I’m looking for books that give insight into what civilian life was like in war-torn European countries during World War I or World War II. I’m particularly looking for a rural perspective—how did the war impact farmers or villages who may have been out of the sights of the heaviest conflict? A more personable story would be preferred, but all suggestions are welcome.
Thank you
by ImBlue22
4 Comments
A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd, Angelika Patel
I find ‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Ernest Hemingway to be a captivating and sobering read, with its portrayal of a romance during World War I overshadowed by the chaos of war. Hemingway’s sparse yet powerful prose captures the disillusionment of the ‘Lost Generation.’
Not entirely your ask but I adore Goodnight Mr Tom (England kid sent out of London during the war to a small village).
This is an AMAZING book, put together only about 25 years after the war in Britain, so people vividly remembered, a whole collection of first person civilian, everyday accounts of living –mostly in rural areas–in Britain during WW2. The author was a child and has his own memories, and enormous pride and a point of view about the work his own mother did (I think she was a Land Girl IIRC, and he fiercely defends her honor and her work!), and the whole book is so immediate and transports you there with incredibly specific memories — people grabbing tufts of wool left as sheep brushed against fences, so they could try to knit something; people taking their clothing apart so they could mend it and re-wear it, people “lucky enough to have had curtains” being able to make coats. It was particularly difficult in the countryside, and apparently the winters were particularly freezing, and I think it’s exactly what you’re looking for: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1631055