Books like 'The Chosen'
Readers who enjoyed The Chosen by Chaim Potok also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century military, war & conflict classics historical-fiction religion coming-of-age high-school literary-fiction realistic
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The Little Liar by Mitch Albom
Rated: 4.59 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsBeloved bestselling author Mitch Albom returns with a powerful novel that moves from a coastal Greek city during the Holocaust, to America, where the intertwined lives of three survivors are forever changed by the perils of deception and the grace of redemption. Eleven-year-old Nico Krispis never told a lie...Categorized as:
historical-fiction ww2 war family literary-fiction coming-of-age christian friendship -
The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe extraordinary story of Stefania Podgorska, a Polish teenager who chose bravery and humanity by hiding thirteen Jews in her attic during WWII -- from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sharon Cameron.One knock at the door, and Stefania has a choice to make..Categorized as:
children coming-of-age family friendship high-school historical-fiction realistic religion -
The World Starts Anew by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBallycreggan, Northern Ireland, 1955Erich Bannon is happy in the small Irish village he has thought of as home since he arrived as a terrified, traumatized seven year old, one of the last Jewish children to escape Berlin in 1939. Now, at 23, it feels like all of his friends are drawn to The Promised Land, and he can understand why, but Israel is not for him... -
The Medallion by Cathy Gohlke
Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFor fans of bestselling World War II fiction like Sarah’s Key and The Nightingale comes an illuminating tale of courage, sacrifice, and survival, about two couples whose lives are ravaged by Hitler’s mad war yet eventually redeemed through the fate of one little girl...Categorized as:
christian war historical-fiction ww2 literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century -
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The Hard Way Home by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDublin 1950Liesl Bannon has never felt like she was truly at home anywhere, not since her mother placed her and her brother Erich on the last Kindertransport out of Berlin in 1939. She’d been so much more fortunate than most Jews, saved from the horrors of the Nazi regime...Categorized as:
christian drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality -
Boy Underground by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDuring WWII, a teenage boy finds his voice, the courage of his convictions, and friends for life in an emotional and uplifting novel by the New York Times and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author.1941. Steven Katz is the son of prosperous landowners in rural California. Although his parents don’t approve, he’s found true friends in Nick, Suki, and Ollie, sons of field workers...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic war ww2 -
Eve's Daughters by Lynn Austin
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsYearning for love and dignity, four generations of women must come to grips with the choices they've made--and those their mothers made before them. But breaking the cycle that has ensnared them over the decades will prove more difficult than they had ever imagined....Eighty-year-old Emma Bauer has carefully guarded a dark secret for more than fifty years... -
Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThis is the Hispanic Roots, an all-American story of poverty, immigration, struggle and success. It focuses on three generations of Villasenor's kin, their spiritual and cultural roots back in Mexico, their immigration to California and their overcoming poverty, prejudice and economic exploitation... -
Two Brothers by Ben Elton
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTwo Brothers is a heartrending story of two boys growing up under the darkening shadow of the Nazis. Born in Berlin in 1920 and raised by the same parents, one boy is Jewish, his adopted brother is Aryan. At first, their origins are irrelevant. But as the political landscape changes they are forced to make decisions with horrifying consequences...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic urban -
The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBorn into a basket of clean sheets—ruining a perfectly good load of laundry—Emmeline never quite fit in on her family's rural Nova Scotian farm. After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity, and mental illness that Emmeline felt their weight smothering her. And so, she fled across the Atlantic and built her life in England... -
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsSet in Canada and the battlefields of France and Belgium, Three-Day Road is a mesmerizing novel told through the eyes of Niska—a Canadian Oji-Cree woman living off the land who is the last of a line of healers and diviners—and her nephew Xavier. At the urging of his friend Elijah, a Cree boy raised in reserve schools, Xavier joins the war effort...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction -
Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"Ignorant boys, killing each other," is just about all Nathan Coulter would tell his wife, friends, and family about the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945. Life carried on for the community of Port William, Kentucky, as some boys returned from the war and the lives of others were mourned. In her seventies, Nathan's wife, Hannah, has time now to tell of the years since the war...Categorized as:
