Books like 'Julian'
Readers who enjoyed Julian by Gore Vidal also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century action / adventure military, war & conflict historical-fiction religion classics roman-empire ancient-civilization politics
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Shōgun by James Clavell
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsAfter Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen--Nippon...Categorized as:
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A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsWith a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea...Categorized as:
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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 literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century historical -
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...Categorized as:
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The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsLike no other masterpiece of historical fiction, Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II is the great novel of America's Greatest Generation.Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events, as well as all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II, as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom...Categorized as:
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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...Categorized as:
classics epic historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure -
Exodus by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsExodus is an international publishing phenomenon--the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power...Categorized as:
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None Stood Taller: An inspirational WWII story to make your heart soar. (Historical fiction) by Peter Turnham
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis book is a window into Britain's secret wartime past, step through it and this inspirational story of life and love will make your heart soar.It is March 1941, large swathes of the East End of London lie in ruins. Lily Heywood is just one more victim of the Blitz, lying beneath the rubble of her home. An unbreakable spirit, this is not the end for Lily, it is merely the beginning...Categorized as:
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Prague Counterpoint by Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Vienna Prelude, Elisa Lindheim risked her life helping others escape pre-World War II Austria. The climactic ending finds her safely in Czechoslovakia, but not for long. A million other lives are endangered, and she cannot still their silent cry for help...Categorized as:
christian classics historical-fiction religion spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure -
Forest of the Gods by Balys Sruoga
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBalys Sruoga was a well-known Lithuanian poet, dramatist, and literary critic. In 1943, professor of Vilnius University, he was deported to Stutthof concentration camp (along with other professors, under the charge of campaigning students against joining the Reich troops)... -
When We Were Brave by Karla M. Jay
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn WHEN WE WERE BRAVE, we find a conflicted SS officer, Wilhelm Falk, who risks everything to escape the Wehrmacht and get out the message about the death camps. Izaak is a young Jewish boy whose positive outlook is challenged daily as each new perilous situation comes along...Categorized as:
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Warsaw Requiem by Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHaving overrun Czechoslovakia, the iron baton of Hitler's Third Reich is poised to orchestrate a requiem for Warsaw. Foreshadowing an international nightmare the world will never forget, millions are imperiled, destined to be caught and crushed in the Führer's grasp...Categorized as:
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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:
epic historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThey were blessed by the gods at birth with wealth and privilege. In a time of cataclysmic upheaval, a bold new generation of Romans vied for greatness amid the disintegrating remnants of their beloved Republic. But there was one who towered above them all -- a brilliant and beautiful boy whose ambition was unequaled, whose love was legend and whose glory was Rome's...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization classics epic historical-fiction literary-fiction politics roman-empire war -
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Caesar by Colleen McCullough
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt's 54 BCE. Gaius Julius Caesar is sweeping thru Gaul, crushing the fierce, long-haired warrior-kings who stand in his way. His victories in the name of Rome are epic, but the leaders of the Republic are not pleased. They're terrified...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization classics epic historical-fiction politics roman-empire war 20th-century -
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsHaunted all her life by feelings of terror and emptiness, forty-nine-year-old Urania Cabral returns to her native Dominican Republic - and finds herself reliving the events of 1961, when the capital was still called Trujillo City and one old man terrorized a nation of three million people...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc politics war 20th-century 21st-century -
The Norwegian Assassin by Hannah Byron
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsVienna, 1938Her family’s gone. Her fiancé taken from her. Esther Weiss sees only one way to fight back.Life is good for Esther and her Jewish family until Hitler annexes their home country Austria. Her wedding to fiancé Carl Bernstein is postponed, and her family's entire life is uprooted...Categorized as:
historical-fiction spirituality war literary-fiction politics epic historical fiction -
