The Best World War II Novels

Literature has a long tradition of producing war stories. Starting with The Iliad, every great period of literature corresponds to one of history’s great wars. War And Peace details the Napoleonic Wars. The Red Badge Of Courage takes place during the American Civil War.

But the greatest period of literature matches the greatest of all wars, World War II. To kick off our month of lists at The Chaos Factory, here are the most celebrated novels about World War II:

(Note: Each list that appears on The Chaos Factory has been exhaustively researched. Experts are consulted, comprehensive surveys conducted, and precise algorithms created, all of which insure the lists are accurate and complete. No arguments necessary.)

#6 All Quiet On The Western Front

By the German author Erich Maria Remarque, this novel tells the story of German soldiers in the Great War and their alienation from civilian life. In the same way that World War II was a sequel to the first World War, the subsequent novels on this list owe their existence to Remarque’s groundbreaking realism.

Favorite Quote: We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important to us. And good boots are hard to come by.

#5 The Thin Red Line

I never actually read the novel. But I did see the Terrence Malick movie, and it was almost as good as Saving Private Ryan.

Favorite Quote: War don’t ennoble men, it turns ’em into dogs. It poisons the soul.

#4 The Quiet American

Set in the Vietnam front of the war, Graham Greene presages the cold war with his tale of a CIA operative fighting against communism. Before reading The Quiet American, I never knew that Vietnam was so central to the outcome of World War II.

Favorite Quote: Find me an uncomplicated child, Pyle. When we are young we are a jungle of complications. We simplify as we get older.

#3 The Diary Of Anne Frank

A young Jewish girl’s diary illuminates readers on what it means to retain hope in the face of oblivion. It may be possible to deny the Holocaust be what cannot be denied is that Anne Frank is the most accomplished teenage author of all time.

Favorite Quote: I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

#2 Slaughterhouse 5

World War II meets science fiction in Kurt Vonnegut’s most acclaimed novel. The novel is actually pretty crazy, sometimes hard to follow, and prominently features time traveling aliens. But its rhythmic invocation of the fatalistic motto, “And so it goes,” appropriately captures the essence of both life and war.

Favorite Quote: And so it goes.

#1 Catch-22

Joseph Heller crafted not only the greatest commentary on the pointlessness of war, but also one of the funniest novels of all time. Both the movie and television show M*A*S*H were based on it, and the phrase Catch-22 has become ingrained in our language. The novel would have made Kafka proud.

Favorite Quote: He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt.

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