Books like 'The Pugilist at Rest'
Readers who enjoyed The Pugilist at Rest by Thom Jones also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century military, war & conflict war literary-fiction sports dark
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Spark of Life: A Novel of Resistance by Erich Maria Remarque
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSPARK OF LIFE509 is a political prisoner in a German concentration camp. For ten years, he has persevered in the most hellish conditions. Deathly weak, he still has his wits about him and he senses that the end of the war is near. If he and the other living corpses in his barracks can hold on for liberation--or force their own--then their suffering will not have been in vain... -
The Girl in the Striped Dress by Ellie Midwood
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsGermany, 1947. A strange case scheduled for the Denazification Court lands on the desk of an American psychiatrist currently serving in Germany, Dr. Hoffman. A former Auschwitz guard, Franz Dahler, is set to appear in court, and he has requested to bring the most unexpected witness to testify in his defense - one of his former inmates and current wife, Helena... -
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... -
The Postcard by Anne Berest
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAnne Berest’s luminous, moving, and unforgettable new novel The Postcard is the most acclaimed and beloved French book in recent years... -
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The Girls in the Attic by Marius Gabriel
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe bestselling author of The Designer presents a sweeping story of blind faith, family allegiance and how love makes one man question everything he thought he knew.Max Wolff is a committed soldier of the Reich. So when he is sent home wounded, only to discover that his mother is sheltering two young Jewish women in their home, he is outraged... -
The Edelweiss Sisters by Kate Hewitt
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratings1938, Salzburg. A powerful story of hope, forbidden love, and incredible courage, about three sisters who will risk everything—even their own lives—as part of the resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Austria.Johanna, Birgit and Lotte Eder have always lived quiet lives, working in their father’s clockmaking shop and helping their mother in the house... -
The Mistress of Auschwitz by Terrance D. Williamson
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBased on the harrowing life of Eleonore Hodys, The Mistress of Auschwitz follows the true story of a political prisoner detained in the notorious concentration camp. While experiencing all the horrors of the holocaust, Eleonore turns to friendship for survival... -
Το νούμερο 31328 by Ilias Venezis, Ηλίας Βενέζης
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTο Nούμερο 31328 είναι η ίδια η ταυτότητα του συγγραφέα, τότε που παιδί δεκαοκτώ χρόνων οδηγήθηκε από τους Tούρκους στα κάτεργα της Aνατολής. Tο βιβλίο είναι ένα συγκλονιστικό χρονικό «γραμμένο με αίμα», όπως επεσήμανε ο Bενέζης, προσθέτοντας: «Λέω για την καυτή ύλη, για τη σάρκα που στάζει το αίμα της και πλημμυρίζει τις σελίδες του»... -
Emilia: The Darkest Days in History of Nazi Germany Through a Woman's Eyes by Ellie Midwood
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSilver Medal Winner of the International Book Award contest Readers' Favorite in the Historical Fiction category (2017) This story is dedicated to all the victims of sexual slavery in German concentration camps, who had to endure inhumane suffering under the Nazi regime... -
The Child of Auschwitz by Lily Graham
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratings‘She touched the photograph in its gilt frame that was always on her desk, of a young, thin woman with very short hair and a baby in her arms. She had one last story to tell. Theirs. And it began in hell on earth.’ It is 1942 and Eva Adami has boarded a train to Auschwitz... -
The Girls in Blue by Fenella J. Miller
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJane Hadley has nothing to lose when she runs away to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Whatever faces her in war-torn London can't be any worse than staying at home with her abusive father...The city is nothing like she could have imagined, but she's soon on the move, travelling from base to base for her top-secret training...Categorized as:
war literary-fiction romance historical-fiction historical fiction ww2 coming-of-age -
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... -
Half in Shadow by Gemma Liviero
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of In a Field of Blue comes an unforgettable novel about courage, love, and consequences at the dawn of World War I.1915. In German-occupied Belgium, a tragic loss forces Josephine Descharmes to navigate dangerous new territory. By day it’s compliance, serving German officers at the Hotel Métropole... -
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... -
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The Secretary by Catherine Hokin
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsThe Tower House. Down a secluded path, hidden by overgrown vines, the crumbling villa echoes with memories. Of the family who laughed and sang there, until the Nazis tore them from their home. And of the next woman to walk its empty rooms, whose courage in the face of evil could alter the course of history…Germany 1940... -
Life in the Tomb by Stratis Myrivilis, Στρατής Μυριβήλης
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"Life in the Tomb" a war novel written in journal form by a sergeant in the trenches, has been the single most successful and widely read serious work of fiction in Greece since its publication in serial form in 1923-1924, having sold more than 80,000 copies in book form despite its inclusion on the list of censored novels under both the Metaxas regime and the German occupation... -
The Bookbinder by Pip Williams
