Books like 'Copenhagen'
Readers who enjoyed Copenhagen by Michael Frayn also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi 20th century military, war & conflict drama historical-fiction war ww2 university classics
-
Purple Hearts by Michael Grant
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Michael Grant unleashes the gritty and powerful conclusion to the Front Line series and evokes the brutal truth of World War II: War is hell. An epic tale of historical reimagining, perfect for fans of Code Name Verity and Salt to the Sea...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history book female-mc -
The Emerald Brooch by Katherine Lowry Logan
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDavid McBain can do the impossible with one hand tied behind his back... But miracles take him a wee bit longer. When retired Army Captain Kenzie Wallis-Manning receives a mysterious package containing an emerald brooch, she has no idea how life-altering the Gaelic inscription is until she's catapulted back in time to England in May of 1944...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult alpha-mc -
Dead Eagles by Phil Ward
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIn this sequel to Those Who Dare, U.S.Major John Randal, Commander of Strategic Raiding Forces is back, leading a crew of British Commandos, Royal Marines and Royal Navy raiders on bigger and bolder missions to foil Hitler's Third Reich. Off the Gold Coast colony in Africa, the Germans are operating a naval intelligence ring that gathers information about British convoys in the southern sea-lane... -
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsCryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods—World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, crypt analyst extraordinaire, and gung-ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe... -
-
The MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNamed a Top 10 Best Book of 2023 by Publishers Weekly • a national bestseller • a New York Times Editor's Choice pick“A contemporary writer of thrilling originality . . . The MANIAC is a work of dark, eerie and singular beauty.” —The Washington Post“Darkly absorbing . . . A brooding, heady narrative that is addictively interesting... -
Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIn this gripping tale of turmoil and triumph on the high seas, Horatio Hornblower emerges from his apprenticeship as midshipman to face new responsibilities thrust upon him by the fortunes of war between Napoleon and Spain...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
Bílá nemoc by Karel Čapek
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDrama Bílá nemoc napsal Karel Čapek v předvečer druhé světové války. Bylo varováním před nastupujícím nacismem. Stejně jako ostatní jeho romány a hry je neskutečně současné a alarmující... -
Operation Long Jump by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Allied invasion of Papua New Guinea begins. Badly.Alternative history takes center stage as Operation Long Jump, the second book in the Jock Miles World War 2 adventure series, plunges us into the horrors of combat in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. As a prelude to the Allied invasion, Jock Miles and his men seize the Japanese observation post on the mountain overlooking Port Moresby...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
Operation Easy Street by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPort Moresby was bad. Buna was worse.The WW2 alternative history adventure of Jock Miles continues as MacArthur orders American and Australian forces to seize Buna in Papua New Guinea. Once again, the Allied high command underestimates the Japanese defenders, plunging Jock and his men into a battle they’re not equipped to win...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 62 ratingsLibrarian note: Alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal... -
Winds of Wrath by Taylor Anderson
Rated: 4.61 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMatt Reddy and the crew of the USS Walker are positioned to push the line of battle to the breaking point on an alternate Earth, in the thrilling return to the New York Times bestselling Destroyermen series.Matt Reddy and his sailors have fought, bled, and died for their Lemurian friends and other allies from across time, but their enemies are still operational...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history alternate-universe -
Malevil by Robert Merle, Derek Coltman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIf you are a fan of the post apocolypse genre, then you will appreciate this gem of a book. It is difficult to find, but it is well worth perservering with a search. The title of the book refers to an old castle in rural France, and which is owned by our hero, the narrator of the story...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook -
Operation Fishwrapper by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJune 1944: A recon flight is shot down over the Japanese-held island of Biak, soon to be the next jump in MacArthur’s leapfrogging across New Guinea. Major Jock Miles, US Army—the crashed plane’s intelligence officer—must lead the handful of survivors to safety. It’s a tall order for a man barely recovered from a near-crippling leg wound...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
Long Walk To The Sun by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this alternate history adventure set in WW2’s early days, a crippled US military struggles to defend vulnerable Australia against the unstoppable Japanese forces. When a Japanese regiment lands on Australia’s desolate and undefended Cape York Peninsula, Jock Miles, a US Army captain disgraced despite heroic actions at Pearl Harbor, is ordered to locate the enemy’s elusive command post...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
-
Beyond the Moon by Catherine Taylor
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA strange twist of fate connects a British soldier fighting in the First World War in 1916 with a young woman living in modern-day England a century later, in this haunting literary time travel novel.Two people, two battles: one against the invading Germans on the battlefields of 1916 France, the other against a substandard, uncaring mental health facility in modern-day England...Categorized as:
drama gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
War with the Newts by Karel Čapek
