Books like 'Conversations in Sicily'
Readers who enjoyed Conversations in Sicily by Elio Vittorini & Ernest Hemingway also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century military, war & conflict europe south-europe italy classics literary-fiction war
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Under the Light of the Italian Moon: Inspired by a true story of love and women's resilience during the rise of fascism and WWII by Jennifer Anton
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA promise keeps them apart until WW2 threatens to destroy their love foreverFonzaso Italy, between two warsNina Argenta doesn’t want the traditional life of a rural Italian woman. The daughter of a strong-willed midwife, she is determined to define her own destiny. But when her brother emigrates to America, she promises her mother to never leave... -
![Homeland by Fernando Aramburu]()
Homeland by Fernando Aramburu
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe internationally acclaimed novel that limns a decades-long relationship between two Basque families torn asunder by the violent insurgency of the separatist movement ETA--arguably the most acclaimed and successful literary novel published in Spain in recent times... -
![Gone with the Wind Volume 1 by Margaret Mitchell]()
Gone with the Wind Volume 1 by Margaret Mitchell
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGone With The Wind Volume 1: Special Edition By Margaret Mitchell Tomorrow is another day ... Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War, Margaret Mitchell's magnificent historical epic is an unforgettable tale of love and loss, of a nation mortally divided and a people forever changed... -
![Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough]()
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:
classics europe italy literary-fiction south-europe war 20th-century action-adventure -
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![Το νούμερο 31328 by Ilias Venezis, Ηλίας Βενέζης]()
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»... -
![Farewell Anatolia by Dido Sotiriou]()
Farewell Anatolia by Dido Sotiriou
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFarewell Anatolia is a tale of paradise lost and of shattered innocence; a tragic fresco of the fall of Hellenism in Asia Minor; a stinging indictment of Great Power politics, oil-lust and corruption. Dido Soteriou's novel - a perennial best-seller in Greece since it first appeared in 1962 - tells the story of Manolis Axiotis, a poor but resourceful villager born near the ancient ruins of Ephesus... -
![Life in the Tomb by Stratis Myrivilis, Στρατής Μυριβήλης]()
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 Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough]()
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:
classics europe italy literary-fiction south-europe war 20th-century action-adventure -
![Poems of Paul Celan by Paul Celan]()
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]()
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... -
![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... -
![I, Claudius by Robert Graves]()
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:
classics europe italy literary-fiction south-europe war 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Maid's Secret by Shari J. Ryan]()
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:
europe war literary-fiction western-central-europe historical-fiction historical ww2 fiction -
![The Smallest Crack by Roberta Kagan]()
The Smallest Crack by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratings1933 Berlin, GermanyWhen the price for life is dishonor dipped in blood, how much is too much?Eli Kaetzel and his beautiful but timid wife Rebecca suddenly find themselves in the gaping maws of Adolf Hitler's murderous rampage. Eli knows that their only chance, however slim, for survival may lie in the hands of Gretchen, a spirited Aryan girl...Categorized as:
europe war literary-fiction western-central-europe germany urban historical-fiction ww2 -
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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... -
![Augustus by John Williams]()
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:
classics europe italy literary-fiction south-europe war 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Wall by John Hersey]()
The Wall by John Hersey
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRiveting & compelling, The Wall tells the inspiring story of forty men & women who escape the dehumanizing horror of the Warsaw ghetto. John Hersey's novel documents the Warsaw ghetto both as an emblem of Nazi persecution & as a personal confrontation with torture, starvation, humiliation & cruelty--a gripping, visceral story, impossible to put down... -
![Ofrene by Gerald Green]()
Ofrene by Gerald Green
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsGerald Green's novel Holocaust, which is based on his teleplay for the 1978 NBC miniseries, seeks to put faces on the tragedy by telling the story of the experience of two German families whose lives intersect at certain points... -
![Freedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis]()
Freedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFreedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis is a novel on the heroic or epic scale about the rebellion of the Greek Christians against the Turks on the island of Crete, where Kazantzakis was from... -
![A Harvest of Secrets by Roland Merullo]()
A Harvest of Secrets by Roland Merullo
