Books like “The Kite Runner”

What to read after “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini: 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”
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
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell · 1936
Same genre: “Historical fiction” and “Bildungsroman”
- War Fiction
- Coming of Age
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.
3
Schindler's Ark
Thomas Keneally · 1982
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Redemption Arc
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.
4
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr · 2014
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Coming of Age
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
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
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee · 2017
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Coming of Age
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.
7
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.
8
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak · 2005
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Coming of Age
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.
9
The Alice Network
Kate Quinn · 2017
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
- Betrayal
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.
10
Salt to the Sea
Ruta Sepetys · 2016
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
Four young refugees cross a frozen East Prussia in the winter of 1945, each hiding a secret and hoping to reach a ship that will carry them west. Their paths merge among the crowds fleeing the advancing Soviet army, bound for a vessel whose fate none of them suspect.
11
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini · 2007
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- War Fiction
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.
12
The Forever War
Joe Haldeman · 1974
Similar setting: “War Fiction”
- War Fiction
A conscripted soldier fights an interstellar war against the Taurans, an alien enemy he barely understands. Relativity means each tour sends him centuries into the future, where the society he left behind has changed beyond recognition and the war has no clear end.