Books like 'When the Emperor Was Divine'
Readers who enjoyed When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century military, war & conflict historical-fiction war ww2 literary-fiction family classics university
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Hana by Alena Mornštajnová
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt's 1954 and nine-year-old Mira's life is about to change forever. After a typhoid outbreak rages through her town, robbing her of her parents and siblings, the orphaned child is forced to live with her mysterious, depressive Aunt Hana, a figure both frightening and fragile... -
![All the Broken Places by John Boyne]()
All the Broken Places by John Boyne
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe sequel to the phenomenal bestseller, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, this is John Boyne's latest novel for adults.1946. Three years after a cataclysmic event which tore their lives apart, a mother and daughter flee Poland for Paris, shame, and fear at their heels, not knowing how hard it is to escape your past... -
![Sodan mainingit by Herman Wouk]()
Sodan mainingit by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThese two classic works capture the tide of world events even as they unfold the compelling tale of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.The multimillion-copy bestsellers that capture all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of the Second World War -- and that constitute Wouk's crowning achievement -- are available for the first time in trade paperback... -
![Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque]()
Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt is 1939. Despite a law banning him from performing surgery, Ravic – a German doctor and refugee living in Paris – has been treating some of the city’s most elite citizens for two years on the behalf of two less-than-skillful French physicians... -
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![Three Sisters by Heather Morris]()
Three Sisters by Heather Morris
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA promise to stay together.An unbreakable bond.A fierce will to survive.From international bestselling author Heather Morris comes the breathtaking conclusion to The Tattooist of Auschwitz trilogy.When they are girls, Cibi, Magda and Livia make a promise to their father - that they will stay together, no matter what.Years later, at just 15 years old, Livia is ordered to Auschwitz by the Nazis... -
![With Hope and Love by Ellie Dean]()
With Hope and Love by Ellie Dean
Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCliffehaven, May 1945. The war in Europe is over, but for the residents of Beach View Boarding House its effects are still far reaching.Cockney evacuee Ivy and her sweetheart Andy are saving to get married and return to London. But when her sister and parents succumb to one of the last V-2 attacks, Ivy must make a heart-wrenching choice... -
![The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood]()
The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“We must die standing up for something.”“And what are we standing up for?”“The most important thing there is. Freedom.”Millions of people walked through Auschwitz’s gates, but she was the first woman who escaped. This powerful novel tells the inspiring true story of Mala Zimetbaum, whose heroism will never be forgotten, and whose fate altered the course of history…Nobody leaves Auschwitz alive... -
![Wedding Bells on Victory Street: Gripping and heartbreaking World War 2 saga fiction (The Bryant Sisters) by Pam Howes]()
Wedding Bells on Victory Street: Gripping and heartbreaking World War 2 saga fiction (The Bryant Sisters) by Pam Howes
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom Amazon bestseller Pam Howes comes a heartbreaking World War Two novel about a young woman trying to make the best of history’s darkest hour. Is a happy ever after impossible?Liverpool, 1943. For Bella Rogers, life is looking up... -
![Always in my Heart by Ellie Dean]()
Always in my Heart by Ellie Dean
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAs the Japanese begin their assault on Singapore, Sarah Fuller is forced to leave her parents and fianc�, Philip, behind. The long journey to England is fraught with danger, and Sarah and her sister Jane don't even know if their great-aunt is alive, let alone waiting for them. They arrive in Cliffehaven, on the south coast of England, and here Sarah must find work to support them both...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction military war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
![To Live by Yu Hua, 余华]()
To Live by Yu Hua, 余华
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the author of Brothers and China in Ten Words this celebrated contemporary classic of Chinese literature was also adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. This searing novel, originally banned in China but later named one of that nation's most influential books, portrays one man's transformation from the spoiled son of a landlord to a kindhearted peasant... -
![The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe]()
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... -
![A Mother's Journey: Book 1 in the Yorkshire Blitz Trilogy by Donna Douglas]()
A Mother's Journey: Book 1 in the Yorkshire Blitz Trilogy by Donna Douglas
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratings*FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE NIGHTINGALE SERIES* A dramatic and heartwarming new saga series from the well-loved Donna Douglas, this will be one of Orion's biggest launches of 2020.Hull, 1940. Edie Copeland has just arrived on Jubilee Row, carrying a secret and a heavy suitcase... -
