7 Thrilling Historical Novels from Leon Uris
In 1958, the novel Exodus by Leon Uris (pronounced your-iss) became an international best-selling phenomenon. The book, which tells of the founding of the state of Israel, went on to become a blockbuster 1960 film starring none other than Paul Newman.
Exodus and Uris’ subsequent novels continue to captivate readers and “Leon Uris Novel” has even become a popular crossword clue. Fans of World War II era historical fiction will find a bounty of thrilling reads in Uris’ other works, which focus on the events during and after World War II that would have a permanent, lasting effect on world politics.
Armageddon
This spellbinding novelization of the Berlin airlift is told through the eyes of American Captain Sean O’Sullivan. While in Berlin he learns the horrific truth of the Holocaust, and sees firsthand the Soviet takeover of Germany. Historians have pointed out that the novel does a spectacular job of explaining the consequences of the defeat of Nazi Germany, including most importantly, the division of territories and the Soviet blockade, which set the stage for the Cold War.
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QB VII
Uris’s gripping courtroom drama tells of a libel case of epic proportions. Doctor Adam Kelno says he was pressed into service in a Nazi concentration camp, and sues journalist Abe Cady’s claims, in his bestselling account of the Holocaust, that he conducted terrible experiments on camp inmates. Part of what makes this book so riveting is the fact that it was drawn from Uris’ own life, after he was sued by a former concentration camp surgeon he had named in Exodus.
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Angry Hills
At the dawn of World War II, Mike Morrison picks a bad time to travel to Greece to accept his inheritance. The Nazis have invaded the country, and he finds himself at the center of a very dangerous spy game involving the Gestapo, British forces, and the Greek resistance. Based on the journals of Uris’ uncle, who served in Greece during World War II, this gripping espionage drama was made into a movie starring Robert Mitchum in 1959.
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Mitla Pass
Gideon Zadonk is an American author who travels to Israel to research a book and to perhaps escape some of his own demons, like his dysfunctional marriage. Unfortunately he finds himself instead in the midst of an international crisis at Mitla Pass, where Colonel Zechariah (a stand-in for Ariel Sharon) decides to take matters into his own hands. Called Uris’ “most introspective novel,” Mitla Pass is a reflection of Uris’ past, inspired by his parents’ experience in Palestine and their subsequent immigration to the United States.
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Topaz
Uris’s 1967 novel explores the high stakes political game of the Cuban Missile Crisis as French and American intelligence officers find themselves in over their heads when their warning that the Soviets plan to ship nuclear arms to Cuba goes unheeded. Though the novel was Uris’s bestselling novel since the success of Exodus in 1958, sometimes the book is better than the movie: its adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock in 1969 was a critical and commercial flop.
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Exodus
Uris’s passion for Israel fueled his inspiration for Exodus, his bestselling and most popular novel. He reportedly financed his own travel and research to write this epic saga, which tells the story of the early days of Israel through the SS Exodus, a ship that was seized by the British as it tried to bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine. Uris’s multifaceted narrative follows the lives of several passengers as they try to rebuild their lives in their new home in Israel. Historian Leonard Schroeter wrote, “the enormous significance of Exodus to the growth and stimulation of the Jewish movement can hardly be overstated.”
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The Haj
Leon Uris’s 1984 novel tells the story of the Jewish struggle from the other side, through the eyes of a young boy named Ishmael from a Palestinian-Arab family. When Ishmael’s father dies, he must assume responsibility for his family despite the growing conflict of the nearby kibbutz settlers. Though the “Haj” of its title refers to the pilgrimage that Muslims make to Mecca, for Uris, The Haj is about the journey of the Palestinians as they struggle to maintain their identity in a rapidly-changing world.
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Mila 18
Mila 18 was the name for the bunker headquarters of Polish Jewish resistance fighters, who are the heart of this compelling novel. American journalist Christopher de Monti senses that German soldiers are concealing the truth in German-occupied Warsaw, and so he embarks on his own research in the Warsaw ghetto. Witnessing firsthand the atrocities of the German army, De Monti joins the resistance fighters in this moving portrayal of the courageous few who stood against the Nazis in pre-war Poland.
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