Books like “Gone with the Wind”

What to read after “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
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.
2
Outlander
Diana Gabaldon · 1991
Similar setting: “War Fiction”
In 1945, former combat nurse Claire Randall touches a standing stone in Scotland and wakes in 1743, in a country on the edge of rebellion. Unsure of her own time, she is forced to marry a young Highland warrior to survive, and finds herself torn between two lives and two men.
3
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini · 2003
Same genre: “Historical fiction” and “Bildungsroman”
- War Fiction
- Coming of Age
A boy in Kabul betrays his loyal friend on the day of a kite-flying contest, and the guilt follows him into exile in America. Years later he returns to a changed Afghanistan to try to make things right. A story of friendship, cowardice and redemption.
4
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr · 2014
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
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.
5
The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah · 2015
Same genre: “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.
6
Schindler's Ark
Thomas Keneally · 1982
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
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.
7
North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell · 1855
Same genre: “Romance”
Margaret Hale leaves the rural south for the northern mill town of Milton, where she clashes with John Thornton, a mill owner she finds harsh and proud. As a workers' strike divides the town, the two slowly come to respect each other's struggles and see past their first impressions.
8
Divine Rivals
Rebecca Ross · 2023
Similar setting: “War Fiction”
With the gods at war, two young journalists compete for the same columnist post at a dying newspaper. Iris hides her family's troubles, and Roman, her rival, seems to have everything. When anonymous letters begin to pass between them, neither suspects who is writing on the other side.
9
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee · 2017
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
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.
10
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini · 2007
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Survival
Mariam and Laila, born a generation apart in Afghanistan, are forced together by marriage to the same violent man. Through decades of war and loss, the two women become each other's only home and take great risks for the chance of a different life.
11
Catch-22
Joseph Heller · 1961
Similar setting: “War Fiction”
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.
12
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway · 1940
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Survival
Robert Jordan, an American volunteer, joins a band of Republican guerrillas in the Spanish mountains to blow up a bridge. Over a few days he falls for Maria, a young woman scarred by war, and weighs duty, love and the near certainty that the mission will cost him his life.