Novels of Twentieth Century Europe

In the twentieth century, Europe experienced upheaval and change. Aside from the two world wars fought on European soil, major events included the Irish struggle for independence and the Russian Revolution. The industrial revolution of the previous century continued, giving people faster means of travel, from bigger, faster trains and ships, to the airplane.

See the separate page for historical novels (and a few classics by authors of that time) about World War I. A forthcoming page will list historical novels about World War II. Novels set during the second half of the twentieth century are almost all by authors who were alive during that time, and are therefore outside the scope of this website.

Jump to:

Britain and Ireland, 1900 to World War I
Britain and Ireland, 1900 to World War I: Mysteries
Britain and Ireland, Between the World Wars
Britain and Ireland, Between the World Wars: Mysteries
The Continent
The Continent: Mysteries

Twentieth Century Britain and Ireland
1900 to World War I

Beryl Bainbridge, The Birthday Boys (1994), about Captain Robert Scott's doomed 1910 expedition to the South Pole

Sebastian Barry, The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, after WWII a young Irishman makes the mistake of joining the Royal Irish Constabulary. More info

L.E. Butler, Relief, about a Boston widow pursuing a painting career who has an affair with a ballet-girl in 1912 Venice. More info

Tracy Chevalier, Falling Angels, about two young women from different social backgrounds who become friends when their families visit a cemetery in 1901 London. More info

Ken Follett, The Man From St. Petersburg, about a man who comes to London on the eve of World War I to commit a murder. More info

Alexander Fullerton, Wave Cry, about a young Irishwoman traveling to America on the Titanic when it sinks with her husband and small son still aboard, having been prevented from joining her on the lifeboat

Thomas Hayden, The Killing Frost, about the son of an Irish tenant farmer who burns for revenge and a British intelligence officer trying to quash the IRA during the years leading up to World War I.

Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project, about two Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in Chicago, one a 21st century writer investigating the shooting of the other in 1908 by a policeman. More info

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, a literary novel about an English butler during the years between the world wars. More info

Christian Jacq, The Tutankamen Affair, about the discovery of Tutankamen's tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, and the tomb's mysterious curse

Jamie O’Neill, At Swim, Two Boys, about two Irish boys during the year before the 1916 Easter Rising. More info

Albert Sanchez Pinol, Pandora in the Congo, about a young London pulp novel writer hired to write the story of a 1914 expedition to the Congo from which only one man returns, in order to save him from being condemned on a murder charge. More info

Jennifer Potter, The Long Lost Journey, about a British woman archaeologist searching for information about the Queen of Sheba in 1911 Yemen and the unscrupulous Scot who becomes her traveling companion and lover. More info

Barry Unsworth, Pascali’s Island, a literary novel about a Turkish spy on a small Greek island during the decline of the Ottoman Empire. More info

Barry Unsworth, The Rage of the Vulture, a literary novel about an Englishman posted in Istanbul who sets out to avenge the death of his former fiancee in the Armenian genocide twelve years before. More info

Twentieth Century Britain and Ireland
1900 to World War I: Mysteries

Laurie R. King, Touchstone (2007), a stand-alone thriller set in 1926 about an agent with the new American Bureau of Investigation (soon to become the FBI) who is hunting an anarchist bomber

Laurie R. King, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, about Mary Russell, who meets the aging Sherlock Holmes in 1914; #1 in the Mary Russell series. More info

Laurie R. King, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, about Mary Russell's encounter with an advocate of women's suffrage in 1920; #1 in the Mary Russell series. More info

Laurie R. King, A Letter of Mary, about Mary Russell's discovery of an astonishing first century manuscript in 1923; #1 in the Mary Russell series. More info

Laurie R. King, The Moor, about Mary Russell's experience with a mysterious apparition by dark of night on Dartmoor in 1923; #1 in the Mary Russell series. More info

Laurie R. King, O Jerusalem, about Mary Russell's efforts to assist Sherlock Homes with some Middle East espionage work at the close of World War I; #1 in the Mary Russell series. More info

Laurie R. King, Justice Hall, about Mary Russell's experiences with old friends from the Middle East; #1 in the Mary Russell series. More info

Laurie R. King, The Game, about Mary Russell's efforts to assist Sherlock Holmes in tracking down a missing British spy in India; #1 in the Mary Russell series. More info

Laurie R. King, Locked Rooms, about Mary Russell's encounter with her own past during a visit to San Francisco; #1 in the Mary Russell series. More info

Andrew Martin, The Necropolis Railway, a thriller about a British railway employee newly posted in London whose predecessor disappeared under suspicious circumstances; #1 in the Jim Striger mystery series. More info

Andrew Martin, The Blackpool Highflier, a thriller about a British railway employee whose assignment in a resort town proves to be no holiday; #2 in the Jim Striger mystery series. More info

