WRITING ABOUT WORLD WAR II

AN IN-DEPTH ROUNDTABLE

Part One

Hosted by Kristin Harmel

I’ve been writing about World War II for nearly a decade and a half now; I began writing my first World War II novel, The Sweetness of Forgetting, in 2009, and it came out in 2012. There have been times along the way that I’ve thought to myself, “Is the time right for another World War II book?”, but then I’ve found a fascinating nugget of history through my research, and I’ve gotten hooked yet again. My latest, The Paris Daughter, which is new in paperback this month, came from thinking about Allied bombings that affected civilians in occupied countries, including the people in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, who were bombed repeatedly because they were located near an automobile factory that had been taken over by the Germans. And my work in progress–which will be out next June–is set half in World War II as well; it centers around people who stole from Germans and collaborators to help fund the French Resistance.

To commemorate this month’s 79th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (May 8) and next month’s 80th anniversary of D-Day (June 6), I thought I’d gather a handful of writer friends who’ve also tackled World War II (including Friends & Fiction’s own Patti Callahan Henry!) to talk about what has drawn us to the genre, the challenges we’ve faced, and what inspires readers. Their responses were so amazing that we’ve decided to spread this conversation across several newsletters, so stay tuned all month long to be part of this in-depth conversation.

For this issue of the newsletter, I asked author friends what drew them to writing a book (or books) set during World War II. Some (like Patti) have written just one World War II novel; some (like me) have written many. Read on for more, and find a full list of the authors and their most recent novels at the end of today’s chat.

Kristin Harmel: Hi ladies! Welcome, and thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me! I never intended to become a World War II writer. I lived in Paris in my early 20s and was stunned to realize how little of France’s Holocaust history I knew about, which I think provided the initial spark for my first World War II novel, The Sweetness of Forgetting. I had been toying with the idea of a World War II novel set in Paris for a couple of years before I came across the story of the Grand Mosque of Paris–the Muslim center of Paris–which helped save some one thousand Jewish lives during the war. I was so moved by the interfaith efforts underlying the story that I knew I wanted to tell it. How about you? What led you to your first World War II book? What made you want to write about that time period?

Patti Callahan Henry:. I have only written one novel that takes place partly during WWII, The Secret Book of Flora Lea. I wasn’t so much inspired to write about the war, but about the children of Operation Pied Piper. This was the scheme to protect children by having them leave the large cities that were most likely to be targeted for bombings, and send them to the country. I was curious about why the British government named an operation to save children after a gruesome German legend called the Pied Piper where children drowned and disappeared. The idea of a lost sister during that chaotic time, the other sister feeling great guilt, and a clue twenty-years later in the form of a fairy tale they created together was the origin of my novel. WWII was the backdrop and impetus; it was never center stage. My new novel is set in 1952 in the American south and in the northern England Lake District, long after WWII. 

Lisa Barr: I have been focused on WWII stories since my first book published in 2013 – mostly wrapped around Nazi-looted art – a subject I focused on in two of my novels – FUGITIVE COLORS and WOMAN ON FIRE. When I began writing my WWII historical thriller, THE GODDESS OF WARSAW over two years ago, I had no idea how eerily similar the world I was writing about 80 years ago would be to present-day world events, both in detail and in scope. As a daughter of a Holocaust survivor and an author with a sharp lens on both “then and now” – GODDESS tackles what may be considered the most important Jewish uprising in World War II history through the eyes of a fierce young woman – Lena Browning (born: Bina Blonski), who survives the war using her brains, beauty, and acting abilities, rising to become one of the most famous actresses of our time, BUT never forgetting the lessons of her past. Through Lena’s journey, I was determined to dive into various questions relating to Holocaust history: What is the fine line between the pursuit of justice and the hunt for revenge? Is there an expiration date for avenging those you loved and lost? As I dove deeply into World War II research, I was inspired by real-life events: the fascinating internal workings of the Warsaw Ghetto, and most of all … I explored the human element –  the “price tag” of survival. I threw everything I’ve got into this book: history, suspense, passion, revenge, and strong fiery characters. 

Jennifer Rosner:  I’ve written two novels set in WWII, The Yellow Bird Sings and Once We Were Home. Both novels were inspired by Holocaust survivors I met. Their stories gripped me! Before writing The Yellow Bird Sings, I met a woman who, as a young child, hid in a shoemaker’s attic with her mother for 24 months during the war. She had to stay still and silent for most of the time. I tried to imagine what that must have been like. It occurred to me that the most active part of her would be her mind, and so I created a character with music playing in her head and a magic bird who visited her, soothing her amid great danger. As the novel proceeds, I also explored the ways her imagination—and her music—connected her with her mother even when they were separated. Once We Were Home came to me when I met a woman who worked for the retrieval of Jewish children hidden in Christian settings after the war. Woven with other storylines of children displaced in wartime, it became important to me to represent the children’s perspectives—what it must have been like to be moved several times during and after the war, and how they must have struggled with identity, faith, and a sense of home. The novel I’m currently writing is not set in WWII; it is set in the 2000s on the California coast—big change! 

