Books like 'A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali'
Readers who enjoyed A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror military, war & conflict action / adventure historical-fiction war literary-fiction journey politics colonization
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I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Rated: 4.51 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRomania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer...Categorized as:
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Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsCalled “wholly engrossing” by New York Times bestselling author Kathleen Grissom, this “fully immersive” (Lisa Wingate, #1 bestselling author of Before We Were Yours) story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war abuse action-adventure adult audiobook black-mc -
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 91 ratingsBarcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written... -
The Northern Throne by Steven A. McKay
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAD431, SpringBellicus the Druid and his friend Duro, a former Roman centurion, have suffered a great deal in recent years but, for them, things are about to get much worse.Britain is changing. The Romans have gone and warriors from many different places seek to fill the void the legions left behind... -
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The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsArthur Pendragon is King! Unchallenged on the battlefield, he melds the country together in a time of promise. But sinister powers plot to destroy Camelot, and when the witch-queen Morgause -- Arthur's own half sister -- ensnares him in an incestuous liaison, a fatal web of love, betrayal, and bloody vengeance is woven...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure arthurian audiobook book -
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, Cindy Sheehan
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsAn immediate bestseller upon its original publication in 1939, Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo is a searing portrayal of war that has stunned and galvanized generations of readers...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Reign Of Greed by José Rizal
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"El Filibusterismo" ("The Subversive") is the second novel by Jose Rizal (1861-1896), national hero of the Philippines. Like its predecessor, the better-known "Noli Me Tangere", the "Fili" was written in Castilian while Rizal was traveling and studying in Europe. It was published in Ghent in 1891 and later translated into English, German, French, Japanese, Tagalog, Ilonggo, and other languages...Categorized as:
colonization historical-fiction literary-fiction politics action-adventure adult book classics -
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis National Book Award nominee from two-time finalist Patricia McCormick is the unforgettable story of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey politics war 20th-century abuse action-adventure audiobook -
Nightblade's Honor by Ryan Kirk
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the riveting sequel to Nightblade’s Vengeance, the nightblades must choose a side, and the Kingdom will either rise again… or shatter into pieces.With the realm on the brink of war, the once-celebrated blades have become an easy target for the rage of its devastated citizens... -
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsBarcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past... -
Koruna démonů by James Rollins
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsTo save mankind’s future, the members of Sigma Force must make a devil’s bargain as they join forces with their most hated enemy to stop an ancient threat in this gripping adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author James Rollins... -
The Rising by Ian Tregillis
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe second book in the Alchemy Wars trilogy by Ian Tregillis, an epic tale of liberation and war. Jax, a rogue Clakker, has wreaked havoc upon the Clockmakers' Guild by destroying the Grand Forge. Reborn in the flames, he must begin his life as a free Clakker, but liberation proves its own burden... -
Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNazi Germany. 1936.“I should have been born yesterday, but that’s not what I wanted. The date didn’t suit me. So I’ve stayed put. Motionless. Rigid. Of course that means a lot of pain for my mother, but she’s a brave woman, and she’s putting up with the delay without complaint. I’m sure she approves of my tactic.“My wish, the first of my future life, is to come into the world on April 20... -
Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley, Maria Dahvana Headley
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsAn Irish Times and Vox Best Book of 2020A new, feminist translation of Beowulf by the author of The Mere Wife... -
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The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn Berlin in 1941 during humanity's darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites Alice Hoffman. In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSomething has gone wrong. A group of American bombers armed with nuclear weapons is streaking past the fail-safe point, beyond recall, and no one knows why. Their destination—Moscow.In a bomb shelter beneath the White House, the calm young president turns to his Russian translator and says, "I think we are ready to talk to Premier Kruschchev...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook -
Qb VII by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn Queen’s Bench Courtroom Number Seven, famous author Abraham Cady stands trial. In his book The Holocaust—born of the terrible revelation that the Jadwiga Concentration Camp was the site of his family’s extermination—Cady shook the consciousness of the human race. He also named eminent surgeon Sir Adam Kelno as one of Jadwiga’s most sadistic inmate/doctors...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsMGB officer Leo is a man who never questions the Party Line. He arrests whomever he is told to arrest. He dismisses the horrific death of a young boy because he is told to, because he believes the Party stance that there can be no murder in Communist Russia. Leo is the perfect soldier of the regime. But suddenly his confidence that everything he does serves a great good is shaken...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFollowing All the Pretty Horses in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy is a novel whose force of language is matched only by its breadth of experience and depth of thought.In the bootheel of New Mexico hard on the frontier, Billy and Boyd Parham are just boys in the years before the Second World War, but on the cusp of unimaginable events...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult animals audiobook -
