Features a satirical indicement of military madness and stupidity, and the desire of the ordinary man to survive it. This work tells a tale of the dangerously sane Captain Yossarian, who spends his time in Italy plotting to survive.

Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

In 1914, a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war'. With the fire and patriotism of youth, they sign up. What follows is the story of a young 'unknown soldier' experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

The first book of Orson Scott Card's Ender saga - a series which has changed the face of science fiction.

A sequence of stories about the Vietnam War, this book also has the unity of a novel, with recurring characters and interwoven strands of plot and theme. It aims to summarize America's involvement in Vietnam, and her coming to terms with that experience in the years that followed.

The remarkable debut novel from Khaled Hosseini, now out in paperback in a stunning new package

A young American volunteers for the Italian ambulance service in World War I. Working near the front, he meets and falls in love with a British nurse. Disillusioned by the war, he makes the decision to desert, taking his new love to Switzerland.

Tells the story of Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks, and his refusal to fight after being humiliated by his leader Agamemnon. But when the Trojan Hector kills Achilles' close friend Patroclus, he storms back into battle to take revenge - although knowing this will ensure his own early death.

A riveting and powerful story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship and an indestructible love

Daisy is sent from New York to England to spend a summer with cousins she has never met. They are Isaac, Edmond, Osbert and Piper.

A story that begins with three young people in the garden of a country house on the hottest day of 1935, and ends with three profoundly changed lives. A depiction of love and war, class, childhood and England, that explores shame and forgiveness, atonement and the possibility of absolution.

High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There, in the mountains, he finds the dangers and the intense comradeship of war. And there he discovers Maria, a young woman who has escaped from Franco's rebels.

In July 1942, thirteen-year-old Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation, went into hiding in an Amsterdam warehouse. Over the next two years, Anne describes not only the daily frustrations of living in such close quarters, but also her thoughts, feelings and longings as she grows up.

The first-person account of a 26-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy.

In 1993, 140 elite US soldiers abseiled into a market in the city of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two lieutenants of a Somali warlord. But they were drawn into a battle with armed Somalis. Black Hawk Down is a minute-by-minute account of modern war.

Describing family life set against the backdrop of war, this novel follows the fortunes of the Bolkonsky and Rostov families as Napoleon's armies sweep through Europe, invade Russia and end in Napoleon's defeat. It captures national events, private experiences of individuals, and the triangle of affection that binds the central characters.

'It is to the Vietnam War what Catch-22 was to World War II, the definitive, bleakly comic satire' Thomas M. Disch

Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This book is a story of: a girl; an accordionist; some fanatical Germans; a Jewish fist fighter; and quite a lot of thievery.

A classic war memoir, now a major Hollywood film, is being directed by Sam Mendes and starring Jake Gyllenhall as 'Swoff'