(Part 2) Best jewish historical fiction books according to redditors

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
and
A Blessing on the Moon are my two favorites. They're both pretty heavy, emotionally.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon is a wonderful fictionalized version of Golden Age comics' Jewish roots.

****Nazi (sry)

One book came to my mind that could maybe meet your expectations but only part of it... and I havent read it yet but it's supposed to be very good:

https://www.amazon.de/Nazi-Barber-Edgar-Hilsenrath/dp/3981609212/ref=sr_1_2?s=books-intl-de&ie=UTF8&qid=1481121688&sr=1-2&keywords=edgar+hilsenrath

I love books I love books I love books.

My all time favorite book is The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. I first read it in high school for my AP Lit class and I've probably read it a dozen more times since then. My copy is worn and dog eared and full of little notes in the margins and underlined phrases. It's gorgeous writing and the protagonist makes my chest ache and the story-telling is magical. It is the best book I've ever read and the best book I will ever read.

Another one of Barbara Kingsolver's books is also my favorite. It's her first one--called The Bean Trees.

A recent author I've found that I'm completely infatuated with is Alice Hoffman. My favorites of hers are The Museum of Extraordinary Things, Faithful, The Marriage of Opposites, and The Story Sisters. Her story telling is luminous, exquisite. She has a profound grasp on both understanding words and understanding people, and the two gifts together make magic.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped In An Ikea Wardrobe is probably the smartest, funniest, charming, insightful, and heartwarming/terribly saddening novel I've ever, ever read. It's spectacular.

I'm also a huge fan of Liane Moriarty's work. Her books are so real and they're so funny, so beautiful, so good.

Also the Harry Potter series. At the beginning of the summer, right after I graduated college, I seriously sat down and reread all seven books in a week. It was great. I did nothing but read all day for seven days and it was perfect.

edit: forgot Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel! This book combines my favorite literary genre, magical realism, with apocalyptic fiction and OH MY GOD it's fantastic.

Nine hundred pages of first-person narration about a Nazi officer that is in love w/ his twin sister but often hooks up w/ dudes during WWII, I offer you "The Kindly Ones."

Memoirs of Hadrian and The Abyss by Marguerite Yourcenar are amazing. The first is a long letter written by the emperor Hadrian to Marcus Aurelius; the second is about the life of a Renaissance alchemist living in Bruges. Like Yourcenar, who was the first woman elected to the French Academy, they're both amazingly cerebral.

Sea of Lentils by Antonio Benitez-Rojo concerns Christopher Columbus, the Age of Discovery, colonialism, and the triangle trade. Packed with amazing detail, written in a remarkable style, full of swordfights, harquebuses, alchemists, caravels, and all kinds of awesome, I was crazy about this book.

Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert is actually maybe the greatest and the most under-appreciated book in the genre. The action and brutality contained here--crucified lions, elephants with swords in their trunks, child sacrifice--is more intense than in any movie I've ever seen. The love story has an amazing conclusion as well.

The Persian Boy by Mary Renault (as well as many of this author's other books, particularly The Last of The Wine) was fun, informative, deep, moving, and really everything you could ask for. This should have been the basis for the recent movie about Alexander The Great, but his beautiful young Persian lover was only shown in one or two shots, I think. Get lost in the deserts of Gedrosia!

Gates of Fire (about everyone's favorite battle) by Steven Pressfield will plunge you more deeply into a new world than you ever thought you could go from the first lines. I recommended this book to a kid who never read anything once, and he devoured it in a few weeks and told me that he loved it.

And I can't help but plug my own book, Sorabol, about a cross-dressing Jewish lesbian who destroys medieval Korea: http://www.amazon.com/Sorabol-ebook/dp/B00DNNYNG8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372364955&sr=8-1&keywords=sorabol

All Other Nights by Dara Horn is a fascinating and, broadly speaking, historical fictionalized account of Jewish Americans living during the Civil War.

It follows a fictional Northern spy named Jacob Rappaport, but weaves in lots of little-known, yet important historical characters and communities.

It might be People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

​

>In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries

​

Besides some actual learning with partners - reviewing the Amidah line by line and tracing the theme of barrenness in the Torah, I'm reading a wonderful historical novel, The Dovekeepers, which takes place in the aftermath of the 2nd temples destruction, when the Jews have to flee Jerusalem, and about a small group that settles on Masada. Very Red Tent-esque, and I'm loving it. Edit: Linked to Amazon/Dovekeepers.

