Books like 'Yellow Wife'
Readers who enjoyed Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror military, war & conflict action / adventure historical-fiction civil-war war slavery poc-mc drama
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Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsSurvive. At any cost.10 concentration camps.10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly.It's something no one could imagine surviving.But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face.As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him... -
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Rated: 4.51 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRomania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer... -
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 91 ratingsBarcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written... -
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsSome stories live forever . . .Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship... -
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Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 51 ratingsShanghai is under siege in this captivating and searingly romantic sequel to These Violent Delights, which New York Times bestselling author Natasha Ngan calls “deliciously dark.”The year is 1927, and Shanghai teeters on the edge of revolution.After sacrificing her relationship with Roma to protect him from the blood feud, Juliette has been a girl on the warpath... -
Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsInfiltrate. Befriend. Sabotage.World War II is raging. Michael O'Shaunessey, originally from Ireland, now lives in Nazi Germany with his parents. Like the other boys in his school, Michael is a member of the Hitler Youth.But Michael has a secret. He and his parents are spies. Michael despises everything the Nazis stand for... -
Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsLida thought she was safe. Her neighbors wearing the yellow star were all taken away, but Lida is not Jewish. She will be fine, won't she?But she cannot escape the horrors of World War II.Lida's parents are ripped away from her and she is separated from her beloved sister, Larissa. The Nazis take Lida to a brutal work camp, where she and other Ukrainian children are forced into backbreaking labor... -
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsAn epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic war 20th-century action-adventure -
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 78 ratingsWhen Rin aced the Keju — the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies — it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction poc-mc war action-adventure asian-mc audiobook book -
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, Cindy Sheehan
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsAn immediate bestseller upon its original publication in 1939, Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo is a searing portrayal of war that has stunned and galvanized generations of readers...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic sad social-commentary survival war -
The Reign Of Greed by José Rizal
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"El Filibusterismo" ("The Subversive") is the second novel by Jose Rizal (1861-1896), national hero of the Philippines. Like its predecessor, the better-known "Noli Me Tangere", the "Fili" was written in Castilian while Rizal was traveling and studying in Europe. It was published in Ghent in 1891 and later translated into English, German, French, Japanese, Tagalog, Ilonggo, and other languages...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic action-adventure adult book classics -
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis National Book Award nominee from two-time finalist Patricia McCormick is the unforgettable story of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge... -
The Distant Daughter by Lorna Cook
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSingapore, 1941: Singapore City lights up with explosions as the first Japanese bombs rain down. Until now, the war has seemed a distant threat for Issey and her friends, drinking and dancing at Raffles. But with the Japanese invasion looming, Issey knows she must leave. Mysterious, handsome Alex Cartwright has sworn he will see her to safety... -
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsBarcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure -
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Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNazi Germany. 1936.“I should have been born yesterday, but that’s not what I wanted. The date didn’t suit me. So I’ve stayed put. Motionless. Rigid. Of course that means a lot of pain for my mother, but she’s a brave woman, and she’s putting up with the delay without complaint. I’m sure she approves of my tactic.“My wish, the first of my future life, is to come into the world on April 20... -
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn Berlin in 1941 during humanity's darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites Alice Hoffman. In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction survival war 20th-century -
Qb VII by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn Queen’s Bench Courtroom Number Seven, famous author Abraham Cady stands trial. In his book The Holocaust—born of the terrible revelation that the Jadwiga Concentration Camp was the site of his family’s extermination—Cady shook the consciousness of the human race. He also named eminent surgeon Sir Adam Kelno as one of Jadwiga’s most sadistic inmate/doctors...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFollowing All the Pretty Horses in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy is a novel whose force of language is matched only by its breadth of experience and depth of thought.In the bootheel of New Mexico hard on the frontier, Billy and Boyd Parham are just boys in the years before the Second World War, but on the cusp of unimaginable events...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic war 20th-century -
