Books like War and Turpentine by David McKay

A Jewish American teen travels to Ukraine with a tattered photograph, seeking the woman who saved his grandfather during the Holocaust, guided by a quirky translator, a blind veteran, and an oddly named guide dog.

A 19th‑century tale of poverty, family, and the perils of a fraudulent antique dealer, centered on the young orphan Nell and her loyal grandfather.

After being adopted by a quirky Dublin couple who treat him only as a house‑guest, Cyril embarks on a life‑spanning quest to discover his origins, his place in Ireland, and the meaning of true belonging.

A disorienting journey through memory and identity as a Nebraska truck driver with Capgras Syndrome confronts a sister who may be an impostor, while a cognitive neurologist probes the blurred line between reality and perception.

Set in 1942 Singapore and 2000, the novel follows a young woman’s wartime forced marriage to a Japanese brothel and a grandson’s quest to uncover family secrets, highlighting women's courage amid WWII atrocities.

In 1916, Francesca Hatton must unravel a buried family secret when her grandfather’s mysterious death spawns claims of murder and vengeance, all tied to a hidden stone in her English estate.

A former teacher reflects on a life shaped by childhood friendships, nostalgia, and the fragile nature of memory, when an unexpected lawyer’s letter forces him to confront the past.

The Dust That Falls From Dreams follows the McCosh sisters in Kent during World War I, exploring love, family bonds, and the task of rebuilding lives amid the conflict’s devastation.

When a young writer discovers his grandfather’s tale of a military deserter risking life in wartime Leningrad, he learns how they gathered hard‑to‑find ingredients for a wedding cake destined for a powerful colonel’s daughter.

Two generations intersect: a Flemish painter‑soldier’s life, captured in war‑scarred notebooks, is revived by his grandson, a writer, who seeks to understand both his ancestor’s legacy and his own place in history.

Jacob and Oteka are young hostages of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, where their friendship and courage are tested as they struggle to survive the brutal guerrilla war.

Reads like prequel to Suite Francaise, but is a perfect novel in its own right - a gripping story of family life, of money and love, set against the backdrop of France in two terrible world wars.In haunting ways this wonderful, compelling novel prefigures Suite Francaise and some of the themes of Nemirovsky's great unfinished sequence of novels. All Our Worldly Goods, though, is complete, and exquisitely so – a perfect novel in its own right. First published in France in 1947, after the author's death, it is a gripping story of family life and starcrossed lovers, of money and greed, set against the backdrop of France from 1911 to 1940 between two terrible wars.Pierre and Agnes marry for love against the wishes of his parents and the family patriarch, the tyrannical industrialist Julien Hardelot, provoking a family feud which cascades down the generations. This is Balzac or The Forsyte Saga on a smaller, more intimate scale, the bourgeoisie observed close-up with Nemirovsky's characteristically sly humour and clear-eyed compassion. Full of drama and heartbreak, telling observation of the devastating effects of two wars on a small town and an industrial family, this is Nemirovsky at the height of her powers. The exodus and flow of refugee humanity through the town in both wars foreshadows Suite Francaise, but differently, because this is Northern France, near the Somme, and the town itself is twice razed. Taut, evocative and beautifully paced, the novel points up with heartbreaking detail and clarity how close were those two wars, how history repeated itself, tragically, shockingly... It opens in the Edwardian era, on a fashionable Normandy beach, and ends with a changed world, under Nazi occupation.

Set in the final months of World War I, *We Shall Not Sleep* follows Captain‑Chaplain Joseph Reavley, his sister ambulance driver Judith, and their brother Matthew as they confront war‑torn violence, a ruthless ideology, and a dangerous plot that threatens the fragile peace.