Kristin Harmel: Jennifer, I absolutely agree that it’s incredible to be able to speak with Holocaust survivors; I’ve done that, too, and I think it has really brought my books alive. It breaks my heart to think that with each passing year, we’re getting closer to losing everyone who survived that war. And the new one does sound like a huge change for you!

Genevieve Graham: Four of my novels have been set around WW2. My focus is on Canadian history, since (oddly) very few people have written commercial novels about my country’s role in both World Wars, and I have been astounded by what I didn’t know! Come From Away was my first. I was living in Nova Scotia and learned unexpectedly that our shores - I lived 10 minutes away from where the story takes place - were frequented by U-boats spying on naval traffic entering and exiting the busy Halifax port. How could I not write it?  In The Forgotten Home Child, it was important that I include the fact that British Home Children fought for the Allies at the Battle of Sicily, despite the fact that they were basically shunned by both Britain and Canada. For my latest book, The Secret Keeper, I wanted to explore the different facets of the war itself, but I also wanted to get into the social changes happening in this country. WW2 was the first time Canadian women officially became a part of the war effort, and tens of thousands of them joined military organizations like the WRCNS (Womens Royal Canadian Navy Services) in order to “free a man to serve”. Suddenly their lives were so much bigger than they’d ever imagined.

Madeline Martin: My father was in the Army and we spent three separate tours living in Germany, so between the ages of 1 and 20, I spent about twelve years living in Germany. I grew up learning about WWII, about not only the horrors of what was done, but also the brave men and women who fought back. I think that is why WWII has always struck such a deep chord within me. However, I have not written a WWII set in Germany as yet. My first book, The Last Bookshop in London and my next book, The Booklover’s Library are both set in England with The Librarian Spy set in Portugal and France, and my most recent book, The Keeper of Hidden Books set in Poland. It has been fascinating to learn the various different perspectives of each country and see how an instance in one can trigger an action or event in another.

Kate Quinn: My first 20th century novel THE ALICE NETWORK is often called a WWII novel, but it’s more WWII-adjacent–the action takes place primarily during WWI, and post-WWII. Still, it stars several characters who are struggling with the emotional and physical fallout of the second world war, and that’s a pattern that continued with my subsequent books THE HUNTRESS, THE ROSE CODE, and even THE DIAMOND EYE–all of those feature very different fights during the war (a bomber regiment, a codebreaking operation, a woman sniper) but they all also deal with the “What now?” of what comes when the fight is over. I’m fascinated by how lives (and particularly women’s lives) are shaped and altered by world war, but I also want to highlight what comes next, when a woman is left standing in the rubble and has to move on past the survivor mentality of “Just get through the fight.” What comes next?

Kristin Harmel: Oh my gosh, Kate, that’s a big interest of mine, too – the idea of what comes next. I was just talking to my editor about how nearly all of my books over the last decade have dealt not only with the immediate aftermath of war, but also the idea that when we go through something so momentous, and there are pieces of that journey that remain unresolved, we sometimes hand those traumas down to the next generation. 

Erika Robuck: Kristin, generational trauma has been an underlying current in my fiction. My paternal grandfather and one of his sons served in WWII, and post traumatic stress or “shell shock” as it was known led both to commit suicide. I had been researching remarkable women from history when I came across Virginia Hall, from my home state of Maryland, and the superhero level of spy work in which she was engaged during WWII. Hall’s post traumatic stress from a shooting accident that took her foot and from early missions where her spy networks in Occupied France were betrayed and compromised, along with my family connections, laid a fertile ground to explore PTS and how it might be overcome. 

Kristina McMorris: When it came to writing my first novel, Letters from Home, similar to Erika, I was inspired by my grandfather’s WWII experiences—though from the far lighter aspect of a romantic courtship. I was actually interviewing my grandmother for the biographical section of a homemade cookbook full of recipes she’d collected and created over decades, simply intended as a Christmas gift for the grandkids, when she revealed that she and my late grandfather had dated only twice during WWII before they fell in love through letters and united in a marriage that spanned fifty years, until he passed away. Needless to say, it was a special moment when she then pulled those letters out of the closet to share with me. Upon leaving her house, however, I couldn’t help but wonder how well you could truly know someone through letters alone, and I soon found myself penning a Cyrano-type story set during WWII. Since then, my passion for the era and especially the quiet heroes on both the home- and battlefront have inspired me to write four more novels set during that period, each one based on a stunning nugget of history that caused me to think: How have I not heard of this before? Everyone should know this!