christian classics drama family high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
When We Meet Again by Dean Hughes
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Thomas family members face ongoing challenges in the dark years at the close of WW2. Alex's values are tested as he works to complete an intelligence assignment in Germany while wondering if he'll ever see his beloved Anna and their son again. Wally struggles to survive the torture he endures as a POW, and Bobbi has to make a difficult choice between the men in her life... -
The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Home for Unwanted Girls meets Orphan Train in this unforgettable novel about a young girl caught in a scheme to rid England’s streets of destitute children, and the lengths she will go to find her way home—based on the true story of the British Home Children... -
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Pastel Orphans by Gemma Liviero
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1930s Berlin, young Henrik, the son of a Jewish father and Aryan mother, watches the world around him crumbling: people are rioting in the streets, a strange yellow star begins appearing in shop windows, and friends are forced to move—or they simply disappear.After his father becomes gravely ill, Henrik and his little sister, Greta, are taken by their mother to Poland for safety...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war -
Abigail by Magda Szabó
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAbigail, the story of a headstrong teenager growing up during World War II, is the most beloved of Magda Szabó’s books in her native Hungary. Gina is the only child of a general, a widower who has long been happy to spoil his bright and willful daughter...Categorized as:
bildungsroman children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion -
On a Wing and a Prayer by Helen Carey
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratings‘This dramatic and poignant novel depicts the resilience of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary war.Unputdownable!’ Western Telegraph Life is hard in London in 1941, and yet Helen de Burrel finds herself volunteering to join the SOE. Nobody knows that her cool exterior conceals such courage ... and such fear. It also means that love, when it strikes unexpectedly, is doubly dangerous... -
Island of the World by Michael D. O'Brien
Rated: 4.71 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIsland of the World is the story of a child born in 1933 into the turbulent world of the Balkans and tracing his life into the third millennium. The central character is Josip Lasta, the son of an impoverished school teacher in a remote village high in the mountains of the Bosnian interior... -
Of Windmills and War by Diane Moody
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe rumblings of war in distant countries mattered little to Danny McClain. Growing up in Chicago, his world revolved around after-school jobs, a rescued beagle, his pen pal in Holland, and the Cubs' chance to go to the World Series. Then, in December of 1941, news of the attack on Pearl Harbor hit much too close to home...Categorized as:
christian coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war ww2 -
Rumors of War by Dean Hughes
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe elders could see nothing but smoke until they turned the corner onto the street where the fire was. And then, both of them stopped. "The synagogue!" Elder Thomas said. It had never occurred to him that anyone - even the Nazis - would do such a thing.Elder Thomas got his camera out... -
The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA heart-breaking, heart-warming historical novel of love and survival inspired by real resistance workers during World War II Austria, and the mysterious love letter that connects generations of Jewish families. For readers of The Nightingale, Lilac Girls, and Sarah's Key.Austria, 1938.Kristoff is a young apprentice to a master Jewish stamp engraver... -
Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThe author of A Bridge Across the Ocean and The Last Year of the War journeys from the present day to World War II England, as two sisters are separated by the chaos of wartime...Current day, Oxford, England...Categorized as:
christian coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic spirituality -
As Long As I Have You by Dean Hughes
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe war is over, and the Thomas family is slowly coming back together at home in Salt Lake City. But that doesn't mean all is well in Zion.In As Long As I Have You, the final volume of the Children of the Promise series, author Dean Hughes presents a moving picture of what life was like for an ordinary LDS family at the end of World War II...Categorized as:
christian high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic religion spirituality war -
Children of the Promise, Vol. 3: Far From Home by Dean Hughes
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"All right. Let's go." Alex saw the terror in Howie's eyes as he took off before Alex could. Howie ran hard, angling back and forth only a little, mostly just getting as far away as fast as he could. Alex was a faster runner, and he could make a few more zings and zags in his path and still keep up. For a time it all seemed unnecessary... -
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The Sisters of St Croix by Diney Costeloe