El Regreso a Sion: Cronicas III = Return to Zion-Zion Ch 03 by Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe first two books in THE ZION CHRONICLES, The Gates of Zion and its sequel, A Daughter of Zion, graphically portrayed the courage and hope of the Jewish people streaming into Israel after the Holocaust. The drama of history and the heart-stopping life-and-death struggle of a nation are captured by bestselling author Bodie Thoene in the lives of the people who live on these pages...Categorized as:
christian historical-fiction religion spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Hija de Sion by Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSecond in The Zion Chronicles, this is the story of Rachel, a returning Jewess whose secret past is uncovered. Met with disdain and left in despair, Rachel's story is full of fast-paced action...Categorized as:
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Alamut by Vladimir Bartol
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAlamut takes place in 11th Century Persia, in the fortress of Alamut, where self-proclaimed prophet Hasan ibn Sabbah is setting up his mad but brilliant plan to rule the region with a handful elite fighters who are to become his "living daggers...Categorized as:
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Trinity by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLeon Uris’s beloved Irish classic, available in Avon mass market. From the acclaimed author who enthralled the world with Exodus, Battle Cry, QB VII, Topaz, and other beloved classics of twentieth-century fiction comes a sweeping and powerful epic adventure that captures the "terrible beauty" of Ireland during its long and bloody struggle for freedom...Categorized as:
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Jerusalem Interlude by Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFor Jews in prewar Europe, the terrifying truth is uncovered: Truly they have no place to go. Escape or perish, but escape to where? As Central Europe is taken over by the Nazis under celebrated headlines of Peace in Our Times, hundreds of thousands pay the price for Hitler's international deception.In Jerusalem Interlude, Leah and Shimon Feldstein finally reach the Promised Land...Categorized as:
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Munich Signature by Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Prague Counterpoint, Elisa Murphy and Leah Feldstein risked everything to stand against the tide of Nazi terrorism and to buy a chance at life for two small boys. When Elisa is at last reunited with Murphy, the danger is past for the small Charles...Categorized as:
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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...Categorized as:
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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... -
London Refrain by Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEngland teeters on the brink of war. It’s no longer a question of if. It’s a matter of when. In the dark fall of 1939, the hopes of the Polish people fade as Nazi bombers strafe the beloved city of Warsaw. Politicians debate while hundreds stand in lines at the British Embassy, desperate to flee the country before Hitler’s ground forces arrive...Categorized as:
christian historical-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
Heaven Has No Favorites by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom one of the twentieth century’s master novelists, the author of the classic All Quiet on the Western Front, comes Heaven Has No Favorites, a bittersweet story of unconventional love that sweeps across Europe. Lillian is charming, beautiful . . . and slowly dying of consumption. But she doesn’t wish to end her days in a hospital in the Alps... -
The Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIn this great drama, Marius, the general who saved Rome from barbarian invasion and became consul an unprecedented six times, has fallen into decline. Sulla, his closest associate, has withdrawn himself from his commander's circle in preparation for his own bid for power...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization classics epic historical-fiction humor literary-fiction politics roman-empire -
House of Glass by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWith House Of Glass comes the final chapter of Pramoedya's epic quartet, set in the Dutch East Indies at the turn of the century. A novel of heroism, passion, and betrayal, it provides a spectacular conclusion to a series hailed as one of the great works of modern literature...Categorized as:
classics epic historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure -
The Gates of Zion by Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsEllie, a young American photojournalist, finds herself in the Jerusalem of 1947. She unwittingly becomes a pawn in a political chess game when she photographs some ancient scrolls discovered by Bedouins. David seems to love her dearly, but Moshe has a purpose and commitment in life that intrigues her more than she can say...Categorized as:
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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... -
Flying Colours by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsForced to surrender his ship, the Sutherland, after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress...Categorized as:
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Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"In the tempestuous closing decades of the sixteenth century, the Empire of Japan writhes in chaos as the shogunate crumbles and rival warlords battle for supremacy. Warrior monks in their armed citadels block the road to the capital; castles are destroyed, villages plundered, fields put to the touch." "Amid this devastation, three men dream of uniting the nation...Categorized as:
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Night Song: A Story of Sacrifice by Tricia Goyer