​​Stephanie Dray: Like you, Kristin, I never set out to be a WWII writer, especially because I am far more comfortable writing in the revolutionary era. But I was always attracted to the time period, in part because I had two grandfathers who enlisted directly after Pearl Harbor and I grew up listening to their stories. Stories that always made me understand the fragility of democracy. So when I stumbled over the story of The Women of Chateau Lafayette, in which three different women in three different generations all fight for the preservation of democracy sheltered in the same French castle, I knew I had to write it. That book taught me an important lesson, which is that the war for freedom and humanity is never over; it must be fought again in every generation, including ours.

Kristin Harmel: That’s so beautifully put, Stephanie, and so very true.

Julia Kelly: Writing about World War II was really a bit of literary serendipity for me. I had just moved from New York City to London and was finishing up a book contract for a series of Victorian-set historical romances. I’d never really been interested in writing outside of the 19th century, which has always held a fascination for me, but as I walked around my new city I began to notice all of the war memorials dotted around. I became curious and started to do some side reading into the British Home Front during the war. Around the same time, my mother gave me a copy of Rosamunde Pilcher’s The Shellseekers to read. I fell in love with everything about that book, but in particular the way that Pilcher wove her dual timeline narrative. Shortly after that, I started writing The Light Over London. Even as I’m growing increasingly interested in exploring other times in history, I’m still drawn to World War II with my Evelyne Redfern mystery novels. 

Martha Hall Kelly: I stumbled upon the true story behind Lilac Girls, my first novel, when I visited a lovely house museum in Bethlehem, Connecticut, the Bellamy Ferriday House and Gardens. I went to the house one gray Mother’s Day to see the famous lilacs there at the house where the former owner Caroline Ferriday once lived. On the tour of the house I saw a photo of the fifty-two Polish women known as “The Rabbits”, former Girl Scouts who’d been arrested in the Polish underground and experimented on at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. The guide told me that Caroline’s friend Genevieve de Gaulle introduced Caroline to “The Rabbits” and Caroline moved heaven and earth to bring them to the United States for rehabilitation and the trip of a lifetime.

Pam Jenoff:  I was sent to Poland as a diplomat for the State Department in 1996.  I found myself there at a very unique moment in time when Poland and its neighbors had just come out of roughly a half century of communism and were beginning to grapple with many unresolved issues from World War II and the Holocaust.  I’m Jewish and, after moving to Poland on my own, had gravitated toward the surviving Jewish community, who became like grandparents to me.  The U.S. government, seeing my connection to the people, had me work extensively on Holocaust issues for the next two years.  This experience transformed me personally and professionally and I’ve been writing books set during the era ever since.

Remember to tune in to Friends & Fiction, where Patti Callahan Henry, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Kristin Harmel, and Mary Kay Andrews interview the authors of some of the year’s most buzzed-about books every Wednesday at 7pm ET on Facebook and YouTube. Join our Facebook group now, and join us in next week’s newsletter as we chat about challenges we’ve faced in researching World War II fiction.

Friends & Fiction Co-Host Kristin Harmel’s latest novel is The Paris Daughter, new in paperback this month, set in 1940s Paris and 1960 New York.

Friends & Fiction Co-Host Patti Callahan Henry’s latest novel is The Secret Book of Flora Lea, new in paperback, set in England both during World War II and in the 1960s.

Jennifer Rosner’s latest novel is Once We Were Home, new in paperback, set in Europe and Israel and spanning the years from 1942-1968. Her debut novel, The Yellow Bird Sings, is also set in WWII.

Madeline Martin’s latest novel is The Keeper of Hidden Books, set in Warsaw, Poland spanning 1939-1945. The Book Lover’s Library, also set during World War II, is out in August.

Genevieve Graham’s latest novel is The Secret Keeper, set in both WWII-era Canada and the skies over England.

Kate Quinn’s latest WWII-era novel is The Diamond Eye, set in Ukraine and America. Her newest book, co-written with Janie Chang, is The Phoenix Crown, set in 1906 San Francisco. The Briar Club, set in 1950s Washington, D.C., is out in July.

Erika Robuck’s most recent World War II novel is Sisters of Night and Fog. Her forthcoming novel, The Last Twelve Miles (June 4, 2024), is set largely along Florida’s coast during the “Rum Wars” of Prohibition,.

Stephanie Dray’s latest novel is Becoming Madam Secretary, set largely in NYC and Washington DC during the Great Depression and the run-up to WWII. Her most recent novel directly involving World War II is The Women of Chateau Lafayette.

Lisa Barr’s latest novel The Goddess of Warsaw, set in 1943 Warsaw and in Hollywood in 2005, is out this month.

Julia Kelly’s  most recent World War II books are The Lost English Girl and A Traitor in Whitehall, which is the first book in her Evelyne Redfern historical mystery series. Its sequel Betrayal at Blackthorn Park comes out October 1, 2024.

Martha Hall Kelly’s WWII-set novels are Lilac Girls and The Golden Doves and the upcoming The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club. 

Pam Jenoff’s most recent World War II novel is Code Name Sapphire, set largely in Belgium during the war.

Kristina McMorris's latest WWII novel is The Ways We Hide, set in America and the Netherlands.

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