Category: World War II

December 27, 2016

The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith *** (of 4)

In the closing days of WWII, as the Allies are conquering northward up the Italian peninsula, the Germans are beginning to retreat, and their Italian...

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May 13, 2015

Paper Love by Sarah Wildman **** (of 4)

Sarah Waldman’s grandfather escaped the Nazi Aunchshloss in Austria by the skin of his teeth. He settled in America, opened a successful medical practice, and...

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March 22, 2015

The Property by Rutu Modan **** (of 4)

Modan is part of the first generation of Israeli graphic novelists. In The Property, an elderly Israeli grandmother returns to Poland with her granddaughter to...

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January 18, 2015

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan ** (of 4)

In the central third of this novel, a New Zealand prisoner of World War II, enslaved by the Japanese endures countless, excruciatingly detailed horrors in...

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December 14, 2014

Warburg in Rome by James Carroll *** (of 4)

I learned a lot about the plight of European Jews in the years 1944 to 1947. American Jews knew of the death camps, but widespread...

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October 28, 2014

Agent Zigzag by Ben McIntyre *** (of 4)

Prior to the outbreak of WWII, the British citizen Eddie Chapman spent his youth blowing safes and robbing banks. Passing in and out of jails, Chapman...

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August 11, 2014

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr **** (of 4)

Two parallel stories. In France, a teenage girl, blind since the age of five, has her life turned upside down when the Germans invade Paris....

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June 7, 2014

An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson **** (of 4)

The year is 1942. Axis powers have taken control of Europe, east Asia and the Pacific, North Africa, and are threatening to consume Russia. Britain,...

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May 5, 2014

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson **** (of 5)

On the first page, Ursala Todd has the opportunity to shoot Hitler in 1930 and does so. No wait. A few pages later Ursula is...

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April 25, 2014

Hitler’s Furies by Wendy Lower *** (of 4)

Contemporary research on Nazi war crimes suggests most Nazis were Ordinary Men. Neither crazed nor fanatical killers, Christopher Browning’s landmark book in 1992 discovered that most...

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