Set in postwar London, Michael Ondaatje’s novel “Warlight” delves into the shadows left by the war, on a young man trying to make sense of what happened to his family, and on a city forever changed. For those who enjoyed the book, here are a few suggestions for further reading.
“Transcription” by Kate Atkinson. I thought of this book often while reading “Warlight”; it’s a similar setting, and a similar focus on secrets and carefully unraveled stories. The book flits between two time periods: A young woman who works during wartime as a transcriptionist for MI5 (eavesdropping on suspected fascist sympathizers), and that same character 10 years later, still haunted by her past. Atkinson’s wartime novels are structured like delicate puzzles; it’s a joy figuring out how she puts them together.
“Sweet Tooth” and “Atonement” by Ian McEwan. “Atonement,” McEwan’s gorgeous World War II-era novel (and subsequent gorgeous movie), came up in our book-club discussion, and you should absolutely go read it (and see it) if you haven’t already. But I thought a closer match was a lesser-known McEwan novel: “Sweet Tooth,” set in Cold War London and, like “Transcription,” involving a young woman working as a spy.
“The Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro. You can’t talk about British postwar novels without this Man Booker Prize winner, one of my all-time favorite books (and also a splendid movie). The reserved, quiet butler of a British country house takes a road trip in the 1950s, looking back on what happened at that house as wartime clouds gathered. It’s a short, perfect novel of repression, regret and rueful hope; every sentence is a gem.
