Books like In the Absence of Men by Philippe Besson

Reimagining the Trojan War through the eyes of Achilles’ closest companion, Patroclus, the novel explores themes of friendship, heroism, and forbidden love amid mythic glory.

A Little Life follows four college friends in New York as they confront trauma, love and the enduring scars of their pasts, weaving themes of friendship, family, and identity into a profound coming‑of‑age story.

Ari, a fifteen‑year‑old Mexican‑American with a brother in prison, meets Dante and a friendship sparks that forces him to confront his identity, family, and sexuality.

When a copied email threatens to expose his hidden identity, sixteen‑year‑old Simon Spier must decide whether to protect his secret, save his friend, and risk a new, unexpected romance.

Set in 1950s Paris, James Baldwin’s novel follows an American expatriate entangled in a doomed love triangle, confronting desire, morality, and sexual identity with stark honesty.

After a twenty‑year friendship ends, Arthur Greer is invited to his ex‑boyfriend’s wedding and embarks on a globe‑spanning trip that reconnects him with a past love, tests his courage and forces a fresh start at fifty.

Cameron Post, a gay teen from a conservative Montana ranch town, is sent to a conversion therapy center after her family demands she change her sexual orientation.

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.

Set in Paris in 1916, Philippe Besson’s debut novel follows sixteen‑year‑old aristocrat Vincent as he navigates love and identity amid the double void left by war, with two men—an older writer and a young soldier—captivating his heart.

340 pages ; 21 cm1080L Lexile

Five American mothers travel to France after World War I to visit the graves of their sons, forming a pilgrimage that reshapes their lives and bonds them in unexpected ways.

Set in London in 1918, "The Eye in the Door" follows Billy Prior, an Intelligence officer at the Ministry of Munitions, as he wrestles with his personal relationships and identity while serving the war effort.

Margaret Diehl’s fiction *Men* examines ordinary men who appear in the life of the narrator, exploring themes of love and longing with an understated, graceful voice.

In Douglas Reeman’s World War I novel, the third entry in the Blackwood saga, Jonathan Blackwood and his Royal Marine family confront the brutal realities of Gallipoli and Flanders, as the age of honor gives way to modern warfare.

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.

A young woman investigates her brother’s death in World War I and discovers a long-buried secret in this compelling historical novel set in London during the war and post-war era.

Five French men enlist for war, two brothers leaving behind Blanche, a woman torn between them as she awaits their return.