Has she read [Marilynne Robinson] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housekeeping_(novel)?
[Anita Diamant] (https://www.amazon.com/Day-After-Night-Anita-Diamant-ebook/dp/B002NT3B70/ref=la_B000APWF2G_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494044221&sr=1-6)? [Joan Slonczewski] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Door_into_Ocean)? [Alice Sheldon] (http://valerie.debill.org/Hosting/The_Women_Men_Dont_See.pdf)?

The Tracy Crosswhite series is great. #1 is amazing, #2 is good, #3 is great. All 3 should be on there

Here's the first one

https://smile.amazon.com/My-Sisters-Grave-Tracy-Crosswhite/dp/1477825576/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468195805&sr=8-1&keywords=my+sisters+grave


If you like historical fiction:

The Bloodletter's Daughter - https://smile.amazon.com/Bloodletters-Daughter-Novel-Old-Bohemia/dp/1612184650/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468195859&sr=8-1&keywords=the+bloodletters+daughter

Finding Rebecca - https://smile.amazon.com/Finding-Rebecca-Eoin-Dempsey/dp/1477826106/ref=pd_sim_14_14?ie=UTF8&dpID=51kT87odLLL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=2MXBCM8PT2WQ9832G1EK

What She Left Behind (this is half HF half modern day, the HF part is really good) - https://smile.amazon.com/What-Behind-Ellen-Marie-Wiseman/dp/0758278454/ref=pd_sim_14_21?ie=UTF8&dpID=61bLHO4EiEL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR109%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=2MXBCM8PT2WQ9832G1EK

Also this one's creepy:
Follow You Home - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SLWQGUM/ref=s9_hps_bw_g351_i8?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=N3FAE2BPBRHHX56Y8Y5X&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=2247349782&pf_rd_i=9069934011

Hangman's Daughter - https://smile.amazon.com/Hangmans-Daughter-Tales/dp/054774501X/ref=pd_sim_14_6?ie=UTF8&dpID=41PTaeYQpZL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL320_SR214%2C320_&psc=1&refRID=2MXBCM8PT2WQ9832G1EK

This one's good:

The One That Got Away - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B007GFGTAW/ref=s9_al_bw_g351_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_r=N3FAE2BPBRHHX56Y8Y5X&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=2074617362&pf_rd_i=9069934011


Sorry this is one giant mess of a comment. Hopefully at least one of these sounds good for you

http://www.amazon.com/Alamut-Vladimir-Bartol-ebook/dp/B009Y3O2AS

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Greg Iles WW2 books - easy read, intriguing story and NAZI themed

https://www.amazon.com/World-War-Two-2-Book/dp/B00WTIN882/ref=sr_1_1_ha?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1503983345&sr=1-1&keywords=black+cross+greg+iles

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth is pretty cool - imagines what would've happened to the US if Lindbergh was elected president during WWII

Some of that sounds like The Queen's Fool by Phillipa Gregory, but it's been many years since I've read it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014IZ5RA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

http://www.amazon.com/The-Blue-Mountain-A-Novel/dp/1841952427

Efraim, one of the sons, carries a cow named Jean Valjean on his back everyday, impressing a passing circus.

This book (רומן רוסי) is the Israeli-Kibbutz version of 100 Years of Solitude.

Simon Mawer's The Glass Room (2009) is also set roundabout the 1920s to WWII era. Well-to-do Jewish couple deal with their marriage and sexualities in the changing socio-political climate of their native Czechoslovakia until the Nazi occupation. Really excellent book.

Some historical fiction: [Saturday Night and Sunday Morning] (http://www.amazon.com/Saturday-Night-Sunday-Morning-Sillitoe/dp/0007205023)

[Armageddon] (http://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Novel-Berlin-Leon-Uris/dp/1453258396)

[Mila 18] (http://www.amazon.com/Mila-18-Leon-Uris/dp/0553241605)

[Russian Hide and Seek] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0091420504/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=)

[The Man in the High Castle] (http://www.amazon.com/The-High-Castle-Philip-Dick/dp/0547572484) There's also a TV show based on this book. Haven't gotten around to watching it all, but watched the first episode and really enjoyed it.

[In the Garden of Beasts] (http://www.amazon.com/In-Garden-Beasts-American-Hitlers/dp/030740885X)


Other books: [Something Wicked This Way Comes] (http://www.amazon.com/Something-Wicked-This-Way-Comes/dp/0380729407)

[The Girl With All the Gifts] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Girl-With-All-Gifts/dp/0316278157)

[1Q84] (http://www.amazon.com/1Q84-Vintage-International-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0307476464)

Edit: I like to read!

Edit2: Added more books and included amazon links to all of them. Would add more, but don't want to overload you with recommendations :p