Human Acts by Han Kang, Alba Cunill Fulquet
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom the internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian, a rare and astonishing (The Observer) portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice.In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed... -
Blood of a Fallen God by Joshua C. Cook
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGenerations ago, the Godsfall devastated the land of Palnor. The two Gods of Humanity, Amder and Valnijz, perished in battle with each other. When William Reis breaks an ancient taboo to fulfill a dream of generations, he shatters the peace that the land enjoys... -
The Mountain by David L. Golemon
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn 1863 a meeting takes place between legendary war leaders-a secret alliance that will never show up in any American history book. A clandestine arrangement has been struck for a single chance to heal a war-torn nation. The mission is to bring the greatest prize in the history of the world back to American soil-the remnants of pre-history's greatest ship and its most startling mystery... -
Crash Dive by Craig DiLouie
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA WWII naval thriller in the tradition of the Hornblower series ... October, 1942. The United States and the Empire of Japan are at war. Charlie Harrison, a young and ambitious lieutenant, reports for duty aboard the S-55, a worn-out WWI-era submarine... -
Shaman by Noah Gordon
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsRobert Jeremy Cole, the legendary doctor and hero of The Physician, left an enduring legacy. From the 11th century on, the eldest son in each generation of the Cole family has borne the same first name and middle initial and many of these men have followed the medical profession... -
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsJane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead...Categorized as:
civil-war historical-fiction poc-mc survival war action-adventure alternate-history audiobook -
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All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsOne by one the boys begin to fall…In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war’. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic war 20th-century action-adventure -
Northern Hunt by Daniel Greene, Bradford Hastings
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt was a surefire raid to free prisoners, but it will soon become a battle for Wolf's soul.When an escaped Northern prisoner reaches Union lines, his tales of abuse at Libby Prison set up the perfect justifications for a daring raid on Richmond.Johannes Wolf has made a crucial mistake. He's volunteered for a secret raid, dragging along with him, his unit of misfits...Categorized as:
historical-fiction civil-war war american-civil-war military fiction historical horror -
Daddy by Loup Durand
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWho has the key to a $350 million fortune the Nazis have sent their most brilliant operative to find? Thomas, an 11-year old boy with the mind of a genius, the cunning of a fox, and the chance of a snowball in Hell to escape...unless he is helped by one man. An American who doesn't even know he exists. A man he calls Daddy... -
The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNewly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family's ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries and ghosts...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure book children -
The City of Mist: Stories by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsReturn to the mythical Barcelona library known as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in this posthumous collection of stories from the New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind and The Labyrinth of the Spirits...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook dark -
Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratings'Legends of the Fall, an epic tale of three brothers and their lives of passion, madness, exploration and danger at the beginning of the Great War, confirms Jim Harrison's reputation as one of the finest American writers of his generation. This magnificent trilogy also contains two other superb short novels. In Revenge, love causes the course of a man's life to be savagely and irrevocably altered...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Never by Ken Follett
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsNew York Times Bestseller The new must-read epic from master storyteller Ken Follett: more than a thriller, it's an action-packed, globe-spanning drama set in the present day."A compelling story, and only too realistic." --Lawrence H. Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary"Every catastrophe begins with a little problem that doesn't get fixed... -
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsCora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape... -
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsHannah thinks tonight Passover Seder will be the same as always. But this year she will be mysteriously transported into the past. Only she knows the horrors that await... -
Temple by Matthew Reilly
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsFour centuries ago, a precious idol was hidden in the jungles of Peru. To the Incan people, it is still the ultimate symbol of their spirit. To William Race, an American linguist enlisted by the U.S. Army to decipher the clues to its location, it's the ultimate symbol of the apocalypse.. -
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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:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction survival war 20th-century -
