By Simon McDonald, Editorial Manager | simon@thereadingroom.com
Today, Monday August 4, is the 100th anniversary of the declaration of war by Great Britain on Germany and the other Central Powers of Europe. There have been many novels written about World War I – or The Great War – and we’ve selected 6 essential fictional accounts on the subject. We’d love to hear your suggestions too. Add the 6 books to your bookshelf!
The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally
A novel that casts a fresh light on the challenges faced by the Australian men and women who voluntarily risked their lives for peace. In 1915 sisters Naomi and Sally Durance answer a call for nurses to join the war effort. They are escaping the family dairy farm in the Macleay Valley, and they carry a secret with them. More >
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. More >
All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque
Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.
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Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Set before and during the Great War, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman who journeys to France on business in 1910 and becomes so entangled in a passionate clandestine love affair that he never returns home. More >
To the Last Man by Jeff Shaara
Spring 1916: the horror of a stalemate on Europe’s western front. France and Great Britain are on one side of the barbed wire, a fierce German army is on the other. Jeff Shaara opens the window onto the otherworldly tableau of trench warfare as seen through the eyes of a typical British soldier who experiences the bizarre and the horrible. More >
Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington
Acclaimed poet Richard Aldington based his first novel on his own experiences on the Western Front during World War I. It tells the story of George Winterbourne, who enlists in the British Army and is sent to France.
Featured image courtesy of https://bit.ly/1RGMRaG.