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of From These Broken Streets comes a sweeping novel of love, resistance, and courage set against the backdrop of WWII Italy.Italy, 1943. The seeds of terror planted by Hitler have brought Allied forces to Italian soil. Young lovers separated by war—one near a Tuscan hill town, the other a soldier on the Sicilian front—will meet any challenge to reunite... -
![The Kites by Romain Gary]()
The Kites by Romain Gary
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn a small farm in Normandy, as Hitler rises to power in Germany, young Ludo comes of age in the care of his Uncle Ambrose, an eccentric mailman, kite-maker, and pacifist. Ludo’s quiet existence changes the day he meets Lila, a girl from the aristocratic Polish family who own the estate next door. In a single glance, Ludo instantly falls in love forever; Lila, on the other hand, remains elusive... -
![The Centurions by Jean Lartéguy]()
The Centurions by Jean Lartéguy
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis is Jean Larteguy's most famous book that garnered international acclaim and sold millions of copies. It was also the basis for the movie, The Lost Command, starring Anthony Quinn. In his autobiography, Larteguy writes that he got the name of the book from when he was traveling with the Foreign Legion in the Sahara and came across an old Roman column at an oasis... -
![They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy, Patrick Leigh Fermor]()
They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy, Patrick Leigh Fermor
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPainting an unrivalled portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, this story is told through the eyes of two young Transylvanian cousins, Count Balint Abady and Count Laszlo Gyeroffy... -
![Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andrić, Joseph Hitrec]()
Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andrić, Joseph Hitrec
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet in the town of Travnik, Bosnian Chronicle presents the struggle for supremacy in a region that stubbornly refuses to submit to any outsider. The era is Napoleanic and the novel, both in its historical scope and psychological subtley, Tolstoyan. In its portray of conflict and fierce ethnic loyalties, the story is also eerily relevant... -
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![War Poems by Siegfried Sassoon]()
War Poems by Siegfried Sassoon
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe poems gathered here, which trace the course of the First World War, are an extraordinary testimony to the almost unimaginable experiences of a combatant in that bitter conflict. Moving from the patriotic optimism of the first few poems (...fighting for our freedom, we are free) to the anguish and anger of the later work (where hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists / Flounders in mud.. -
![In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Šlepikas]()
In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Šlepikas
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Second World War is drawing to a close, but the world is far from safe. Left to fend for themselves, women and children are forced out of their homes in East Prussia to make way for the advancing victors. As the Russian soldiers arrive, the women know that they are still very much in danger, and that for them, the fight for survival is only just beginning... -
![The Hope by Herman Wouk]()
The Hope by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“One of our best writers today—a modern Charles Dickens—is Herman Wouk… The Hope is not only a good read, but it also causes a good think.” —William Safire, New York Times Starting in 1948 and reaching its climax during the Six-Day War of 1967, The Hope begins the story of Israel, a country fighting for its life—outmatched and surrounded by enemies... -
![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... -
![Children Of The Arbat by Anatoli Rybakov]()
Children Of The Arbat by Anatoli Rybakov
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSet in 1934, Children of the Arbat presents a masterful and chilling psychological portrait of Stalin and details the beginning of his reign of terror and its impact on a generation - represented by a circle of young friends living in Moscow's intellectual and artistic center, the Arbat... -
![The First Forty-Nine Stories by Ernest Hemingway]()
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... -
![Αριάγνη by Στρατής Τσίρκας, Stratis Tsirkas]()
Αριάγνη by Στρατής Τσίρκας, Stratis Tsirkas
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsΟι "Ακυβέρνητες Πολιτείες" απαρτίζονται από τρεις τόμους: "Η λέσχη" (1961), "Αριάγνη" (1962), "Η νυχτερίδα" (1965). Η δράση τοποθετείται αντίστοιχα στην Ιερουσαλήμ, στο Κάιρο, στην Αλεξάνδρεια... -
![Sarah Morris Remembers (Sarah) by D.E. Stevenson]()
Sarah Morris Remembers (Sarah) by D.E. Stevenson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWith the help of her diary, Sarah Morris tries to make a pattern of the lives of her family and her friends... The result is a brightly woven tapestry of which the main thread, Sarah’s own story, is the love which grows naturally from the innocent affection of a child into the all-absorbing passion of a woman. Sarah tells of her happy childhood at the Vicarage... -
![The Boy in the Attic by Imogen Matthews]()
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]()
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... -
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![Generations of Winter by Vasily Aksyonov, Василий Аксёнов]()
Generations of Winter by Vasily Aksyonov, Василий Аксёнов