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOriginal title Death's Dark ValeA gripping story of love, death and danger in Nazi-occupied France from the bestselling author of The Throwaway Children. When Adelaide Anson-Gravetty finds out her father is not the man who raised her, she is both shocked and intrigued... -
The Inseparable Twins by Anatoly Pristavkin, Michael Glenny
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsВ этот сборник А.Приставкина вошли повесть "Ночевала тучка золотая" и рассказы, написанные в разные годы. Но объединены они все одной общей темой - темой войны. Это суровое и тяжкое детство, это люди, спасшие из военного пожара целое поколение. Это размышления автора о раннем взрослении юных, о дружбе и товариществе, о любви к родной земле... -
Children of the Promise, Vol. 2: Since You Went Away by Dean Hughes
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWally Thomas didn t know how many days and nights he had been marching up the coast of the Bataan Peninsula. He was almost too numb to think, too full of pain. He tried to keep a steady pace, but the guards pressured the prisoners to keep moving, forced them close together, and in their exhaustion the men stumbled and knocked each other off stride... -
Love Comes Home by Ann H. Gabhart
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWorld War II is finally over and the people of Rosey Corner are busy welcoming the boys home. The Merritt sisters in particular are looking toward the future. Kate is eager to start a family and live out her dream of happily ever after with Jay. Evangeline wants a beautiful house and encourages Mike to pastor a big-town church... -
The Promised Land by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Holocaust robbed Zofia Weiss of all she holds dear. The Secret State Police have confiscated her home, killed her friends, and imprisoned the man she loves. After searching through displaced persons camps and finding nothing, Zofia is sure that her lover is dead. With only her life, a dream, and a terrifying secret, Zofia illegally boards The Exodus, bound for Palestine...Categorized as:
christian historical-fiction literary-fiction spirituality war ww2 20th-century adult -
The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsImani is adopted, and she's ready to search for her birthparents. But when she discovers the diary her Jewish great-grandmother wrote chronicling her escape from Holocaust-era Europe, Imani begins to see family in a new way.Imani knows exactly what she wants as her big bat mitzvah gift: to meet her birthparents... -
The Spinoza Problem by Irvin D. Yalom
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen sixteen-year-old Alfred Rosenberg is called into his headmaster’s office for anti-Semitic remarks he made during a school speech, he is forced, as punishment, to memorize passages about Spinoza from the autobiography of the German poet Goethe. Rosenberg is stunned to discover that Goethe, his idol, was a great admirer of the Jewish seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction philosophical religion spirituality war -
The Wall by John Hersey
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRiveting & compelling, The Wall tells the inspiring story of forty men & women who escape the dehumanizing horror of the Warsaw ghetto. John Hersey's novel documents the Warsaw ghetto both as an emblem of Nazi persecution & as a personal confrontation with torture, starvation, humiliation & cruelty--a gripping, visceral story, impossible to put down...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction spirituality war ww2 20th-century -
The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin, Germaine de Tonnac-Villeneuve
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrancis Chisholm is a compassionate and humble priest whose individuality and directness make him unpopular with other clergy. Considered a failure by his superiors, he is sent to China to maintain a mission amid desperate poverty, civil war, plague, and the hostility of his superiors. In the face of this constant danger and hardship, Father Chisholm finds the keys to the kingdom of heaven...Categorized as:
christian classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war -
A Distant Melody by Sarah Sundin
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWill a chance meeting in a time of war change her life forever?Never pretty enough to please her gorgeous mother, Allie will do anything to gain her approval - even marry a man she doesn't love. While Allie has nearly resigned herself to that fate, Lt. Walter Novak - fearless in the cockpit but hopeless with women - takes his last furlough at home in California before being shipped overseas... -
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Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 81 ratingsTen-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction -
Where Treasure Hides by Johnnie Alexander
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsArtist Alison Schuyler spends her time working in her family’s renowned art gallery, determined to avoid the curse that has followed the Schuyler clan from the Netherlands to America and back again. She’s certain that true love will only lead to tragedy—that is, until a chance meeting at Waterloo station brings Ian Devlin into her life... -
The Notebook by Ágota Kristóf
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"With icy dispassion, first novelist Kristof, herself a refugee of war, spins a modern-day fable set in Eastern Europe during WW II. It records, in the form of a notebook written by two small boys, the nightmarish ordeal of twins brought by their mother from the bomb-spattered Big Town to their grandmother's home in Little Town... -
The Italian Ballerina: A World War II Novel by Kristy Cambron