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA young British woman working in a book bindery gets a chance to pursue knowledge and love when World War I upends her life--an exquisite novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese's Book Club pick The Dictionary of Lost Words It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running...Categorized as:
war literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction historical ww1 audiobook 20th-century -
Millions of Pebbles by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt is the darkest time in the history of mankind, and fate is playing a twisted game.Benjamin Rabinowitz’s world is crashing down on him, a painful reality following the invasion of Poland. He is loath to let his wife and sickly son go but escaping the horrors of the Lodz ghetto seems to be their best chance at survival, albeit slim... -
The Children's Train by Jana Zinser
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis compelling Holocaust action adventure story tells of bravery, sacrifice, and the survival of the human spirit against Hitler and the horrors of war."Gripping and impossible to put down. I cried several times throughout. Perfect ending, emotional but complete...Categorized as:
war literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction ww2 historical audiobook action-adventure -
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... -
Poems of Paul Celan by Paul Celan
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe peerless translations of this haunted and haunting Holocaust poet, including ten new poems and an illuminating essay by the translator. Paul Celan is one the twentieth century's most essential poets, and twenty-two years after its publication, Poems of Paul Celan continues to be the single truest access for English-speakers to this poet's work... -
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Richard Harris
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis collection brings together music played by Captain Corelli himself and original pieces evoking the sounds and events of the book and of 3 earlier novels, the Latin Trilogy', by Louis de Bernieres... -
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... -
In the Land of Armadillos: Stories by Helen Maryles Shankman
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA debut collection of linked stories from a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, set in a German-occupied town in Poland, where tales of myth and folklore meet the real-life monsters of the Nazi invasion.1942. With the Nazi Party at the height of its power, the occupying army empties Poland’s towns and cities of their Jewish populations... -
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Paris at First Light by Amanda Lees
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsParis, 1944: secret agent Juliette is on her most dangerous mission of the war so far. But then her children are kidnapped, and to get them back she may have to commit the ultimate betrayal – that of France itself…Four years ago, when France fell to the Nazis, Juliette made the ultimate sacrifice, leaving behind her two precious children to join the Resistance and defend her country... -
The Maid's Secret by Shari J. Ryan
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCzechoslovakia, 1942: “Please don’t take him,” I plead to the Nazis.“I love you, Mila,” Ben says, hoarsely. “So much. Forever.”“Ben!” I shout as the soldiers pull him away, my heart thudding. “I love you. Please, come back.” I’m screaming at the top of my lungs as the world turns black around me.In the mountains of Bohemia, Mila, a Romani, works as a maid for an aristocratic Jewish family...Categorized as:
war literary-fiction europe western-central-europe historical-fiction historical ww2 fiction -
The Promised Land by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Holocaust robbed Zofia Weiss of all she holds dear. The Secret State Police have confiscated her home, killed her friends, and imprisoned the man she loves. After searching through displaced persons camps and finding nothing, Zofia is sure that her lover is dead. With only her life, a dream, and a terrifying secret, Zofia illegally boards The Exodus, bound for Palestine... -
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... -
Keep Saying Their Names by Simon Stranger
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsInspired by historical events and by personal history, a shattering, exquisite double portrait of a Norwegian family savaged by World War II and of a man devoted to crimes against humanity, conjoined by an actual house of horrors they both call home... -
HIDDEN by Linda Gillard
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA birth. A death. Hidden for a hundred years. The new novel from the author of Kindle bestseller THE MEMORY TREE “Lady, fiancé killed, will gladly marry officer totally blinded or otherwise incapacitated by the war...Categorized as:
war literary-fiction historical 20th-century historical-fiction suspense family fiction -
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:
war literary-fiction historical-fiction ww2 fiction military historical 20th-century -
The Secret of the Grand Hôtel du Lac by Kathryn Gauci
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Sometime during the early hours of the morning, he awoke again, this time with a start. He was sure he heard a noise outside. It sounded like a twig snapping. Under normal circumstances it would have meant nothing, but in the silence of the forest every sound was magnified. There it was again. This time it was closer and his instinct told him it wasn’t the wolves... -
Under a Sky on Fire: A gripping and utterly heartbreaking WW2 historical novel by Suzanne Kelman
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn the middle of the road, the child stood wearing a blue flannel nightie, her feet bare and dirt-splattered. Her blonde flyaway hair was golden, aglow from the fires that lit her up from behind. Stumbling over, Lizzie reached her side. The little girl's eyes were closed, her palms facing upwards. If she'd been in church, you would have thought she was praying... -
