I have another set of reading pairs for you: The Silent Angel by Heinrich Böll and Coventry by Helen Humphreys. Now I must admit I am basing this not on my experience of having read the novels but rather on the story descriptions and things I've heard about other readers' experiences. I've only just started reading the Böll for Caroline's Literature and War Readalong (handy also to get in another German author this month, too). You can read her thoughts on the book here, and I hope to be able to catch up on the discussion very soon.
Both books are set either during or right after WWII. Where the books cross paths is in their physical setting--the bombed out, devastated cities of Cologne and Coventry. In The Silent Angel, the story begins with a soldier entering a damaged hospital looking for the widow of one of his former comrades. It's obvious the soldier is absent without leave, hungry and a little afraid.
"Everything was quiet and dark upstairs as well, except for the calm and somewhat paler blue color of the clouds wherever the sky could be seen. The entire left wing of the large building was blocked off by dangling sections of concrete. Through gaps he could see gloomy, devastated rooms, iron beams aslant, and he smelled the damp repulsive rubble."
I have read a couple of Helen Humphreys earlier novels (alas in pre-blogging days) and am looking forward to reading Coventry. In November of 1940 Coventry was heavily bombed, much of the city including the famous Cathedral was destroyed. I read that over 500 German bombers took part in the raid, which I find totally unimaginable and have a hard time wrapping my mind around such a horror (and I suspect there were similar raids in a number of European cities during the war causing just as much devastation). The story within the novel is fiction, but it is dropped into the actual historical event. I suspect that is partially why I've put off reading it.
"In a story of breathtaking beauty, Helen Humphreys captures brilliantly the terror of one of the most infamous bombing raids of the Second World War. As firestorms sweep through Coventry, scenes of unspeakable devastation unfold. Horses run through the streets; birds burn as they fly; historic buildings, including the cathedral, collapse; people are buried alive beneath the rubble."
I could easily add another book to this set--Rose Macaulay's The World My Wilderness, which I read earlier this fall. It's set in post-WWII London and the ruins of the city is where the heroine of the story feels most at home. It's another story with a somewhat surreal setting that creates very powerful imagery and an atmospheric backdrop.