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsMan discovers a species of giant, intelligent newts and learns to exploit them so successfully that the newts gain skills and arms enough to challenge man's place at the top of the animal kingdom. Along the way, Karel Capek satirizes science, runaway capitalism, fascism, journalism, militarism, even Hollywood... -
There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsFirst published in Collier's, May 6, 1950.The story concerns a household in Allendale, California, in the aftermath of a nuclear war... -
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsConnie Willis' Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Doomsday Book uses time travel for a serious look at how people connect with each other. In this Hugo-winning companion to that novel, she offers a completely different kind of time travel adventure: a delightful romantic comedy that pays hilarious homage to Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
The Methuselah Project by Rick Barry
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNazi scientists started many experiments. One never ended. Roger Greene is a war hero. Raised in an orphanage, the only birthright he knows is the feeling that he was born to fly. Flying against the Axis Powers in World War II is everything he always dreamed--until the day he's shot down and lands in the hands of the enemy... -
A Prophet Without Honor: A Novel of Alternative History by Joseph Wurtenbaugh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings‘A Prophet Without Honor’ is that rare novel that provides a rich, entertaining and fully immersive reading experience, along with a resonant, thought-provoking subtext. Written in epistolary style and populated with interesting, fully-realized characters, the multi-general narrative is a seamless blend of authentic fact and sound speculation...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war ww2 20th-century adult alternate-history -
Wingmen by Ensan Case
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJack Hardigan's Hellcat fighter squadron blew the Japanese Zekes out of the blazing Pacific skies. But a more subtle kind of hell was brewing in his feelings for rookie pilot Fred Trusteau... -
Escape to the Hiding Place by Marianne Hering
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPatrick and Beth arrive in World War II Holland in the farm country. They must smuggle a baby (by bicycle) into the capable hands of Corrie ten Boom at her home in Haarlem. Along the way they hide from Nazi soliders, meet a Russian surgeon forced into service by the Germans, and encourage two Jewish children who haven't been outside in over three years...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure book children children-books -
Storm Surge by Taylor Anderson
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsIn the Pacific, as USS Walker is repaired and updated after a previous battle and Matt Reddy is healing from his wounds, planning begins for a bold raid on the very heart of the Grik Empire...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history -
Elephant Run by Roland Smith
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1941, bombs drop from the night skies of London, demolishing the apartment Nick Freestone lives in with his mother. Deciding the situation in England is too unstable, Nick's mother sends him to live with his father in Burma, hoping he will be safer living on the family's teak plantation. But as soon as Nick arrives, trouble erupts in this remote Burmese elephant village... -
-
All Clear by Connie Willis
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn Blackout, award-winning author Connie Willis returned to the time-traveling future of 2060—the setting for several of her most celebrated works—and sent three Oxford historians to World War II England: Michael Davies, intent on observing heroism during the Miracle of Dunkirk; Merope Ward, studying children evacuated from London; and Polly Churchill, posing as a shopgirl in the middle of the... -
River of Bones by Taylor Anderson
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe crew of a WWII destroyer face their greatest challenge yet as they try to survive in a strange new world in the next thrilling book in the New York Times bestselling series.Commander Matt Reddy and his crew are afraid it may finally be the end of the USS Walker... -
The Phantom Patrol by James R. Benn
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the nineteenth installment of James R. Benn’s acclaimed WWII mystery series, an investigation into a secret gang of Nazi-affiliated art thieves in post-Liberation Paris leads Billy Boyle and his comrades into the catastrophic Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944...Categorized as:
historical-fiction ww2 war mystery fiction historical law-enforcement organized-crime -
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 94 ratingsSelected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most... -
Opening Moves by Colin Gee
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe first of a series of books that cover World War Three, from July 1945 through to its close in September 1947... -
Maid of Baikal by Preston Fleming
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat if a Siberian Joan of Arc had rescued the White Armies at a critical point of the Russian Civil War in 1919? MAID OF BAIKAL offers an alternative outcome to that war through the intervention of Zhanna Dorokhina, a young woman from the shores of Siberia’s Lake Baikal...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
The Children's War by J.N. Stroyar
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPeter has had more identities than he can remember and suffered pains and humiliations he longs to forget. But, whether spy or prisoner, slave or propaganda tool, none of his roles has brought the one thing he wants above all: freedom. THE CHILDREN'S WAR Bad papers. That's how Peter's nightmare began... -
The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA royal palace. A closed book. A betrayal that will echo through generations…Windsor, 1940: War rages, and as bombs rain down across Britain, nowhere is safe: not even a royal palace.Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside... -
A Band of Brothers by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the ten years since his regiment was transported to an alien world, Commander Andrew Keane has bravely fought time and time again for humanity's freedom. But after the is injured in battle, his confidence is shaken, and his ability to lead is damaged. Seeing their leader struck down also takes its toll on Keane's men, who have followed him to hell and back...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history -