![Mila 18 by Leon Uris]()
Mila 18 by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy and a time of transcendent courage and determination. Leon Uris's novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists...Categorized as:
classics drama high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction military politics war -
![The Child On Platform One by Gill Thompson]()
The Child On Platform One by Gill Thompson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsInspired by the real-life escape of thousands of Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Europe on the Kindertransport trains to London, the new novel from the author of The Oceans Between Us Gill Thompson. For readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz Heather Morris, The Choice Edith Eger and Lilac Girls Martha Hall Kelly. Prague 1939. Young mother Eva has a secret from her past... -
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![On a Wing and a Prayer by Helen Carey]()
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... -
![The Allotment Girls by Kate Thompson]()
The Allotment Girls by Kate Thompson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDuring the Second World War, life in the iconic Bryant & May match factory is grimy and tough. Annie, Rose, Pearl and Millie carry on making matches for the British Army, with bombs raining down around them. Inspired by the Dig for Victory campaign, Annie persuades the owners to start Bryant & May allotment in the factory grounds... -
![Surviving the Fatherland by Annette Oppenlander]()
Surviving the Fatherland by Annette Oppenlander
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSpanning thirteen years from 1940 to 1953 and set against the epic panorama of WWII, SURVIVING THE FATHERLAND is a sweeping saga of family, love, and betrayal that illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the children's war... -
![The Bomb Girl Brides by Daisy Styles]()
The Bomb Girl Brides by Daisy Styles
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt's 1944 and Britain is a country at war. The young women of the Phoenix munitions factory are giving their all to the cause, but romance is beckoning . . . The life of a Bomb Girl isn't usually glamourous. But Maggie is getting married, so she is going to make sure her wedding day is - even if she does have to spend every other day slaving on the factory floor... -
![Rosa's Gold - A Story of Holocaust Echoes by Ray Kingfisher]()
Rosa's Gold - A Story of Holocaust Echoes by Ray Kingfisher
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNicole Sutton is a young girl with problems. A tragic car accident has taken away her brother, and ripped her parents' marriage apart. Together with her mother she moves to a new house, a new town, and a life she never wanted. In the dusty cellar of the house she stumbles upon a well-worn notebook – the scribbled war memoirs of Mac, an old soldier...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction military war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque]()
The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAfter surviving several horrifying years in the inferno of the Western Front, a young German soldier and his cohorts return home at the end of WW1. Their road back to life in civilian world is made arduous by their bitterness about what they find in post-war society. A captivating story, one of Remarque's best...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction military politics realistic tragedy -
![The Secret Letter by Debbie Rix]()
The Secret Letter by Debbie Rix
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFor readers of Orphan Train, The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Book Thief comes an unforgettable novel inspired by a true story about the power of human kindness and bravery in a time of unimaginable heartbreak... -
![While Paris Slept by Ruth Druart]()
While Paris Slept by Ruth Druart
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA family's love is tested when heroes-turned-criminals are forced to make the hardest decisions of their lives in this unforgettably moving story of love, resistance, and the lasting consequences of the Second World War. After. Santa Cruz, California, 1953. Jean-Luc and Charlotte Beauchamps have left their war-torn memories of Paris behind to live a quiet life in America with their son, Sam... -
![Heavy Sand by Anatoli Rybakov]()
Heavy Sand by Anatoli Rybakov
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTwo main parts of Anatoly Rybakov are titled after the writer’s major novels, Children of the Arbat and Heavy Sand, and explore the continuing relevance of these works for contemporary Russia... -
![The Lifeline by Deborah Swift]()
The Lifeline by Deborah Swift
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the heart of Norway to Shetland in Scotland, one couple fight to overthrow the Nazis…1942, Nazi-occupied NorwaySchoolteacher Astrid Dahl has always kept out of trouble. But when she is told to teach the fascist Nazi curriculum, she refuses and starts a teacher’s rebellion, persuading eight thousand teachers to go on strike... -
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![The Green Gauntlet by R.F. Delderfield]()
The Green Gauntlet by R.F. Delderfield