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTricia Goyer tells the little-known, but true story of the orchestra started by prisoners in Hitler's Mauthausen death camp. This courageous orchestra played the American national anthem as Allied troops arrived to liberate the camps...Categorized as:
christian historical-fiction literary-fiction spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsInto the 'autobiography' of Clau-Clau-Claudius, the pitiful stammerer who was destined to become Emperor in spite of himself, Graves packs the everlasting intrigues, the depravity, the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, soon to culminate in the deified insanity of Caligula...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction myths politics religion -
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...Categorized as:
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The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsLarry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brillant characters - his fiancee Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob...Categorized as:
classics epic historical-fiction humor literary-fiction philosophical religion spirituality -
Sharpe's Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsJune 1815: The Duke of Wellington, the Prince of Orange, and Napoleon will meet on the battlefield...and decide the fate of EuropeWith the emperor Napoleon at its head, and enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels - in preparation for a grand society ball...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis stirring, poignant novel, based on real historical events that made of actual people true heroes, unfolds the tragedy that befell the Armenian people in the dark year of 1915. The Great War is raging through Europe, and in the ancient, mountainous lands southwest of the Caspian Sea the Turks have begun systematically to exterminate their Christian subjects... -
Augustus by John Williams
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA brilliant and beautifully written novel in the tradition of Robert Graves, Augustus is a sweeping narrative that brings vividly to life a compelling cast of historical figures through their letters, dispatches, and memoirs.A mere eighteen years of age when his uncle, Julius Caesar, is murdered, Octavius Caesar prematurely inherits rule of the Roman Republic...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization classics historical-fiction literary-fiction myths politics roman-empire war -
Aztec by Gary Jennings
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAztec is the extraordinary story of the last and greatest native civilization of North America...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization classics epic historical-fiction indigenous-mc literary-fiction myths poc-mc -
River God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Wilbur Smith
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsTanus is the fair-haired young lion of a warrior whom the gods have decreed will lead Egypt's army in a bold attempt to reunite the Kingdom's shattered halves...Categorized as:
ancient-civilization classics epic historical-fiction literary-fiction myths religion spirituality -
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...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"I am a white man and never forget it, but I was brought up by the Cheyenne Indians from the age of ten."So starts the story of Jack Crabb, the 111-year old narrator of Thomas Berger's masterpiece of American fiction. As a "human being", as the Cheyenne called their own, he won the name Little Big Man...Categorized as:
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Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsOnce An Eagle is the story of one special man, a soldier named Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self interest. Massengale, however, brilliantly advances by making the right connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power... -
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe War of the End of the World is one of the great modern historical novels. Inspired by a real episode in Brazilian history, Mario Vargas Llosa tells the unforgettable story of an apocalyptic movement, led by a mysterious prophet, in which prostitutes, beggars and bandits establish Canudos, a new republic, a libertarian paradise...Categorized as:
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The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Seamstress comes a World War II novel that spans continents and crosses generations as an American soldier and an enterprising Vogue photographer brave war-torn France to help a lost little girl find the one thing she never had: a family...Categorized as:
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A Wing and a Prayer by Julie Lessman
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsShe’s dead-set on giving everything to the war overseas…Even if it means losing everything in a war of the heart.A street orphan abused and abandoned by an alcoholic father at age five, Gabriella (Gabe) O’Connor has never let a man stand in her way yet...Categorized as:
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Yesterday's Tomorrow by Catherine West
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWINNER of the 2011 INSPY AWARDS in the Romance Category SILVER Medalist in The Reader's Favorite 2012 Awards (Christian Historical) FINALIST in the 2011 GRACE AWARDS (Christian Historical) She's after the story that might get her the Pulitzer. He's determined to keep his secrets to himself. Vietnam, 1967...Categorized as:
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Bitter Tears by Marion Kummerow
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRichard Klausen is a fugitive. A Wehrmacht deserter, hiding out on a farm in Poland. He thought once the war was over, he’d be safe. Wrong. Things only get worse and staying in Poland threatens his very life. Katrina Zdanek longs for peace. But when it’s finally there, she soon finds out that loving the wrong man still is a crime. She’s Polish. He’s German. Antagonists even after the war...
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