The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories by Connie Willis
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis new collection of stories from the multi-award-winning author of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog contains:A Letter from the ClearysAt the RialtoDeath on the NileThe Soul Selects Her own SocietyFire WatchInside JobEven the QueenThe Winds of Marble ArchAll Seated on the GroundLast of the WinnebagosTen stories - which have all won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award or both - are...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult -
-
In at the Death by Harry Turtledove
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFranklin Roosevelt is the assistant secretary of defense. Thomas Dewey is running for president with a blunt-speaking Missourian named Harry Truman at his side. Britain holds onto its desperate alliance with the USA’s worst enemy, while a holocaust unfolds in Texas...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
Anne Frank and Me by Cherie Bennett, Jeff Gottesfeld
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn one moment Nicole Burns's life changes forever. The sound of gunfire at an Anne Frank exhibit, the panic, the crowd, and Nicole is no longer Nicole. Whiplashed through time and space, she wakes to find herself a privileged Jewish girl living in German-occupied Paris during World War II... -
Front Lines by Michael Grant
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings1942. World War II. The most terrible war in human history. Millions are dead; millions more are still to die. The Nazis rampage across Europe and eye far-off America.The green, untested American army is going up against the greatest fighting force ever assembled—the armed forces of Nazi Germany.But something has changed... -
Time and Time Again by Ben Elton
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt’s the 1st of June 1914 and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be.Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming. A collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure -
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsDarkness at Noon (from the German: Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by the Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best-known work tells the tale of Rubashov, a Bolshevik 1917 revolutionary who is cast out, imprisoned and tried for treason by the Soviet government he'd helped create... -
Soul by Andrei Platonov, Robert Chandler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsA New York Review Books OriginalThe Soviet writer Andrey Platonov saw much of his work suppressed or censored in his lifetime. In recent decades, however, these lost works have reemerged, and the eerie poetry and poignant humanity of Platonov’s vision have become ever more clear... -
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:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSet in Italy during the dramatic finale of World War II, this new novel is the first in seven years by the bestselling author of The Sparrow and Children of God.It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum is learning Italian with a suitcase in her hand... -
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...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction politics realistic war 20th-century -
The Children's Story by James Clavell, George Selden
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsIt was a simple incident in the life of James Clavell—a talk with his young daughter just home from school—that inspired this chilling tale of what could happen in twenty-five quietly devastating minutes. He writes, "The Children's Story came into being that day. It was then that I really realized how vulnerable my child's mind was —any mind, for that matter—under controlled circumstances...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction politics realistic war 20th-century -
-
Polostan by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe first installment in Neal Stephenson’s three-part Bomb Light cycle, Polostan follows the early life of the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics literary-fiction ww2 fiction sci-fi historical audiobook -
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsWinner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force... -
The General's Women by Susan Wittig Albert
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDuring chaotic World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower had an intense hold on Kay Summersby, his Irish driver/aide. HIis wife Mamie felt the impact in far off Washington gossip. Points of view alternate between Kay, Ike, and Mamie. Feelings deepen when Ike and Kay move from England (1942) to North Africa (1942-43) to England, France, and Germany before and after the Normandy landing (1944-45)... -
Lest Darkness Fall & Related Stories by L. Sprague de Camp, Pohl Frederik
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRarely do books have such a great influence on a genre as Lest Darkness Fall has had on science fiction. Frequently quoted as one of the 'favorite' books of many of the masters of the field, this book by L. Sprague de Camp helped establish time-travel as a solid sub-genre of science fiction...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies -
Designated Targets by John Birmingham
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIt's World War II and the A-bomb is here to stay. The only question: Who's going to drop it first?The Battle of Midway takes on a whole new dimension with the sudden appearance of a U.S.-led naval task force from the twenty-first century, the result of a botched military experiment...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
East Wind Returns by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA young but veteran recon pilot in WW2 finds the fate of the greatest invasion in history—and the life of the nurse he loves—resting perilously on his shoulders. East Wind Returns is a story of WW2 set in July-November 1945 which explores a very different road to that conflict’s historic conclusion. The American war leaders grapple with a crippling setback: their secret atomic bomb does not work...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.