Books like “The English Patient”

What to read after “The English Patient” by Michael Ondaatje: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Atonement
Ian McEwan · 2001
Same genre: “Historical fiction” and “Literary fiction”
On one summer day in 1935, a girl misreads what she sees and tells a lie that destroys two lives. Years later, as war looms, she tries to understand and atone for what she did. A novel about memory, guilt and the stories we tell to survive.
2
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.
3
The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro · 1989
Same genre: “Historical fiction” and “Literary fiction”
- War Fiction
Stevens, a butler at an English country house, sets out on a motoring trip in 1956 and looks back over decades of service. Recalling his employer's political misjudgements and his own missed chances with the housekeeper, he begins to see what a life given to duty has cost him.
4
Rebel of the Sands
Alwyn Hamilton · 2016
Similar setting: “Desert World”
- Desert World
Amani Al'Hiza lives in Dustwalk, a dead-end desert town, and hides two things: she can shoot like a legend, and she is half djinn. Refusing a blackmail marriage and a future in Dustwalk, she disguises herself and joins a stranger heading into the desert, where a rebellion is gathering.
5
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr · 2014
Same genre: “Historical fiction” and “Literary fiction”
- War 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.
6
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak · 2005
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Found Family
Narrated by Death, the story follows Liesel Meminger, a girl sent to live with a foster family in Nazi Germany. She steals books, shares them with a Jewish man hiding in the basement, and grows up amid bombs, loss and small acts of kindness.
7
The White Queen
Philippa Gregory · 2009
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
Elizabeth Woodville, a widowed commoner, secretly marries King Edward IV and is crowned in a court that dislikes her family. Through the wars between Lancaster and York she and her relatives rise, scheme and lose ground to rivals who will not accept a commoner as queen.
8
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway · 1940
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
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.
9
Schindler's Ark
Thomas Keneally · 1982
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War 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.
10
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows · 2008
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Found Family
Writer Juliet Ashton begins a friendship in letters with the people of Guernsey, an island still marked by the German occupation. Through their stories of a secret reading group, she finds a community, a purpose and a reason to cross the sea herself.
11
The Sunne in Splendour
Sharon Kay Penman · 1982
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Betrayal
A retelling of the life of Richard III, from his boyhood in a divided England to his brief reign. Set against the Wars of the Roses, it follows the Yorkist claim to the throne, the loyalties that bind Richard, and the rumour and betrayal that surround his name.
12
The Thorn Birds
Colleen McCullough · 1977
Similar plot moves: “Star-Crossed Lovers” and “Forbidden Love”
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- Forbidden Love
On a sheep station in the Australian outback, Meggie Cleary grows up in the shadow of a family curse. She falls in love with Ralph de Bricassart, a priest whose ambition pulls him towards Rome, and the two stay bound to each other for decades by a love they can never openly have.