Riot Recommendation: Excellent World War II Fiction
This installment of the Riot Recommendation is sponsored by The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure.
Like most gentiles in Nazi-occupied Paris, architect Lucien Bernard has little empathy for the Jews. So when a wealthy industrialist offers him a large sum of money to devise secret hiding places for Jews, Lucien struggles with the choice of risking his life for a cause he doesn’t really believe in. Ultimately he can’t resist the challenge and begins designing expertly concealed hiding spaces—behind a painting, within a column, or inside a drainpipe—detecting possibilities invisible to the average eye. But when one of his clever hiding spaces fails horribly and the immense suffering of Jews becomes incredibly personal, he can no longer deny reality.
Written by an expert whose knowledge imbues every page, this story becomes more gripping with every life the architect tries to save.
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Bravery, glory, spies, love, war, pain, hope, good, evil- almost anything you could hope to read about can be found in books about World War II, whether fictional or non-fiction. Then there’s historical fiction, a combination of the best of both. So tell us: what are your favorite World War II novels? Let us know in the comments and check back next week for a reading list!
