Looking for fiction stories and books about war and other humanitarian crises? Here is a list that I’m continuing to update. If you’ve read a book on war and crises that isn’t listed, leave it in the comments.
Chechnya a short story by Anthony Marra https://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/fall-2009/spring-contest-winners/chechnya-anthony-marra
Biafra: A People Betrayed a short story by Kurt Vonnegut http://journeytoforever.org/rrlib/biafra.html?fbclid=IwAR3UMTtBjSfBvWDtq-peYEfP7EzOAtA38tZenxq8qmtQb-uZ_Kd7r704acs
Deserted, Erato's short story of eighty-year old Anna who stays behind when Varosia is invaded by Turkish military troops in the summer of 1974. You can Deserted here: https://www.addastories.org/deserted/
Blue Hour by Daphne Kalotay is a mystery linking Manhattan circa 1991 to eastern Afghanistan in 2012, Blue Hours tells of a life-changing friendship between two memorable heroines. Find more details here: https://www.daphnekalotay.com/blue-hours
Relativity a short story by Daphne Kalotay— tells of Robert, a social worker who provides end-of-life care to Holocaust survivors. Here is a free pdf copy: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c5603e58155122023f2d615/t/5d582483750ae800016d36c8/1566057606146/Relativity.pdf
The Archivists, a short story by Daphne Kalotay about xx published by Consequence Magazine (one of my favorite magazines that publishes war stories that you should check out). You can find it here https://lithub.com/the-archivists/
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the story of friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant set against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years. More details here: https://khaledhosseini.com/books/the-kite-runner/
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini chronicles thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. Find more details here: https://khaledhosseini.com/books/a-thousand-splendid-suns/
Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini is a response to the current refugee crisis. It’s also a vivid portrait of their life in Homs, Syria, before the war, and of that city's swift transformation from a home into a deadly war zone. More details here: https://khaledhosseini.com/books/sea-prayer/
The Reality and the Record, a short story by Hassan Blasim. The narrator is a Iraqi refugee whose world comes crashing down, perhaps in the most chaotic moment we can imagine a human being, the refugee stands before the law, and must once again tie together the facts of reality – in order to obtain asylum he must tell a story to the immigration officer at the gates of the West. Find the story here: https://www.shortstoryproject.com/story/the-reality-and-the-record/
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta which follows the coming out and growing up narrative of a young girl starting in 1968 during the fiercest season of fighting in the war between Biafra (a territory of contemporary Nigeria) and Nigeria, which lasted from 1967 to 1970. Find more details here: https://www.chinelookparanta.com
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel follows the course of the Nigerian-Biafran civil war through the experiences of the ethnically Igbo characters, Olanna, Odenigbo, Kainene, and Ugwu. You can find more details here: http://www.chimamanda.com/book/half-of-a-yellow-sun/
The Other Hand, also known as Little Bee, by Chris Cleave is a dual narrative story about a Nigerian asylum-seeker and a British magazine editor, who meet during the oil conflict in the Niger Delta, and are re-united in England several years later.
A constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra is about the transcendent power of love in wartime. It’s set the story in contemporary Chechnya, a republic in southern Russia, which has ensured a series of devastating wars, occupations, and insurgencies that began in 1994. Find more details here: http://anthonymarra.net/books/a-constellation-of-vital-phenomena/
Beasts of No Nations a novel by Uzodinma Iweala is about a West African boy named Agu who is forced to become a child soldier. When war came to his family's small village, Agu's mother and sister are able to leave with the UN peacekeepers, but Agu is ordered to stay behind and fight with his father and the other men of the village.
The Shadow King, a novel by Maaza Mengiste is Set in Ethiopia at the very start of WWII, The Shadow King tells the story of orphaned Hirut, who struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her employer, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie’s army, rushes to mobilize his strongest men before the Italians invade. Find more details here: http://maazamengiste.com
House of Stones by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma spans the fall of Rhodesia through Zimbabwe’s turbulent beginnings, exploring the persistence of the oppressed in a young nation seeking an identity, but built on forgetting. Find more details here: http://novuyotshuma.com/house-of-stone1
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje takes place during a gruesome civil war during the 1980's in Sri Lanka. It explores the legacy left by colonialism, represented through the actions of Anil Tissera, a forensic pathologist revisiting the country after a fifteen-year absence as part of a U.N. commission investigating human rights abuses.
My Bosnians, a story about a journalist who smuggles two Bosnians out of the Balkans, by Andrea Gregory, https://www.compassionanthology.com/andrea-gregory.html
Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah, Sold by his father in repayment of a debt, twelve-year-old Yusuf is thrown from his simple rural life into complexities of pre-colonial urban East Africa. Through Yusuf’s eyes, Gurnah depicts communities at war, trading safaris gone awry, and the universal trials of adolescence. The result is what Publishers Weekly calls a “vibrant” and “powerful” work that “evokes the Edenic natural beauty of a continent on the verge of full-scale imperialist takeover.”
99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai, is An Afghan Adventure Told In Nested Stories The novel is a coming-of-age journey, about a young boy chasing after a runaway dog. Author Jamil Jan Kochai says he hopes the book will counter some American misconceptions about Afghanistan.
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world.
The Beautiful Things Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu focuses on the life of Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian immigrant living in Washington, D.C. after fleeing his country's revolution seventeen years earlier.