Andrew Martin, The Lost Luggage Porter, a thriller about a British railway employee newly promoted to detective and posted in York; #3 in the Jim Striger mystery series. More info

Andrew Martin, Murder at Deviation Junction, a thriller about a British railway detective investigating a murder discovered after a train hits a snow drift; #4 in the Jim Striger mystery series. More info

Andrew Martin, Death on a Branch Line, a thriller about a British railway detective who stumbles onto an international conspiracy; #5 in the Jim Striger mystery series. More info

Frank Tallis, Mortal Mischief (also titled A Death in Vienna) (2005), about a Viennese psychoanalyst and disciple of Freud who helps his detective friend investigate the death of a beautiful medium; #1 in the Liebermann Papers series

Frank Tallis, Vienna Blood (2006), about a Viennese psychoanalyst and disciple of Freud who helps his detective friend find a serial killer; #2 in the Liebermann Papers series

Frank Tallis, Fatal Lies (2008), about a Viennese psychoanalyst and disciple of Freud who helps his detective friend investigate the sadistic murder of a young cadet in a military school; #3 in the Liebermann Papers series

Twentieth Century Britain and Ireland
Between the World Wars

J.L. Carr, A Month in the Country, about a World War I veteran restoring a medieval mural in a village church in Cornwall. More info

R.F. Delderfield, To Serve Them All My Days, about life in an English boarding school during the years between the wars. More info

Pamela Billings Ewen, The Moon in the Mango Tree, about a woman who marries a medical missionary in 1919 and goes to Siam with him, but longs for a career as an opera singer; Christian message. More info

J.B. Farrell, Troubles, a humorous novel set in Ireland in the post-WWI depression year 1919. More info

Philippa Gregory, Fallen Skies, about a woman in 1920s England who falls in love with a troubled veteran of World War I.

Morgan Llywelyn, 1916, A Novel of the Irish Rebellion, about a young man in Dublin during the Irish fight for independence; #1 in the Irish Century series. More info

Morgan Llywelyn, 1921, The War for Independence, about an Irish newspaper reporter during the Irish Civil War; #2 in the Irish Century series. More info

Morgan Llywelyn, 1949, The Irish Republic, about the daughter of a famous revolutionary whose struggles against repressive Irish policies limiting women's freedom drive her to a career on the Continent and a job with the League of Nations as World War II begins; #2 in the Irish Century series. More info

Kate Morton, The House at Riverton (also titled The Shifting Fog) (2008), about the effects of a poet's suicide in 1924 on an upper-class English family

Twentieth Century Britain and Ireland
Between the World Wars: Mysteries

Rhys Bowen, A Royal Pain, a humorous murder mystery about a young woman who is a cousin of King George V attempting to help the Queen distract Prince Edward away from Mrs. Simpson; #2 in the Her Royal Spyness mystery series. More info

Dolores Gordon-Smith, A Fete Worse than Death (2007), about a former Royal Flying Corps pilot who investigates a case of murder at a festival; #1 in the Jack Haldean mystery series

Dolores Gordon-Smith, Mad about the Boy? (2008), about a former Royal Flying Corps pilot who is investigating what appears to be a suicide when some Russian revolutionaries become involved; #2 in the Jack Haldean mystery series

Catriona McPherson, After the Armistice Ball (2005), about a bored Scottish housewife in 1923 who decides to find out what happened to a set of stolen diamonds; #1 in the Dandy Gilver mystery series

Catriona McPherson, The Burry Man's Day (2006), about a Scottish housewife in 1923 who is giving out prizes at the annual fair when the "Burry Man" decked in pagan greenery drops dead; #2 in the Dandy Gilver mystery series

Catriona McPherson, Bury Her Deep (2007), about a Scottish housewife in the 1920s who investigates tales of a stranger said to have been pouncing on ladies in a minister's rural parish by night; #3 in the Dandy Gilver mystery series

Catriona McPherson, The Winter Ground (2008), about a Scottish housewife in 1925 who investigates the murder of a performer in a traveling circus; #4 in the Dandy Gilver mystery series

Nicola Upson, An Expert in Murder (2008), a novel which imagines that mystery author Josephine Tey stumbled upon a real case of murder while on a train to London in 1934 to attend the final week of her successful play Richard of Bordeaux

The European Continent in the Twentieth Century

Robert Alexander, Rasputin's Daughter, about the notorious Rasputin and his relationship with the czar's family, as told by Rasputin's daughter. More info

Robert Alexander, The Romanov Bride, about the Grand Duchess Elizavyeta and a Russian peasant involved in her husband’s assassination during the upheavals of the Russian Revolution. More info

Miklos Banffy, They Were Counted, about two wealthy Transylvanian cousins and their luxurious life, in contrast to the exploited peasantry, during the years before the fall of the Hapsburg dynasty, #1 in the Transylvanian trilogy, The Writing on the Wall. More info

