Historical Fiction Book List

Historical Fiction is one of my favorite genres to read. I just recently discovered this last year when I was introduced to the writings of Jennifer .A. Nielsen and some of her Historical Fiction novels. I hope that you come to love them as much as I do.

A Night Divided is the first book that I read of hers. It took me a bit to get totally into it, but within the first few chapters I had a hard time putting it down.
Gerta was born in East Germany and one night she hears hammering all throughout the dark hours and when she wakes up a horrible sight meets her eyes. The Berlin Wall. And what’s worse, her father and one of her brothers are trapped on the other side. Unable to come back home. Will Gerta and her mother and other brother be reunited with their family? Or will they forever be separated by a barrier of cement and barbed wire?

Resistance is my favorite Historical Fiction by Jennifer Nielsen. Chaya Lindner was born in Poland to a Jewish family. When WWII breaks out and ghettos start appearing and making Poland’s landscape bitter and torn Chaya’s family is one of the ones on the lists. But Chaya goes to live with her grandmother, or so her parents think, to escape the ghettos.
She actually is one of the first to join a resistance cell formed of Poland’s young people and is given the job of a courier. She works to smuggle children out of ghettos and give them loving and safe families, and eventually is given the most important mission yet. To help start one of the most famous uprisings in the history of WWII. If it succeeds it will bring hope to all Poland’s Jews, not to mention Jews around the world.
But if it fails everything Chaya once loved will come to a horrific end.

Meg Kenyon’s father used to write codes for her to decipher as a game. That is, until he goes off to fight with the allies during WWII. With him gone, who will write the codes? But he left her three more that may prove to be more than just a fun little game. This game could end two ways. Safety, or ruin. It’s up to Meg to uncover the true meaning of the codes and reunite their family.
She gets wrapped up in the exciting, and dangerous, lives of the French partisans, and helps them on risky missions. Thanks to her knowledge of deciphering she’s a big help to the War effort. But she is young and with danger and fear lurking around every corner, will she have the courage to overcome it?

Set in Lithuania and Russia in the late 30s early 40s during WWII you read about a story that has not been told enough. While there was war raging in the rest of the world, a whole different war was going on in the Soviet Union. Stalin was rounding up thousands and millions of people and putting them on trains bound for Siberia to meet their fate of sickness, starvation, beatings, and death.
Lina and her mother and brother are some of those people. Just an ordinary family who loves and cares for one another, but one night all that changes. Recommended for mature readers 13 and up. This book deals with very hard subjects.

Cristian Florescu’s dream is to become a writer. But he lives in Communist Romania where the people are bound by rules and regulations. The houses are bugged with listening devices. Families have to wait in long lines to get food. Medicine is hard to come by. And everyone buys things off the black market. The government has spies everywhere, they are always watching. Even the people you think are your closest friends. Then one day Cristian’s whole life changes and he is forced to do what only traitors do. He has become an informer. Recommended for mature readers ages 13 and up as this story deals with very hard topics.