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA poignant and suspenseful retelling of a classic fairy tale set in a war-torn world. In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed "Hansel" and "Gretel...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic sad survival -
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA youth in Nazi Germany tells the truth about Hitler.Bartoletti has taken one episode from her Newbery Honor Book, Hitler Youth, and fleshed it out into a full novel.When 16-year-old Helmut Hubner listens to the BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, he quickly discovers Germany is lying to the people. But when he tries to expose the truth with leaflets, he's tried for treason... -
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, celebrated Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima creates a haunting and vivid portrait of a young man’s obsession with idealized beauty and his destructive quest to possess it fully.Mizoguchi, an ostracized stutterer, develops a childhood fascination with Kyoto’s famous Golden Temple...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDisplaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience...Categorized as:
civil-war coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic -
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:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic survival war 20th-century action-adventure -
Little by Edward Carey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe wry, macabre, unforgettable tale of an ambitious orphan in Revolutionary Paris, befriended by royalty and radicals, who transforms herself into the legendary Madame Tussaud.In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Switzerland...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic war 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Three Souls by Janie Chang
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAn absorbing novel of romance and revolution, loyalty and family, sacrifice and undying loveWe have three souls, or so I'd been told. But only in death could I confirm this ... So begins the haunting and captivating tale, set in 1935 China, of the ghost of a young woman named Leiyin, who watches her own funeral from above and wonders why she is being denied entry to the afterlife...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc war 20th-century 21st-century -
Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe year is 1942, and Chaim and Gittel, Polish twins, are forced from their beautiful home and made to live in the Lodz Ghetto. Their family's cramped quarters are awful, but when even those dire circumstances become too dangerous, their parents decide to make for the nearby Lagiewniki Forest, where partisan fighters are trying to shepherd Jews to freedom in Russia... -
The Anubis Slayings by Paul Doherty
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHatusu, the remarkable young widow of Pharaoh Tuthmosis II, has forced Egyptian society to acknowledge her as Pharaoh, and her success in battle is spreading Egypt's glory well beyond its frontiers. In the Temple of Anubis, negotiations are taking place between Hatusu and the defeated King Tushratta of Mitanni for a peace treaty that will seal her greatest victory...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war action-adventure adult africa ancient-civilization book -
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Chaturanga by Anand Neelakantan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPolitical intrigue is astir in the land of Mahishmathi. After the failed coup staged by the Vaithalikas, Sivagami finds herself elevated to the position of bhoomipathi, from where she can more ably pursue her burning goal to avenge her father’s death. Meanwhile, there is a tussle between the two sons of the maharaja of Mahishmathi for the crown... -
Grudging by Michelle Hauck
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA world of chivalry and witchcraft…and the invaders who would destroy everything.The North has invaded, bringing a cruel religion and no mercy. The ciudades-estados who have stood in their way have been razed to nothing, and now the horde is before the gates of Colina Hermosa…demanding blood... -
De vlucht van Roger Brook by Dennis Wheatley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings28 Jul 1783 - Nov 1787This is the first of Dennis Wheatley's famous historical series in which appears the young man who was afterwards to become Prime Minister Pitt's most resourceful secret agent: Roger Brook.The scene is the England of George III and the France of Marie Antoinette; the tale is that of the tall, blue-eyed Roger, who set out to seek fame and fortune in the year 1783... -
Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThey took his daughter, so Micah comes to take their kingdom. Fifty thousand gun-toting paladins march behind him, all baptized in angel blood, thirsty to burn unbelievers.Only the janissaries can stand against them. Their living legend, Kevah, once beheaded a magus amid a hail of ice daggers. But ever since his wife disappeared, he spends his days in a haze of hashish and poetry...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war action-adventure adult book dark dark-fantasy -
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe New York Times Best Historical Fiction of 2020 The Guardian's Best Fiction of 2020Thrillist's Best Books of the YearDaniel Kehlmann transports the medieval legend of the trickster Tyll Ulenspiegel to the seventeenth century in an enchanting work of magical realism, macabre humor, and rollicking adventure...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction war 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn epic story of love, betrayal, and art that spans decades, through the horrors of World War II to 21st century America, inspired by an actual porcelain factory in Dachau.Two lovers caught at the crossroads of history.A daughter’s search for the truth.Germany, 1929...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war family drama literary-fiction europe western-central-europe germany
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