I want to read about World War 1 and 2 but fictional, not biographical. Are there any great novels based on the two World Wars? Thank you
All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque (WWI) Three Soldiers by John dos Passos (WWI) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (WWII) Those are the only ones I can remember at the moment. There are a few other novels that are set against the backdrop of WWI and WWII but don't really go into detail about the wars. There are also some good Holocaust memoirs worth checking out.
How about trying an Amazon search for "world war" and "fiction book"? You have a better idea what you're looking for.
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry Also, the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker come to mind. You might also want to check out the penguin collections of WW1 poetry and short stories. At the very least check out the poetry of Wilfred Owen.
I guess Herman Wouk's The Winds of War and War and Remembrance (WWII) deserve a mention. They certainly are huge, and they sold bazillions of copies. I haven't read them, so I can't personally recommend them. I tried to read Wouk's Youngblood Hawke, though, and his style is so poor, so clumsy, that I found myself mentally rewriting his paragraphs as I read. That's just too much work, though, so I put the book aside. Maybe I'll give it another try when my stomach can deal with it. Norman Mailer made his reputation with The Naked and the Dead (WWII). You might want to check it out.
Not sure how it reads translated in English, but my favorites are Journey to the End of the Night (Voyage au bout de la nuit) and North (Nord) by French writer Louis Ferdinand Celine. In English,l I'd add Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo to the titles abov. For epic non-fictional accounts, I highly recommend 900Days: The Siege of Leningrad by Harrison Salisbury for WWII and The Price of Glory by Alistair Horne for WWI. In theatre, there is Incident at Vichy by Arthur Miller.
Good book. I can't compare it to the original, but from what I've heard, the Ralph Manheim translation is very accurate. As far as the original question is concerned, only the first 25% or so of the book deals with WWI. Still, it's a book worth reading.
Slaughterhouse-Five -Kurt Vonnegut It's a (mostly) fictitious story about a fictitious character with some of Vonnegut's personal experiences peppered in. Technically Semi-Autobiographical, but . . . Time travel, aliens, WWII, just read it.
I found Birdsong quite dull. Good in parts, but went on too long. Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse 5 are both amazing books. If you've not read them yet you really need to do so. Like now.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin depicts the personality of Mussolini and the events in Greece during WW2 (with a love story smack-bang in the middle of it all, yes, I know) with admirable accuracy, though it has quite a narrow focus which perhaps isn't what you want. I also want to add my votes to Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse 5.
Leon Uris's Battle Cry is one of my favorites. Hooked me at the first sentence. Winds of War was also good. Catch-22 is a must.
Enrich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front It follows a German soldier on the German/French front of WWI.
