns more about herself. Jane Healey’s research is impeccable, and she is a fabulous storyteller.
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
World War II on the home front. Elise, a teenager from Iowa, sees her father arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. And her family is sent to an internment camp. There, she meets Mariko, a Japanese American teen from Los Angeles whose family is also being held. When Elise’s family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise must decide who she is, what she wants, and where she really belongs. A perfect book club book. (Read my full review here.)
The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Even the war cannot prevent a simmering sibling rivalry — or can it? Set in Springfield, MA, at an armory, Loigman shows us how difficult battles are often fought at home, and that trust can be broken even among family. And how you didn’t have to be sent overseas to have your life changed forever. Booklist called this “a powerful pressure cooker of a family drama.” (Read BookTrib’s review here.)
Comes the War by Ed Ruggero
Eddie Harkins, a former Philadelphia police officer, is sent to London on a wartime mission — and the first moment of his first day he’s assigned to investigate the murder of an OSS analyst. But who killed her, and why? And what war-changing secrets might she have been carrying? A truly riveting and cinematic novel, full of history and emotion and secrets. Come the war, everything changes.
Girls on the Line by Aimie K. Runyan
Did you know about the “Hello Girls”? These American women went to the front lines of World War I as telephone operators. Under shellfire and without a moment of peace, they kept frontline officers connected during battle. This story, set in 1917, is not only about that little-known team, but about class and devotion and sacrifice — and what it takes to leave behind a life of privilege and rise to a higher good. (Read BookTrib’s review here.)
Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig
Based on a treasure trove of letters from the real Smith College women who dashed off to France (and The Somme) to help save the world. Their passion and innocence — and supreme confidence and drive and sisterhood — create a World War I story we did not know, and now cannot forget. Lauren Willig brings these women and this war to life in glorious and touching detail.
Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black
In June 1940, when Paris fell to the Nazis, for some reason, Hitler spent a mere three hours there. Then left, and never returned. But why? A country girl from rural Oregon has been recruited by British intelligence with a dangerous assignment — assassinate the Fuhrer. A terrific page-turner — Cara Black knows Paris like no one else.
Eternal by Lisa Scottoline
The super bestselling and beyond-talented author of domestic suspense and thrillers changes course — with incredible success — to create this lyrical and moving story of a love triangle in Italy during the war. Intensely researched and deeply heartfelt, this coming-of-age novel, set in World War II Rome under the looming specter of fascism and secrets and death, is a cinematically epic tale to treasure.
