Johnson County Community College LibGuides - World War II Novels

Novels

Citadel in Spring - Agawa, Hiroyuki (Japan)
Call Number: PL 845 G3 H313
A young Japanese naval recruit becomes desensitized to war's brutality. Later he views the destruction of his home town, Hiroshima, by the atomic bomb.
Empire of the Sun - Ballard, J. G. (Great Britain, China)
Call Number: PR 6052 A46 E45
During World War II an eleven year old British boy is separated from his parents and imprisoned by the Japanese in a camp in Shanghai. How he survives the war is the focus of this narrative.
Adam and The Train: two novels - Boll, Heinrich (Germany)
Call Number: PT 2603 O394 W613
These are two novels about the senselessness of war from the German point of view where the good usually die and the evil individuals survive. The author won the Nobel Prize for literature.
The Bridge Over the River Kwai - Boulle, Pierre (Great Britain)
Call Number: PQ 2603 O754 P6
A British officer who is a prisoner of war during World War II is forced by the Japanese to build a bridge. He becomes obsessed with the completion of his task despite the fact it would aid his enemies.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Chabon, Michael (USA)
Call Number: PS 3553 H15 A82
The story of the golden age of superhero comics is told through the stories of two young men who drew them. This novel sets the story of the comics against the threat of Hitler and World War II.
Savushun: A Novel about Modern Iran - Daneshvar, Simin (Iran)
Call Number: PK 6561 D263 S213
During World War II, an honest idealistic Iranian landowner is murdered for opposing the British occupation; thus, tearing his family apart.
Corelli's Mandolin - De Bernieres, Louis (Italy, Greece)
Call Number: PR 6054 E132 C6
During World War II, Italians occupy a Greek island where the cultured Italian captain begins a love affair with the local doctor's daughter, an affair that is doomed by their loyalties to opposing causes.
Away all Boats - Dodson, Kenneth (USA)
Call Number: PS 3554 O345 A82
This novel is vividly descriptive of the role of American amphibious warfare during World War II.
The Glass Palace - Ghosh, Amitav (Burma, India)
Call Number: PR 9499.3 G536 G58
This is an historical novel about the British colonizing efforts in Burma, the treatment of the Burmese royal family and the involvement of Indian military personal in the British activities.
Cat and Mouse - Grass, Gunter (Germany)
Call Number: PT 2613 R338 K313
Young boys growing up in Danzig during World War II find their lives overshadowed by the Nazi regime. This is the second novel in Grass's Danzig trilogy. The author is a winner of the Nobel Prize.
The Tin Drum - Grass, Gunter (Germany)
Call Number: PT 2613 R338 B5513
This book tells the fantastical story of a drum-playing dwarf who lives in Danzig during Nazi occupation and describes the insanity of the Nazi era. The author won a Nobel Prize in Literature. This is the first volume of his Danzig trilogy.
Catch-22 - Heller, Joseph (USA)
Call Number: PS 3558 E476 C3
This is the quintessential satiric novel about the absurdity of war, taking place in Italy and featuring the American bomber Yossarian who is trying to figure out a way to stay alive.
When the Elephants Dance - Holthe, Tess Uriza (Philippines)
Call Number: PS 3558 O474
This novel explores the devastation visited on Filipinos during World War II when their villages were a battleground between the Japanese and Americans.
Closely Watched Trains - Hrabal, Bohumil (Czechoslovakia)
Call Number: PG 5039.18 R2 O8
A young man comes of age in Czechoslovakia during World War II. He is torn between his job as a train dispatcher, his burgeoning love of women and his hatred for the German invaders.
I Served the King of England - Hrabal, Bohumil (Czechoslovakia)
Call Number: PG 5039.18 R2 J3513
This novel is about the adventures of a young waiter who lives in Prague during the German invasion and the Communist period.
An Artist of the Floating World - Ishiguro, Kazuo (Japan)
Call Number: PR 6059 S5 A89
A popular Japanese artist sides with the militarists during World War II.
The Remains of the Day - Ishiguro, Kazuo (Great Britain)
Call Number: PR 6059 S5 R46
A British nobleman does what he thinks is best for his country in the days before World War II.
The Thin Red Line - Jones, James (USA)
Call Number: PS 3560 O49 T4
This is the author�s fictional account of the battle between the Japanese and Americans at Guadalcanal. It is considered a classic of American World War II fiction.