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCompared by critics across the country to War and Peace for its memorable characters and sweep, and to Dr. Zhivago for its portrayal of Stalin's Russia, Generations of Winter is the romantic saga of the Gradov family from 1925 to 1945... -
![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... -
![Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels by Nancy Mitford]()
Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels by Nancy Mitford
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsContains: The Pursuit of Love (1945)Love in a Cold Climate (1949)The Blessing (1951)Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels casts a finely gauged net to capture perfectly the foibles and fancies of the English upper class, and includes an introduction by Philip Hensher in Penguin Modern Classics... -
![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... -
![Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson]()
Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTo survive the Holocaust, a young Jewish woman must pose as a Christian farmer’s wife in this unforgettable novel — a story of terror, hope, love, and sacrifice, inspired by true events, that vividly evokes the most perilous days of World War II.It is the autumn of 1943, and life is becoming increasingly perilous for Italian Jews like the Mazin family... -
![The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough]()
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of The Thorn Birds comes a masterpiece of historical fiction that is fascinating, moving, and gloriously heroic. The reader is swept into the whirlpool of pageantry, passion, splendor, chaos and earth-shattering upheaval that was ancient Rome...Categorized as:
classics europe italy literary-fiction south-europe war 20th-century action-adventure -
![A Sister's Promise by Anne Bennett]()
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![The World as I Found It by Bruce Duffy]()
The World as I Found It by Bruce Duffy
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTHE WORLD AS I FOUND IT centers around Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most powerfully magnetic philosophers of our time--brilliant, tortured, mercurial, forging his own solitary path while leaving a permanent mark on all around him... -
![The Jewish Dog by Asher Kravitz, Nita Kurrant]()
The Jewish Dog by Asher Kravitz, Nita Kurrant
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFiltering the darkest, most dramatic period of modern Jewish history through the naive, often sage, perspective of a remarkable dog, The Jewish Dog offers readers a view of the Holocaust as never seen before.This bestselling novel in Israel follows the life and thoughts of Caleb, a contemplative dog unusually fascinated with human affairs... -
![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... -
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![The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell]()
The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith their lives drastically remodeled by World War II, the characters of The Dance to the Music of Time series continue their colorful exploits. Nicholas Jenkins, the narrarator, now in his thirties, is second-lieutenant in an infrantry regiment and life in the army is examined at startingly close range... -
![Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon]()
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPersonal narratives of a British officer on the Western front during World War I... -
![The Voyage: A Historical Novel set during the Holocaust, Inspired by real events by Roberta Kagan]()
The Voyage: A Historical Novel set during the Holocaust, Inspired by real events by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOn May 13th 1939, five strangers boarded the MS St. Louis, Promised a future of safety away from Nazi Germany and Hitler’s third Reich unbeknownst to them they were about to embark upon a voyage built on secrets, lies, and treachery. Sacrifice, love, life, and death hung in the balance as each fought against fate but the voyage was just the beginning... -
![My Friends by Emmanuel Bove, Garnette Cadogan]()
My Friends by Emmanuel Bove, Garnette Cadogan
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsEmanuel Bove's first novel, My Friends, relates the story of Victor Baton, a wounded war veteran trying to reestablish his prewar lifestyle but avoid work. Living in a run-down boardinghouse, Baton spends his days searching working-class Paris for the modest comforts of warmth, cheap meals, and friendship, but he finds little... -
![Mendelssohn is on the Roof by Jiří Weil]()
Mendelssohn is on the Roof by Jiří Weil
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOn the roof of Prague's concert hall, Julius Schlesinger, aspiring SS officer, is charged with the removal of the statue of the Jew Mendelssohn--but which one is he? Remembering his course on "racial science," Schlesinger instructs his men to pull down the statue with the biggest nose. Only as the statue topples does he recognize the face of Richard Wagner... -
![American Dreams by John Jakes]()
American Dreams by John Jakes
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSpanning 1906-1917, the second generation of the immigrant Crown family sends three dreamers to new leading industries. Starlet Fritzi 26 aims for glamorous Hollywood. Her brother Carl soars in the skies of wartorn Europe. His cousin Paul screens footage of German army atrocities. The trio experience ambition, passion, adventure, glory, and sacrifice...
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