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPaul and Claire Craddock have grown older in years - but not in spirit. World War II is over. But for Craddock and his family there are new battles to be fought and won. The new property laws enable speculators to reap huge profits from agricultural lands, and Paul's livelihood is threatened... -
![If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi]()
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPrimo Levi was among the greatest witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In this gripping novel, based on a true story, he reveals the extraordinary lives of the Russian, Polish and Jewish partisans trapped behind enemy lines during the Second World War... -
![To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield]()
To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsYoung David Powlett-Jones, a Welsh miner's son, is invalided home from France when he suffers severe shell shock on the Western Front... -
![The Lost Children by Shirley Dickson]()
The Lost Children by Shirley Dickson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAs they walked towards the railway station, their mother took an envelope from her handbag. ‘I want you to keep this somewhere safe.’‘What’s in the letter?’‘Listen carefully. You’re never to open it unless you or your sister are in real trouble. Promise me.’England, 1943: Home is no longer safe for eight-year-old twins Molly and Jacob... -
![The Sugar Men by Ray Kingfisher]()
The Sugar Men by Ray Kingfisher
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Sugar Men - A Story of Holocaust Echoes. Susannah Morgan has been settled in sleepy North Carolina for almost sixty-five years, but is still haunted by memories of her escape from the holocaust as a child. For most of her life the flashbacks have been a lonely obsession - one she has managed to hide from her children... -
![We'll Meet Again by Lily Baxter]()
We'll Meet Again by Lily Baxter
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt is April 1939 and unaware that the German war machine is advancing towards the Channel Islands, seventeen-year-old Meg Colivet and her sister are enjoying a holiday in Oxford with their aunt. Here Meg meets charismatic German undergraduate Rayner Weiss and the couple fall passionately in love... -
![Trouble Brewing by Marion Kummerow]()
Trouble Brewing by Marion Kummerow
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRichard Klausen has survived eighteen grueling months at the Eastern front. Transferred to a security unit out off Lodz, Poland he soon finds out that fighting the Red Army was the easy task. When his unit is assigned to do the unthinkable, will Richard obey his orders or his conscience? Trouble Brewing is book 4 of the War Girl Series, but can be read as stand-alone...Categorized as:
historical-fiction ww2 war military literary-fiction fiction historical 20th-century -
![The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway, John Hemingway]()
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 -
![Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman]()
Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsVasily Grossman’s Life and Fate has been hailed as a twentieth-century War and Peace. However, Life and Fate is only the second half of a two-part work, the first half of which was published in 1952. Grossman wanted to call this earlier work Stalingrad—as it will be in this first English translation—but it was published as For a Just Cause... -
![The Wife Who Risked Everything by Ellie Midwood]()
The Wife Who Risked Everything by Ellie Midwood
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBerlin, 1943: “Where’s your husband?” the SS man demanded.“There’s no one home,” Margot said before they started tearing the place apart. “I’m alone here.” In his eyes was nothing but ice and death, and it occurred to Margot that only she stood between her husband and the soldier’s machine gun.In Nazi Germany, Margot refuses to buckle under the weight of Hitler’s tyranny... -
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![The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw]()
The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Young Lions is a vivid and classic novel that portrays the experiences of ordinary soldiers fighting World War II. Told from the points of view of a perceptive young Nazi, a jaded American film producer, and a shy Jewish boy just married to the love of his life, Shaw conveys, as no other novelist has since, the scope, confusion, and complexity of war... -
![The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel]()
The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFollowing the historic publication of Norton's The Complete Works of Isaac Babel in the fall of 2001, The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel appears as the most authoritative and complete edition of his fiction ever published in paperback...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction war 20th-century adult anthologies -
![The Girl With No Name by Diney Costeloe]()
The Girl With No Name by Diney Costeloe
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA heart-wrenching story from the bestselling author of The Throwaway Children. Thirteen-year-old Lisa has escaped from Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport. She arrives in London unable to speak a word of English, her few belongings crammed into a small suitcase. Among them is one precious photograph of the family she has left behind. Lonely and homesick, Lisa is adopted by a childless couple... -
![Into the Burning Dawn: Heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 historical fiction set in Italy by Natalie Meg Evans]()