The General of the Dead Army - Kadare, Ismail (Albania, Italy)
Call Number: PG 9621 K3 G513
An Italian general is sent to Albania twenty years after World War II to exhume the bodies of soldiers who died during the war and return them to Italy. He must deal with the hostility of the peasants, the weather and the bizarre nature of his assignment.
Comfort Woman - Keller, Nora Okja (Korea)
Call Number: PS 3561 E38574 C66
A Korean American teenager growing up in Hawaii is embarrassed by her mother's strangeness, unaware that her mother was forced to be a "comfort woman" during World War II.
Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood - Kim, Richard E. (Korea)
Call Number: PS 3561 I415 Z5
This haunting narrative follows a young Korean boy through the years of World War II when the Japanese imposed their culture, religion and will over native Koreans. It is a story of courage in the face of overwhelming odds.
Death in Rome - Koeppen, Wolfgang (Germany)
Call Number: PT 2621 O46 T613
An inadvertent family reunion occurs in Rome in the early 50's when a young German composer's symphony is to be premiered. His rabid unrepentant Nazi uncle, his politician father, a cousin studying for the priesthood, a mad aunt, and his law student brother convene in a brutal look at post-war Germany and its Nazi past.
The Widow Killer - Kohout, Pavel (Czechoslovakia)
Call Number: PG 5038 K64 H8813
This is a psychological thriller about a serial killer in Prague. World War II is ending, and the Nazis sense defeat.
A Gesture Life - Lee, Chang-rae (Japan)
Call Number: PS 3562 E3347 G4
A Japanese man of Korean descent, living in a comfortable New England town, muses about the failures in his life, his estrangement from his adopted daughter, a failed romance, and his experiences in the Japanese army during the war.
Hospital of the Transfiguration - Lem, Stanislaw (Poland)
Call Number: PG 7158 L39 S913
A young Polish doctor takes a position in a hospital for the mentally ill shortly after the Germans occupy his country during World War II.
A Ripple from the Storm - Lessing, Doris (South Africa)
Call Number: PR 6023 E833 R5
Having left her marriage, Martha Quest attempts to affect change in Southern Africa by joining the communist party. In the meantime World War II rages in Europe causing ripples in Africa. This is the third in the author's Children of Violence series.
The Naked and the Dead - Mailer, Norman (USA)
Call Number: PS 3525 A4152 N34
This novel, considered one of the classics from World War II, follows a platoon of marines stationed on a Japanese-held island and vividly portrays the hell of war.
The Rice Mother - Manicka, Rani (Malaysia)
Call Number: PS 3613 A36 R43
This novel chronicles the generations of a Malaysian family, originally from Sri Lanka, who endure problems from the World War II invasion of the Japanese to the 1990's financial bubble and its aftermath. It features an indomitable matriarch who through every trial holds the family together.
And the War is Over - Marahimin, Ismail (Indonesia)
Call Number: PL 5089 M356 D313
In this novel of three clashing cultures at the end of World War II, Dutch and Indonesian prisoners in a Japanese work camp on the island of Sumatra plan an escape from their captors, unaware that the Japanese have lost the war. The novel won the Pegasus Prize for literature in 1984.
The Cruel Sea - Monsarrat, Nicholas (Great Britain)
Call Number: PR 6025 O36 C7
This classic adventure story tells the story of two British ships trying to escape the German U-boats during the war. It is considered one of the best naval novels to emerge from the war.
The Conformist - Moravia, Alberto (Italy)
Call Number: PQ4829.O62 C67813
During the rule of Mussolini, a man high up in the secret police believes that his life is under control until he is ordered to kill his former professor.
The Assault - Mulisch, Harry (Netherlands)
Call Number: PT5860.M85 A6313
A novel that probes moral devastation in the wake of the slaughter of an innocent family by the Nazis in retaliation for the association with a Dutch collaborator by a novelist regularly suggested for the Nobel Prize.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel - Murphy, Louise (Poland)
Call Number: PS 3563 U7446 T78
In a reversal of the fairy tale, two Jewish children are abandoned by their stepparents and try to survive World War II using the assumed names, Hansel and Gretel.
Suite Francaise - Nemirovsky, Irene (France)
Call Number: McNaughton Collection
This long missing and unfinished masterpiece describes the experiences of the French civilians at the beginning of the German occupation during World War II. Told in a mosaic of stories, the novel describes the mass exodus from Paris when the invasion began and then the experiences of a small village in central France under occupation. The author was deported to Auschwitz before she was able to complete the novel.