Human Acts by Han Kang, Alba Cunill Fulquet
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom the internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian, a rare and astonishing (The Observer) portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice.In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure -
The Mountain by David L. Golemon
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn 1863 a meeting takes place between legendary war leaders-a secret alliance that will never show up in any American history book. A clandestine arrangement has been struck for a single chance to heal a war-torn nation. The mission is to bring the greatest prize in the history of the world back to American soil-the remnants of pre-history's greatest ship and its most startling mystery... -
Crash Dive by Craig DiLouie
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA WWII naval thriller in the tradition of the Hornblower series ... October, 1942. The United States and the Empire of Japan are at war. Charlie Harrison, a young and ambitious lieutenant, reports for duty aboard the S-55, a worn-out WWI-era submarine... -
Potsdam Station by David Downing
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsApril, 1945. The Third Reich is on the verge of extinction, and its enemies are already plotting against each other. For John Russell, this has personal importance: his son and girlfriend are trapped in Berlin and only the Soviets can get him in there. But the price of their help will threaten both his and the world's postwar future...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult book crime -
Shaman by Noah Gordon
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsRobert Jeremy Cole, the legendary doctor and hero of The Physician, left an enduring legacy. From the 11th century on, the eldest son in each generation of the Cole family has borne the same first name and middle initial and many of these men have followed the medical profession...Categorized as:
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The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsDuring the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the NightingaleJanuary 1918... -
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsOne by one the boys begin to fall…In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war’. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsAs compelling and disturbing as when it was first published in the midst of the Cold War, The Manchurian Candidate continues to enthrall readers with its electrifying action and shocking climax....Sgt. Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the stepson of an influential senator.. -
The Secret of Midway by Steve Watkins
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the basement of his family's junkshop, Anderson and his friends Greg and Julie discover a trunk full of old military stuff. Including a battered navy peacoat from World War II, and when Anderson puts it on he finds a mysterious letter in the pocket. Curious, he takes the coat and letter home. But that's not all he brings home..Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure book children-books fiction ghosts -
Northern Hunt by Daniel Greene, Bradford Hastings
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt was a surefire raid to free prisoners, but it will soon become a battle for Wolf's soul.When an escaped Northern prisoner reaches Union lines, his tales of abuse at Libby Prison set up the perfect justifications for a daring raid on Richmond.Johannes Wolf has made a crucial mistake. He's volunteered for a secret raid, dragging along with him, his unit of misfits...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war politics american-civil-war military fiction historical civil-war -
Daddy by Loup Durand
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWho has the key to a $350 million fortune the Nazis have sent their most brilliant operative to find? Thomas, an 11-year old boy with the mind of a genius, the cunning of a fox, and the chance of a snowball in Hell to escape...unless he is helped by one man. An American who doesn't even know he exists. A man he calls Daddy... -
Madness in the Ruins by John A. Connell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA mutilated body. No witnesses. The only clue, a message, “Those who I have made suffer will become saints and they shall lift me up from hell.” Winter, 1945. Munich is in ruins, and a savage killer is stalking the city.U.S. Army investigator Mason Collins enforces the law in the American Zone of Occupation. This post is his last chance to do what he loves most—being a homicide detective... -
Carpathian by David L. Golemon
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Event Group tackles their most challenging mission yet in this no-holds-barred thrill ride from the New York Times bestselling author of Ripper and LegacyPerfect for fans of Clive Cussler, James Rollins, and Matthew Reilly, the latest gripping thriller from David L. Golemon takes the Event Group---the nation's most secret agency---to the brink in a heart-stopping race against time... -
The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNewly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family's ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries and ghosts...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure book children classics -
The City of Mist: Stories by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsReturn to the mythical Barcelona library known as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in this posthumous collection of stories from the New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind and The Labyrinth of the Spirits...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook dark drama -