Into the Burning Dawn: Heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 historical fiction set in Italy by Natalie Meg Evans
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the terrace courtyard of the palazzo overlooking a sparkling bay, the scent of ripening lemons filled the air. His deep brown eyes gazed into hers with determination and longing. ‘Will you do it? Risk everything and join us?’Twenty-one-year-old Imogen Fitzgerald was raised in an English orphanage and never knew her parents... -
![One Left: A Novel by Kim Soom, Bonnie Oh]()
One Left: A Novel by Kim Soom, Bonnie Oh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDuring the Pacific War, more than 200,000 Korean girls were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers. They lived in horrific conditions in "comfort stations" across Japanese-occupied territories. Barely 10 percent survived to return to Korea, where they lived as social outcasts...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war tragedy ww2 fiction historical violent-conflict -
![Rachel's Legacy by Julie Thomas]()
Rachel's Legacy by Julie Thomas
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe much anticipated sequel to The Keeper of Secrets, following the fortunes of the Horowitz family from pre-war Berlin to the present. When Dr Kobi Voight is given a set of old letters by his mother he has no inkling that they will lead him around the world and deep into the tragic past of his family... -
![Midnight Clear by William Wharton]()
Midnight Clear by William Wharton
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsChristmas Eve 1944, and six young US soldiers are sent close to the German lines to establish an observation post in an abandoned chateau in the Ardennes Forest. Hearing strange noises, they gradually realise that they are surrounded. But perhaps the Germans are as reluctant to fight as themselves... -
![The Dollmaker by Harriette Simpson Arnow]()
The Dollmaker by Harriette Simpson Arnow
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsStrong-willed, self-reliant Gertie Nevel's peaceful life in the Kentucky hills was devastated by the brutal winds of change. Uprooted form their backwoods home, she and her family were thrust into the confusion and chaos of wartime Detroit...Categorized as:
classics drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics realistic tragedy -
![Ports of Call by Amin Maalouf, Alberto Manguel]()
Ports of Call by Amin Maalouf, Alberto Manguel
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA graceful story of love across an insuperable gulf and a powerful allegory for the conflict that has beset the Middle East for the last half century. To call your son Ossyane is like calling him Rebellion. For Ossyane’s father it is a gesture of protest by an excited Ottoman prince, for Ossyane himself it is a burdensome responsibility... -
![Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop]()
Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe gripping new novel by Sunday Times Number One bestseller Victoria Hislop is set against the backdrop of the German occupation of Greece, the subsequent civil war and a military dictatorship, all of which left deep scars.Athens 1941. After decades of political uncertainty, Greece is polarised between Right- and Left-wing views when the Germans invade... -
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![El abuelo by Александр Чудаков]()
El abuelo by Александр Чудаков
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGalardonada en 2011 con el Premio Booker Ruso a la mejor novela de la década, El abuelo es una monumental obra que hunde sus raíces en la tradición narrativa de los grandes clásicos rusos... -
![A Sister's Promise by Anne Bennett]()
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![Letters to Alice by Rosie James]()
Letters to Alice by Rosie James
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDear Alice, dreadful news was told to me today… Bristol, 1941: Alice Watts leaves the shell-shocked city for her new life as a Land Girl on Home Farm. It’s a completely different from her quiet old world, but she’s determined to do her part... -
![The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell]()
The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Dance to the Music of Time – his brilliant 12-novel sequence, which chronicles the lives of over three hundred characters, is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.The novels follow Nicholas Jenkins, Kenneth Widmerpool and others, as they negotiate the intellectual, cultural and social hurdles that stand between them and the “Acceptance World... -
![All We Left Behind by Danielle R. Graham]()
All We Left Behind by Danielle R. Graham
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFor fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz‘Heart-wrenching. Emotional. A powerful story of wartime love and devotion’ Glynis Peters, author of The Secret OrphanA powerful and incredibly moving historical novel inspired by an untold story of the Second World War.Vancouver 1941As the war rages around the world, Hitler’s fury is yet to be felt on the peaceful shores of Mayne Island... -
![The War Girls by V.S. Alexander]()
The War Girls by V.S. Alexander
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPerfect for fans of Kate Quinn, Kristin Harmel, and Pam Jenoff, this new historical fiction novel from an acclaimed author is based on true WWII stories of life in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Occupation and the women who served the Allies as agents and spies...
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