Books like “For Whom the Bell Tolls”

What to read after “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr · 2014
Same genre: “War novel” and “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Survival
During the German occupation of France, a blind girl and her father flee Paris for the walled city of Saint-Malo, carrying a valuable jewel. In Germany, an orphan with a gift for radio repairs is drawn into the war machine. Their separate paths move slowly toward the same besieged town in August 1944.
2
The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah · 2015
Same genre: “War novel” and “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Survival
In occupied France, two sisters take very different roads through the war. One keeps her daughters safe in the countryside while sheltering fugitives; the other joins the resistance, guiding downed airmen over the Pyrenees. Their choices strain their bond and put both of them in constant danger.
3
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque · 1929
Same genre: “War novel”
Paul Baumer and his classmates enlist in the German army straight from school, urged on by a patriotic teacher. Trench life strips away everything they were taught, and the friends cling to each other as the war grinds them down.
4
Schindler's Ark
Thomas Keneally · 1982
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Survival
In German-occupied Poland, Oskar Schindler, a Czech businessman and opportunist, employs Jewish workers in his factory. As the war turns and deportations intensify, he uses his wealth and connections to shield them, at growing personal risk.
5
Azincourt
Bernard Cornwell · 2008
Same genre: “War novel” and “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Survival
Outlawed archer Nicholas Hook joins Henry V's army as it invades France. Mired in a brutal siege and heavily outnumbered at Azincourt, he and his comrades face a battle that will decide the fate of a kingdom.
6
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian · 1969
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Found Family
In 1800, Royal Navy captain Jack Aubrey takes command of a small brig and meets the ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin, a naturalist and secret intelligence agent. Their friendship grows as the crew pursues a Spanish frigate across the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
7
They Both Die at the End
Adam Silvera · 2017
Similar plot moves: “Insta-Love” and “Star-Crossed Lovers”
On the day they both receive a call saying they will die within twenty-four hours, Mateo and Rufus meet through an app for people facing their last day. The two teenagers spend it together, trying to live a lifetime in the time they have left.
8
The Bronze Horseman
Paullina Simons · 2000
Similar setting: “War Fiction”
In Leningrad in 1941, as the German army tightens its siege, Tatiana meets Alexander, a young officer with a secret. Their love is forbidden by her family and by the war, but through hunger, loss and the frozen winter they hold on to each other and to the hope of survival.
9
Catch-22
Joseph Heller · 1961
Same genre: “War novel”
- War Fiction
- Survival
Bombardier Yossarian wants to survive the war and go home, but every attempt to be grounded runs into a rule that answers itself: to be excused he must ask, and asking proves he is sane. Around him, officers profit and comrades die.
10
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee · 2017
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Survival
A young woman in colonial Korea, Sunja, leaves home for Japan with a husband she barely knows and raises a family that lives as outsiders for generations. Through war and poverty, the household holds on to its dignity and its secrets.
11
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell · 1936
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Survival
Spoiled Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara sees her world torn apart by the American Civil War. Determined to rebuild her family's plantation and her fortune, she schemes and marries her way through the ruins of the Old South, chasing a man she cannot have.
12
The Alice Network
Kate Quinn · 2017
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Found Family
In 1947, pregnant and unmarried Charlie follows a lead about her missing cousin to a ruined woman in London. Their search draws on the story of Eve, a spy who ran a network in occupied France during the First World War, and the betrayals that broke it.