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA prima ballerina. Two American medics. And a young Jewish girl with no name . . . At the height of the Nazi occupation of Rome, an unlikely band of heroes comes together to save Italian Jews in this breathtaking World War II novel based on real historical events.Rome, 1943... -
The Day the Germans Came by Ella Gyland
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsInspired by the incredible true story of how the people of Denmark saved their Jewish neighbours during WW2Helsingør, Denmark, 1943In the midst of the German occupation during World War Two, Inger Bredhal joins the underground resistance and risks her life to save members of Denmark’s Jewish community and help them escape to Sweden...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war ww2 20th-century -
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway, John Hemingway
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsTHE ONLY COMPLETE COLLECTION BY THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and will discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection...Categorized as:
classics drama high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic university -
The Last of the Just by André Schwarz-Bart
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOn March 11, 1185, in the old Anglican city of York, the Jews of the city were brutally massacred by their townsmen. As legend has it, God blessed the only survivor of this medieval pogrom, Rabbi Yom Tov Levy, as one of the Lamed-Vov, the thirty-six Just Men of Jewish tradition, a blessing which extended to one Levy of each succeeding generation... -
The Eleventh Hour by Michael R. Phillips
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSeries premiere special price! The Prussian Baron von Dortmann and his daughter face the uncertainty of life just before WW II as their faith and relationships are tested... -
I'll Watch the Moon by Ann Tatlock
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe tender story of a polio victim and her friendship with an Auschwitz survivor who dreams of becoming the first man on the moon. Award-winning novelist Ann Tatlock once again lovingly crafts a story that will touch readers' hearts while illuminating a powerful spiritual truth...Categorized as:
christian classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality -
The Last Convertible by Anton Myrer
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAnton Myrer's beloved, bestselling novel of America's World War II generation is as powerful now as it was upon its publication. An immediate classic, it tells the story of five Harvard men, the women they loved -- and the elegant car that came to symbolize their romantic youth... -
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My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWinner of the Mildred L. Batchelder medal for most oustanding children's book in translation.Escaping Nazi Germany on the kindertransport changes one girl's life foreverAt the start of World War II, ten-year-old Franziska Mangold is torn from her family when she boards the kindertransport in Berlin, the train that secretly took nearly 10,000 children out of Nazi territory to safety in England...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age drama family friendship high-school historical-fiction realistic -
The Hope by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“One of our best writers today—a modern Charles Dickens—is Herman Wouk… The Hope is not only a good read, but it also causes a good think.” —William Safire, New York Times Starting in 1948 and reaching its climax during the Six-Day War of 1967, The Hope begins the story of Israel, a country fighting for its life—outmatched and surrounded by enemies...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war ww2 20th-century -
The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHow breathtakingly close we are to lives that at first seem so far away. From the civil rights struggle in the United States to the Nazi crimes against humanity in Europe, there are more stories than people passing each other every day on the bustling streets of every crowded city. Only some survive to become history... -
The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSydney Taylor Award-winning novel Berlin Boxing Club is loosely inspired by the true story of boxer Max Schmeling's experiences following Kristallnacht. Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew. But the bullies at his school in Nazi-era Berlin, don't care that Karl has never been in a synagogue or that his family doesn't practice religion...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family friendship high-school historical-fiction poc-mc realistic -
Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe wonderful sequel to The Light Years returns readers to Britain in September, 1939, as war breaks out. Sheltered Louise, now 16, goes from cooking school to London parties. For 14-year-old Polly, the terrors of war cannot forestall the pangs of adolescence. And though Clary's father has been reported missing since Dunkirk, she holds to the belief that he's alive... -
The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSix-year-old Gretl Schmidt is on a train bound for Auschwitz. Jakób Kowalski is planting a bomb on the tracks. As World War II draws to a close, Jakób fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They mean to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretl’s unscheduled train reaches the bomb first. Gretl is the only survivor...Categorized as:
christian drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic religion
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