1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War by Morgan Llywelyn
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Irish fight for independence is one of the most captivating tales of the twentieth century. Morgan Llywelyn, the acclaimed historical writer of books like Lion of Ireland, Bard and The Horse Goddess , is the writer born to bring this epic battle to life...Categorized as:
war literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction historical politics 20th-century audiobook -
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The Girl from Vichy by Andie Newton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsShe's done running. Now she fights. 1942, occupied France.With the war raging in Europe, Adèle Ambeh dreams of a France that is free from the clutches of the Nazis. As the date of her marriage to a ruthless man draws closer, she only has one choice: she must run.Adèle flees to Lyon and seeks refuge at the Sisters of Notre Dame de la Compassion... -
Our Last Goodbye by Shirley Dickson, Joan Walker
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA heart-wrenching, poignant and totally unforgettable tale of a young woman who must finally face up to the secret she has hidden for a lifetime. A beautiful World War Two novel for fans of Wives of War, Lisa Wingate and Diney Costeloe, that will have you reaching for the Kleenex... -
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... -
The King of Warsaw by Szczepan Twardoch
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA city ignited by hate. A man in thrall to power. The ferociously original award-winning bestseller by Poland’s literary phenomenon―his first to be translated into English.It’s 1937. Poland is about to catch fire.In the boxing ring, Jakub Szapiro commands respect, revered as a hero by the Jewish community... -
A Light in the Window by Marion Kummerow
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBerlin, 1941: Margarete Rosenbaum is working as a housemaid for a senior Nazi officer when his house is bombed, leaving her the only survivor. But when she’s mistaken for his daughter in the aftermath of the blast, Margarete knows she can make a bid for freedom…Issued with temporary papers—and with the freedom of not being seen as Jewish—a few hours are all she needs to escape to relative safety... -
Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA National BestsellerA New Yorker Best Book of 2022Fifteen years after the publication of Evidence of Things Unseen , National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins returns with a “big, bold book” ( USA TODAY ) destined to be an American classic: a sweeping masterwork set during World War II about the meaning of family and the limitations of the American Dream... -
The First Forty-Nine Stories by Ernest Hemingway
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom Ernest Hemingway's Preface: 'There are many kinds of stories in this book. I hope you will find some that you like- In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with... -
Jeszcze się kiedyś spotkamy by Magdalena Witkiewicz
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSą takie historie, które zostają w nas na zawsze. Są takie osoby, których nigdy nie zapominamy.Ja już nie czekam. Chwytam każdy dzień i się do niego uśmiecham. Wierzę, że będą w nim cudowne chwile.Ile razy zadawali sobie pytania jak potoczyłoby się ich życie, gdyby nie wojna? Adela, Franciszek, Janek, Rachela, Joachim i Sabina mieli wielkie plany i marzenia... -
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
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:
literary-fiction war historical-fiction fiction historical tragedy ww2 violent-conflict -
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The Cake Tree in the Ruins by Akiyuki Nosaka
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIntensely moving stories that tell of the absurd violence of war, and tenderly depict the animals and children caught in its vortex.In 1945, Akiyuki Nosaka watched the Allied firebombing of Kobe kill his adoptive parents, and then witnessed his sister starving to death... -
Somewhere a Song by Judith Pella
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBook 2 of Daughters of Fortune... -
The Boy in the Attic by Imogen Matthews
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAnna opened the letter with trembling hands. ‘My darling, if you’re reading this, I haven’t managed to unravel my parents’ secret. But you can. Will you finish the search for me, find out who they were, and who you really are?’Nazi-occupied Holland, 1944. As soldiers patrol the streets, nursing student Ilse is only just surviving the terrible famine and increasingly violent German occupation... -
The Soldier's Art by Anthony Powell
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAnthony Powell’s universally acclaimed epic A Dance to the Music of Time offers a matchless panorama of twentieth-century London. Now, for the first time in decades, readers in the United States can read the books of Dance as they were originally published—as twelve individual novels—but with a twenty-first-century twist: they’re available only as e-books... -
The Secret Vow by Natalie Meg Evans
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKatya – young, beautiful and impoverished – arrives in Paris, hoping to begin a new life. She leaves behind a terrible secret, and her survival in this strange and beautiful new city depends on nobody ever discovering who – and what – she is...Categorized as:
war literary-fiction romance historical-fiction 20th-century historical fiction military -
The Children's Dream by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSometimes Dreams Come True...And so do nightmares.When Naomi's daughter, Perle, starts to have nightmares about smokestacks and creepy doctors, Naomi is struck with terror - the terror of a mother who fears her daughter is in mortal danger. Naomi believes dreams are glimpses into the future. She, too, has had dreams of foreign soldiers with a strange flag invading her tiny village...
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