Miklos Banffy, They Were Found Wanting, as the great powers of Europe make decisions that move them closer to a world war, a wealthy young Transylvanian must part from his lover, while his cousin lives recklessly; #2 in the Transylvanian trilogy, The Writing on the Wall. More info

Miklos Banffy, They Were Divided, as Hungarian youth march to war in the aftermath of Franz Ferdinand's assassination, two cousins see their world of aristocratic privilege unraveling; #3 in the Transylvanian trilogy, The Writing on the Wall. More info

Michael Andre Bernstein, Conspirators, about politics and corruption in the upper class Jewish and Gentile communities in a Galacian town during the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. More info

Emilio Calderon, The Creator's Map, about a Spanish architect in Rome during the fascist period from 1937-1952, and a mysterious, occult map sought by the Nazis

Martin Caparros, Valfierno: The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa (2008), about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre

Jerome Charyn, The Green Lantern, about a theater troupe and its daring performance of King Lear in Stalinist Russia. More info

Beatarice Colin, The Glimmer Palace (2008), about a Berlin orphan who becomes a star in the fledgling German movie industry during the 1920s

M. Allen Cunningham, Lost Son (2007), about the young German poet Rainer Maria Rilke in 1902, when he travels to Paris to write a study of the sculptor Auguste Rodin and experiences a personal crisis

Louis de Bernieres, Birds Without Wings, about life in a small Turkish village at the end of the Ottoman Empire. More info

Helen Dunmore, House of Orphans, a love story about the orphaned daughter of a revolutionary in 1901 Finland, when it was still part of the Russian Empire. More info

Colin Falconer, Anastasia, about an American journalist who in 1921 rescues a mysterious Russian refugee in Shanghai, who bears a striking resemblance to the murdered czar's daughter Anastasia.

Sebastian Faulks, The Girl at the Lion D'Or, a literary novel about a love affair between a Jewish World War I veteran and a vulnerable young woman in a tiny French village in 1936; #1 (by publication date) in a loosely connected trilogy with Birdsong and Charlotte Gray. More info

Aris Fioretos, The Truth about Sascha Knisch, a comic, erotic literary novel about prostitution and murder in the 1928 Berlin film industry

Juan Eslava Galan, The Mule, about a muleteer caught in the brutality of the Spanish Civil War and his persistent efforts to protect his mule

Catherine Gavin, The Snow Mountain, about Olga, the Russian czar's eldest daughter, and her secret love for a soldier during the Russian Revolution.

Tricia Goyer, A Valley of Betrayal, about a woman who finds herself alone in the Spanish countryside during the Spanish Civil War and takes refuge with a group of international volunteer workers; Christian message; #1 in the Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War series

Tricia Goyer, A Shadow of Treason, about a woman drawn into international espionage schemes during the Spanish Civil War; Christian message; #2 in the Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War series

Tricia Goyer, A Whisper of Freedom, about a woman in a group of volunteers in Spain during the Spanish Civil War who realize they must escape across the Spanish border; Christian message; #3 in the Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War series

Rosalind Laker, The Fortuny Gown (also titled Orchids and Diamonds), about a young Frenchwoman and a Russian diplomat who have a love affair in Paris during the years leading up to the First World War.

Rosina Lippi, Homestead, about the lives of women in an Austrian village from 1907 to 1977. More info

Jason Lutes, Berlin: City of Stones (2000), a graphic novel set in the last years of Germany's Weimar Republic, from September 1928 to May Day, 1929; #1 in the Berlin trilogy

Jason Lutes, Berlin: City of Smoke (2008), a graphic novel set in the last years of Germany's Weimar Republic, beginning with the aftermath of the 1929 May Day demonstration; #2 in the Berlin trilogy

M.L. Malcolm, Silent Lies, about a Hungarian who, in attempting to rebuild his life after World War I, inadvertently becomes involved in a counterfeiting scheme and flees to Shanghai. More info

Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities, an intellectual novel about the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the First World War. More info

David Shone, Crimson Snow, about a young prince and a ballerina during the fall of the Romanov dynasty in Russia. More info

Salley Vickers, Where Three Roads Meet: The Myth of Oedipus (2007), a literary novel which imagines that the dying Sigmund Freud has a mystical meeting with the blind seer Tiresias of ancient Greece, who suggests there are aspects of the Oedipus myth that Freud overlooked when developing his theories

The European Continent in the Twentieth Century: Mysteries

Ariana Franklin, City of Shadows, about a Russian refugee in 1922 Berlin who becomes drawn into a scheme to pass off a troubled young woman as Anastasia, the daughter of the murdered czar. More info

C.J. Sansom, Winter in Madrid, about a reluctant British spy scarred by his World War I experiences in Madrid during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. More info

Back to Top