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Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratings'Legends of the Fall, an epic tale of three brothers and their lives of passion, madness, exploration and danger at the beginning of the Great War, confirms Jim Harrison's reputation as one of the finest American writers of his generation. This magnificent trilogy also contains two other superb short novels. In Revenge, love causes the course of a man's life to be savagely and irrevocably altered...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook -
Never by Ken Follett
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsNew York Times Bestseller The new must-read epic from master storyteller Ken Follett: more than a thriller, it's an action-packed, globe-spanning drama set in the present day."A compelling story, and only too realistic." --Lawrence H. Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary"Every catastrophe begins with a little problem that doesn't get fixed... -
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsCora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape... -
Primeval by David L. Golemon
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsTwenty thousand years ago, when early man made his way to North America, a tribe of prehistoric predators made the great trek as well. But these giant, deadly beasts seemingly became extinct…and humans lived to become the most violent creatures on Earth. Man's brutal nature reached a boiling-point with the execution of Russia's last czar and his entire family... -
Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a deep strength greater than all the events that surround him.Shanghai, 1941 — a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book classics -
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, celebrated Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima creates a haunting and vivid portrait of a young man’s obsession with idealized beauty and his destructive quest to possess it fully.Mizoguchi, an ostracized stutterer, develops a childhood fascination with Kyoto’s famous Golden Temple...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDisplaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure -
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 46 ratings“An extraordinary real picture of human beings numbed by catastrophe but still driven by the unconquerable determination of living creatures to keep on being alive.” —The New Yorker“Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end... -
Little by Edward Carey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe wry, macabre, unforgettable tale of an ambitious orphan in Revolutionary Paris, befriended by royalty and radicals, who transforms herself into the legendary Madame Tussaud.In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Switzerland...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Three Souls by Janie Chang
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAn absorbing novel of romance and revolution, loyalty and family, sacrifice and undying loveWe have three souls, or so I'd been told. But only in death could I confirm this ... So begins the haunting and captivating tale, set in 1935 China, of the ghost of a young woman named Leiyin, who watches her own funeral from above and wonders why she is being denied entry to the afterlife...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult -
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Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead by K.J. Parker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThere’s no formal training for battlefield salvage. You just have to pick things up as you go along. Swords, armor, arrows – and the bodies, of course. Over the years, Saevus Corax has picked up a lot of things. Some of them have made him decent money, others have brought nothing but trouble. But it’s a living, and somebody has to deal with the dead... -
The Anubis Slayings by Paul Doherty
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHatusu, the remarkable young widow of Pharaoh Tuthmosis II, has forced Egyptian society to acknowledge her as Pharaoh, and her success in battle is spreading Egypt's glory well beyond its frontiers. In the Temple of Anubis, negotiations are taking place between Hatusu and the defeated King Tushratta of Mitanni for a peace treaty that will seal her greatest victory...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war action-adventure adult africa ancient-civilization -
Chaturanga by Anand Neelakantan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPolitical intrigue is astir in the land of Mahishmathi. After the failed coup staged by the Vaithalikas, Sivagami finds herself elevated to the position of bhoomipathi, from where she can more ably pursue her burning goal to avenge her father’s death. Meanwhile, there is a tussle between the two sons of the maharaja of Mahishmathi for the crown... -
Kong: Skull Island - The Official Movie Novelization by Tim Lebbon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn March 2017, the producers of Godzilla transport audiences to the birthplace of one of the most powerful monster myths of all in KONG: SKULL ISLAND, from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures. When a scientific expedition to an uncharted island awakens titanic forces of nature, a mission of discovery becomes an explosive war between monster and man. Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L... -
The House of War and Witness by Mike Carey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1740. With the whole of Europe balanced on the brink of war, an Austrian regiment is sent to the furthest frontier of the empire to hold the border against the might of Prussia. Their garrison, the ancient house called Pokoj.But Pokoj is already inhabited, by a company of ghosts from every age of the house’s history... -
De vlucht van Roger Brook by Dennis Wheatley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings28 Jul 1783 - Nov 1787This is the first of Dennis Wheatley's famous historical series in which appears the young man who was afterwards to become Prime Minister Pitt's most resourceful secret agent: Roger Brook.The scene is the England of George III and the France of Marie Antoinette; the tale is that of the tall, blue-eyed Roger, who set out to seek fame and fortune in the year 1783...
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