18 books like The Book Thief

What to read after The Book Thief — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr · 2014 · ★ 4.3 · 544p · ≈ 18h · Moderate From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are… Shares World War II, New York Times reviewed, Historical Fiction, History

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1920 · ★ 3.9 · 431p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Here is a novel, glamorous, ironical, compassionate – a marvelous fusion into unity of the curious incongruities of the life of the period – which reveals a hero like no other – one who could live at no other time and in no other place. But he will live as a character, we surmise, as long as the memory of any reader lasts. "There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to… Shares Young Adult

Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell · 1949 · ★ 4.2 · 244p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often referred to as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the English novelist George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair). It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and… Shares Community pick

St. George and St. Michael George MacDonald · 1876 · 450p · ≈ 15h · Challenging It was the middle of autumn, and had rained all day. Through the lozenge-panes of the wide oriel window the world appeared in the slowly gathering dusk not a little dismal. The drops that clung trickling to the dim glass added rain and gloom to the landscape beyond, whither the eye passed, as if vaguely seeking that help in the distance, which the dripping hollyhocks and sodden sunflowers… Shares Historical Fiction, History

Pan Michael An historical novel Henryk Sienkiewicz · 1893 · ★ 5.0 · 542p · ≈ 18h · Challenging The third and final book of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy takes a closer and more intimate look at one of the series’ protagonists: Pan Michael Volodyovski. The Polish Commonwealth has been through intense periods of war, and the peace that follows leaves one of its greatest heroes, Pan Michael, finally free to marry his beloved Panna Anusia. But in a twist of fate, she falls ill and dies, leaving… Shares Historical Fiction, History

American Icon

American Icon Bryce G. Hoffman · 2012 · ★ 4.5 · 363p · ≈ 12h · Moderate At the end of 2008, Ford Motor Company was just months away from running out of cash. With the auto industry careening toward ruin, Congress offered all three Detroit automakers a bailout. General Motors and Chrysler grabbed the lifeline, but Ford decided to save itself. Under the leadership of charismatic CEO Alan Mulally, the man who had saved Boeing, Ford had put together a bold plan to unify… Shares New York Times reviewed, History

Number the Stars Lois Lowry · 1901 · ★ 4.2 · 149p · ≈ 4h · Moderate Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend, Ellen Rosen, often think about life before the war. But it's now 1943, and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching in their town. The Nazis won't stop. The Jews of Denmark are being "relocated," so Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be part of the family. Then Annemarie is… Shares Rescue, Jews, World War II, Historical Fiction

Hitler's Canary Sandi Toksvig · 2005 · ★ 4.0 · 208p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Bamsé Skolvud a 12 ans quand les nazis envahissent Copenhague. Son meilleur ami, Anton Beilin, est juif. Confronté à l'antisémitisme, il va tout faire pour protéger Anton et sa famille. Shares Rescue, Jews, World War II, History

Le vicomte de Bragelonne, ou, dix ans plus tard Alexandre Dumas · 1848 · ★ 4.0 · 462p · ≈ 15h · Challenging In the months of March-July in 1844, in the magazine Le Siecle, the first portion of a story appeared, penned by the celebrated playwright Alexandre Dumas. It was based, he claimed, on some manuscripts he had found a year earlier in the Bibliotheque Nationale while researching a history he planned to write on Louis XIV. They chronicled the adventures of a young man named D'Artagnan who, upon… Shares Historical Fiction, Romans, History

The Machine Gunners Robert Westall · 1975 · ★ 3.5 · 187p · ≈ 6h · Moderate After an air raid, a group of English children find a German machine gun and hide it from adults who are looking for it. Shares World War II, Historical Fiction, History

Mister Pip Jones, Lloyd · 2006 · ★ 3.7 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives.On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much… Shares Storytelling, Books and Reading, New York Times reviewed

Le grand cahier Ágota Kristóf · 1986 · ★ 4.2 · 185p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Un premier roman à la charnière de deux imaginaires. "L'Ouest intimiste et l'Est politique" (G. Brisac, "Le Monde", 7 mars 1986, p. 22). Les héros sont des jumeaux qui, comme l'écrit J.-Folch-Ribas dans "La Presse" du 10 mai 1986, opposent la perversité au mal. Shares World War II, New York Times reviewed, Romans

Gentlemen of the Road

Gentlemen of the Road Michael Chabon · 2007 · ★ 3.7 · 206p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, sprang from an early passion for the derring-do and larger-than-life heroes of classic comic books. Now, once more mining the rich past, Chabon summons the rollicking spirit of legendary adventures--from The Arabian Nights to Alexandre Dumas to Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories--in a… Shares Jews, New York Times reviewed, Historical Fiction, History

The Summer of My German Soldier Bette Greene · 1973 · ★ 5.0 · 240p · ≈ 8h · Moderate When her small hometown in Arkansas becomes the site of a camp housing German prisoners during World War II, 12-year-old Patty Bergen learns what it means to open her heart. Although she's Jewish, she begins to see a prison escapee, Anton, not as a Nazi--but as a lonely, frightened young man with feelings not unlike her own, who understands and appreciates her in a way her parents never will. And… Shares Jews, World War II, Young Adult, Historical Fiction

The Lady of the Rivers

The Lady of the Rivers Philippa Gregory · 2011 · ★ 4.0 The Lady of the Rivers tells the story of Jacquetta, daughter of the Count of Luxembourg, and kinswoman to half the royalty of Europe, who was married to the great Englishman John, Duke of Bedford, uncle to Henry VI. Widowed at the age of nineteen she took the extraordinary risk of marrying a gentleman of her house­hold for love, and then carved out a life for herself as Queen Margaret of Anjou's… Shares History

The Awful Secret

The Awful Secret Bernard Knight · 2006 · 356p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Shares History with this book.

Dead Men's Money Joseph Smith Fletcher · 1920 · ★ 3.7 · 212p · ≈ 7h · Moderate A mysterious one-eyed stranger, a midnight meeting at a lonely spot on the Scottish border, the secret password "Panama", and a corpse This is the situation Hugh Moneylaws, a young law clerk finds himself facing. Who murdered the man he was sent to meet, and why? With the only two men who knew the purpose of the meeting dead, it would seem a puzzle that would never be solved. Yet to save himself… Shares History

Home as found James Fenimore Cooper · 1800 · ★ 5.0 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Challenging Shares Historical Fiction with this book.

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