Tag: WWII
Set in Paris (1940) and Baltimore (1992), a bestselling prize-magnet of a (2011) novel features a dazzling meditation on friendship, loyalty, manhood, race, and the truths and half-truths we tell our past and present selves. The new edition has a striking new cover, but “it arrives without a critical introduction or any contextual apparatus to differentiate it from earlier editions,” our reviewer notes. —Selena Mercuri reviews Half-Blood Blues (Canadian Classics Edition), by Esi Edugyan (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2026) $24.99 / 9781443478731
Prolific author returns to Europe during WWII with a twisty page-turner. “The action didn’t let up until the last page. With a descriptive historical setting, an intriguing plot full of suspense and action, and a bit of romance to boot, The Double Life of Eve Sinclair is historical fiction well worth a read,” our reviews says. —Trish Bowering reviews The Double Life of Eve Sinclair, by C.C. Humphreys (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2026) $25.00 / 9780385701075
WWII-set prequel to a book series portrays an unexpected spying assignment for young Lane Winslow. And Christmas with her grandparents! Rousing and entertaining, it’s a tale Alfred Hitchcock would have relished. —Bill Engleson reviews A Season for Spies—A Lane Winslow Prequel, by Iona Whishaw (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2025) $19.95 / 9781771514828
In a complex, wide-ranging novel with themes related to family, violence, and cultural identity, generations of women strive for peace and contentment despite the sorrowful, imposing outside world. —Theo Dombrowski reviews Songs from This and That Country, by Gail Sidone Šobat (Winnipeg: Great Plains Publishing, 2025) $27.95 / 9781773371412
Sharing a focus on Chinese Canadian war efforts, a pair of strikingly illustrated picture books tell layered stories that would serve well at home and in the classroom. —Alison Acheson reviews Endgame: The Secret Force 136, by Catherine Little (illustrated by Sean Huang) (Oakville: Plumleaf, 2023) $22.95 / 9781738898244 and Reach for the Sky: How Two Brothers Built an Airplane in Chinatown, by Evelyn Sue Wong (illustrated by Sarah Ang) (Oakville: Plumleaf, 2025) $22.95 / 9781738898244
A creepy forest, lake, and cabin—not to mention abusive foster parents—are just part of the memorable scenery in a clever, atmospheric thriller with a slightly gothic feel. Here’s a debut novel with “a ripping good story.” —Trish Bowering reviews The Guest Children, by Patrick Tarr (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2025) $24.99 / 9781443473958
Set in urban and rural England during the 1940s, a debut novel features a captivating heroine with a noteworthy story. It throws in mystery, intrigue, and ornithological details too. —Valerie Green reviews Letters from Gerald, by R.W. Butler (Altona: Friesen Press, 2024) $22.49 / 9781038305459
“Sprawling [and] ambitious” 1940s-set debut novel captures the death and male camaraderie of wartime Europe and the romantic challenges of a mixed-race couple in Vancouver. —Jessica Poon reviews The Riveter, by Jack Wang (Toronto: House of Anansi, 2025) $24.99 / 9781487007614
“Not one single gravestone stands to mark my family. It is as though they didn’t exist.” —In “The Blood in the Stone” Deborah Lane excavates family history and imagines life as it might have been.
Author draws on true-life experiences to portray hardship and perseverance in a wintry city during a horrific three-year campaign of attrition. —Heidi Greco reviews Winter of Siege, by Jan DeGrass (Garden Bay: MW Books, 2023) $20.00 / 9780995277830
Vancouver Island author’s sophomore novel is “a tightly plotted, ambitious work of historical fiction that has fast-paced thriller elements and, at other times, the makings of a slow burn romance.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Last Secret, by Maia Caron (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2024) $25.00 / 9780385688826
Debut novel examines Hitler’s Aktion T4 program. With striking results: “When We Were Ashes is a powerful novel, flawlessly executed and emotionally resonant. It is haunting, and its words have stayed with me long after I closed the book.” —Trish Bowering reviews When We Were Ashes, by Andrew Boden (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2024) $25.00 / 9781773103365
Inspired by family history, novelist sets volatile love affair in the midst of WWII, specifically with the guerrilla actions of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive in northern Italy. —Theo Dombrowski reviews The Cipher, by Genni Gunn (Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2024) $22.95 / 9781773241425
Readers will feel anger and compassion “as they follow this pathetic, arthritic, alcoholic woman through the last years of her life as she finally realizes that Hitler’s horrific ‘Final Solution’ was the most odious event in history.” —Valerie Green reviews The Imposter, by Johanna Van Zanten (Las Vegas: Histria Books, 2024) $29.99 / 9761592113767
The Cinderella Campaign: First Canadian Army and the Battles for the Channel Ports by Mark Zuehlke Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017 $37.95 / 9781771620895 Reviewed by Norm Fennema First published April 30, 2018 * Prolific historian Mark Zuehlke describes how battle-hardened but “woefully understrength” Canadian soldiers chased retreating Germans north towards the Seine River in…
Read more #295 Cinderella Campaign revisited
All the Fine Young Eagles: In the Cockpit with Canada’s Second World War Fighter Pilots (updated and expanded second edition; first published by Stoddart, 1997) by David L. Bashow Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2016 $28.95 / 9781771621359 Reviewed by Howard Hisdal First published April 3, 2018 * In All the Fine Young Eagles, David…
Read more #280 From Beurling to Bashow