The Bomb - Oda, Makoto (Japan)
Call Number: PL 858 D3 H5713
A look at the impact of the first atomic bombs on people from New Mexico, Japan, Indian tribes, and Koreans living in Japan. This book is a study of prejudice and the consequences of war.
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids - Oe, Kenzaburo (Japan)
Call Number: PL 858 E14 M413
A group of delinquent boys are sent to a remote village in the waning days of World War II. Abandoned by the villagers, they establish a reasonable society which is tragically destroyed when the brutal peasants return.
The English Patient - Ondaatje, Michael (Canada)
Call Number: PR 9199.3 O5 E54
The lives of an Indian sapper, a Canadian nurse and a thief all come together in the last days of the war as they care for a burnt, nameless patient in a desolate Italian villa. The patient's unspoken memories tell a story of passion and betrayal that demonstrate the meaninglessness of war and the power of love.
When the Emperor Was Divine - Otsuka, Julie (USA)
Call Number: PS 3615 T88 W48
This novel describes the life of a Japanese-American family of four who are uprooted from their California home and send to a relocation camp during World War II.
Sharks and Little Fish - Ott, Wolfgang (Germany)
Call Number: PT 2629 T7714 H313
This story about the war is from the German point of view of a young recruit on a submarine. It is considered brutal and honest.
A Gift of the Emperor - Park, Therese (Korea)
Call Number: PS 3566 A674718 G54
This novel by a Kansas City author chronicles the life of a "comfort woman," a Korean teenager forced by the Japanese to work as a prostitute for their troops during World War II.
Out Stealing Horses - Petterson, Per (Norway)
Call Number: PT8951.26.E88 U813
In this lyrical novel, an old man remembers the summer of his fifteenth year in 1948 when life as he knew it irrevocably changed. His coming-of-age is marked by knowledge of what his father's role was in World War II and of how little we know the people we love. The novel won several international prizes.
Gone to Soldiers - Piercy, Marge (USA)
Call Number: PS 3566 I4 G6
The novel weaves a tapestry of six American women and two men whose lives are altered by their experiences during World War II. This is an excellent novel of the home front during the war.
Live and Remember - Rasputin, Valentin (Russia)
Call Number: PG3485.5.A85 Z313
An army deserter during World War II hides near his Siberian village and brings misfortune upon his wife.
The Plot Against America - Roth, Philip (USA)
Call Number: PS3568.O855 P58 2004
The author envisions an alternate history of America where Charles Lindberg defeats Roosevelt, makes peace with Hitler and American Jews are put in programs to create assimilation by force if necessary. The novel is narrated by a 7 year-old Philip Roth whose view of his parents is heroic.
The Girl Who Played Go - Shan, Sa (China, Japan)
Call Number: PQ 3979.2 S47 J6813
A sixteen year old girl in occupied Manchuria plays go every day with a stranger who is actually a Japanese soldier in disguise. As world events lead them both to tragedy, the game becomes more important than life.
Bread and Wine - Silone, Ignazio (Italy)
Call Number: PQ 4841 I4 P3
The novel chronicles the lives of peasants under the fascist dictatorship in Italy during World War II.
The 30 Years' War - Tikkanen, Henrik (Finland)
Call Number: PT 9876.3 I37 A61513
This satire on militarism is about a Finnish soldier forgotten in the wilderness for thirty years after the end of World War II. He refuses to leave his post or believe that the USA and the Soviet Union are no longer allies.
Farewell, Shanghai - Wagenstein, Angel (Jewish China)
Call Number: PG1039.33.A37 S2713
The refugee community in Shanghai during World War II is examined in this novel that uses its large cast of characters to look at everyone from the Jews fleeing Hitler, Japanese invaders, and Soviet spies, to Chinese Nuns and European drifters, all trying to stay alive in this overcrowded mixture of disparate ethnicities, political beliefs and religions forced together during the war.
One Man's Justice - Yoshimura, Akira (Japan)
Call Number: PL 865 O72 T6413
This is the story of a former officer in the Japanese Army who goes into hiding after World War II when the Army of Occupation is searching for war criminals. The novel is a meditation on what is right and what is wrong during a war and who is a war criminal and who is a patriot - particularly interesting as it is related from the Japanese point of view.
The Book Thief - Zusak, Markus (Germany, Australia)
Call Number: On Order
During the Nazi regime in Germany, a young illiterate girl starts stealing books, learns to read, with her foster family defies the regime in small but significant ways, and grows to become a heroine despite unspeakable losses. This award-winning book is one that young adults can also read.