Books like Half of a Yellow Sun

01

The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien · Memoir

Tim O'Brien served as a foot soldier in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970.

A kindred historical fiction read.

02

All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque · History

All Quiet on the Western Front follows Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier who enlists with his classmates during the First World War after being swept up in patriotic speeches.

Both dig into survival.

03

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Marjane Satrapi · Memoir

Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir of growing up in Tehran during and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A kindred historical fiction read.

04

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Azar Nafisi · Memoir

Azar Nafisi spent years teaching literature at universities in Tehran before the restrictions on what she could teach — and who she could teach — became intolerable.

A kindred historical fiction read.

05

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

Katherine Boo · History

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is Katherine Boo's account of three years spent in Annawadi, a Mumbai slum built on reclaimed land next to the international airport.

A kindred historical fiction read.

06

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini · Historical fiction

A Thousand Splendid Suns follows two Afghan women across nearly forty years of their country's turbulence: Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy merchant who is married off at fifteen to a much older man in Kabul, and Laila, a young woman from a different generation whose family is destroyed in a rocket strike during the civil war and who is subsequently forced into the same household.

Both dig into war and civilian life.

07

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr · Historical fiction

All the Light We Cannot See follows two children through the Second World War on a collision course neither can see coming.

Both dig into survival.

08

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Heather Morris · Historical fiction

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the true story of Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942 and survived in part by becoming the camp's Tätowierer — the prisoner assigned to tattoo identification numbers onto incoming deportees.

Both dig into survival.

09

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Ishmael Beah · Memoir

Ishmael Beah was twelve years old when the Sierra Leone civil war reached his village and he was separated from his family.

Both dig into survival.

10

An Ember in the Ashes

Sabaa Tahir · Fantasy

An Ember in the Ashes is set in a Roman Empire-inspired world where the Martial empire has conquered and brutalized the Scholar people for centuries.

Both dig into survival.

11

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

Suleika Jaouad · Memoir

Suleika Jaouad was twenty-two and newly graduated, living in Paris with her first real job and a boyfriend, when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

Both dig into survival.

12

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Trevor Noah · Memoir

Born a Crime is Trevor Noah's memoir about growing up mixed-race in South Africa during the final years of apartheid and its chaotic aftermath.

Both dig into survival.