Off the Shelf: A Resurgence in World War II Fiction
By Sharon Saye on September 11, 2019
Fiction about World War II is perpetually popular, but in the last few years it has seen a resurgence. The library has a selection of brand-new books about various facets of the war available on the new fiction shelves, and fans might want to note these titles for their fall and winter reading stacks.
“Dragonfly” by Leila Meacham is a rich, meaty historical novel about a group of young Americans recruited by the OSS who will be dropped in German-controlled Paris as spies. Each has their own reasons for volunteering and they soon bond under the code-name Dragonfly.
While they embed themselves among the Nazi elite, their only contact with each other is a secret drop box.
“Dragonfly” is a page-turner for lovers of both historical and spy novels.
“The Flight Girls” by Noelle Salazar is inspired by real female pilots during World War II. Audrey Coltrane has always wanted to be a pilot, but for a woman that is a difficult road so she willingly takes a job to train military pilots in Hawaii, and as fate would have it is in the air as the attack begins on Pearl Harbor. After what she has seen, she is even more determined and joins the Women Airforce Service Pilots program.
“The Flight Girls” portrays a different facet of World War II’s history with this moving depiction of women pilots.
“The Long Flight Home” by Alan Hlad also has a slightly different tack on the World War II novel with its portrayal of the National Pigeon Service which had a secret, covert mission to drop hundreds of homing pigeons in German-occupied France. Many will not survive, but hopefully those who return to England can convey crucial information.
Susan Shepherd has raised homing pigeons because of her grandfather’s love of birds. Now her background is vital as she becomes entangled with an American pilot, Ollie Evans, as part of Source Columba, and when he disappears behind enemy lines, it is her uncanny knowledge that may save him and the mission.
Described by Paul McLain, best-selling author of “The Paris Wife,” as “a compelling, debut told with conviction and great heart,” this is a heartwarming novel with a new slant for World War II fiction.
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