40+ Best Fiction Books set in Europe to Read Now
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Ready to travel through France, Italy, London, and beyond? These fiction books set in Europe will transport you across the continent — one unforgettable story at a time.
IThere are books you read… and then there are books that take you somewhere.
The kind that drop you into a quiet Parisian street at dusk. The kind that let you feel the tension of London during wartime, wander through Italy in summer, or uncover secrets hidden in Barcelona. Europe has inspired some of the most atmospheric, emotionally rich, and unforgettable fiction ever written.
If you’re looking for the best fiction books set in Europe — from sweeping historical fiction in France and Italy to psychological thrillers set in London and Scandinavia — this curated list will help you travel without ever leaving your reading chair.
Happy Reading!
Table of Contents
Best Historical Fiction Books Set in Europe
Historical Fictions Set in France
The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah
Set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, this unforgettable historical novel follows two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, forced onto very different paths of survival. While Vianne fights quietly to protect her daughter at home, Isabelle risks everything to join the French Resistance. Emotional and powerful, The Nightingale remains one of the most beloved WWII novels set in France.
All The Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
Set in the walled city of Saint-Malo during World War II, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows Marie-Laure, a blind French girl who memorizes the streets of Paris through miniature models her father builds for her. When the Nazis occupy France, she flees with him to the coast, where her quiet resilience becomes her greatest strength. Across the war-torn border in Germany, Werner, a gifted orphan with a talent for radio technology, is recruited into the Hitler Youth — forcing him to confront impossible moral choices as their lives slowly draw toward one another.
The Paris Library
by Janet Skeslien Charles
Based on the true story of the American Library in Paris during World War II, this historical novel follows Odile Souchet, a young librarian who joins the Resistance, using books as her quiet form of rebellion against the Nazi occupation. Decades later, living in small-town America, her carefully buried past resurfaces when a lonely teenage girl named Lily asks to interview her for a school assignment. As their unlikely friendship deepens, long-hidden secrets from wartime France slowly come to light, revealing both the courage and the cost of survival.
The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris
by Evie Woods
Nestled among the cobblestone streets of Compiègne, France, a charming bakery has long been rumored to serve pastries touched by magic. A bite of a warm croissant might bring luck, awaken forgotten memories, or stir secret longings. When Edie Lane arrives from Ireland believing she’s headed for glamorous Paris, she quickly realizes that this quiet French town — and its mysterious bakery — may change her life in ways she never expected.
Mrs. Morgan’s Book Brigade
by Janet Skeslien Charles
In 1918, as the Great War devastates northern France, Jessie Carson leaves the New York Public Library to help rebuild communities just miles from the front. Determined to bring hope through stories, she creates children’s libraries from the wreckage of war and turns ambulances into traveling bookmobiles — training the first French female librarians along the way. Nearly seventy years later, Wendy Peterson, a librarian in New York, uncovers Jessie’s name in the archives and begins a search that connects their lives across time, revealing an extraordinary tribute to literature, bravery, and female solidarity.
The Book of Lost Names
by Kristin Harmel
During World War II in occupied France, Eva Traube Abrams, a Jewish graduate student with a gift for forgery, joins the Resistance to help create false identities for children fleeing Nazi persecution. Years later, working as a librarian in Florida, she sees a familiar code in a photograph from Berlin and realizes her secret past has resurfaced.
All the Flowers in Paris
by Sarah Jio
When Caroline wakes up in modern Paris with no memory of her past, she begins searching her apartment for clues to who she once was. Hidden among old belongings, she discovers letters written decades earlier by Céline, a young widow struggling to survive in Nazi-occupied France. As Caroline pieces together Céline’s story, the beauty of Paris and the heartbreak of war unfold side by side, revealing how love, sacrifice, and loss can echo across generations.
The Keeper of Happy Endings
by Barbara Davis
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The Paris Bookseller
by Kerri Maher
Set in post–World War I Paris, this is the story of Sylvia Beach, the American bookseller who founded the iconic Shakespeare and Company bookstore. Determined to publish James Joyce’s controversial novel Ulysses, Sylvia defies censorship, financial risk, and social convention to support groundbreaking literature. Rich in literary history, this novel captures the vibrant expatriate community of 1920s Paris and celebrates the women who shaped modern publishing.
Historical Fictions Set in UK
The Queens of Crime
by Marie Benedict
In 1930s London, five of the greatest female mystery writers — including Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers — band together to solve a real-life murder when Scotland Yard fails to act. Determined to prove that women understand crime just as well as the men who dismiss them, they begin conducting their own investigation.
The Last Bookshop in London
by Madeline Martin
As the Blitz begins to devastate London during WWII, Grace Bennett finally arrives in the city she has always longed to call home — only to discover it looks nothing like she imagined. Instead of bright opportunity, she finds uncertainty and fear as war closes in around her. When she takes a job in a small neighborhood bookshop, stories shared during air raids become a source of comfort and connection — a force that wins over even the darkest nights of the war.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Set on the island of Guernsey just after World War II, the novel follows writer Juliet Ashton as she begins corresponding with members of an unusual book club, the “Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” formed during the German occupation. What starts as literary curiosity soon draws her into the lives of islanders who endured hunger, fear, and quiet acts of defiance under Nazi rule.
The Lost Apothecary
by Sarah Penner
In 18th-century London, Nella runs a hidden apothecary shop that secretly helps women seek revenge against abusive men. When a modern-day historian, Caroline, stumbles upon clues to the shop’s existence, past and present begin to intertwine. Moving between Georgian London and contemporary England, this atmospheric novel blends historical fiction and mystery, exploring female rage, justice, and the dangerous power of secrets.
The Rose Code
by Kate Quinn
Set during World War II at Bletchley Park, this novel follows three women — Osla, Mab, and Beth — who work as codebreakers deciphering German military intelligence. Bound by friendship yet divided by secrets, they reunite years later when a mysterious letter threatens to expose betrayal from their past. Against the high-stakes world of wartime Britain, their story reveals both the brilliance of the women who helped shorten the war and the personal cost of loyalty under pressure.
The Dictionary of Lost Words
by Pip Williams
Esme grows up in the Scriptorium of early 20th-century Oxford, motherless and quietly observant, tucked beneath the sorting table where her father and a team of lexicographers are compiling the first Oxford English Dictionary. From her hidden vantage point, she begins to notice that words describing women’s lives and working-class experiences are often dismissed or ignored. Determined to rescue what has been overlooked, Esme starts collecting these discarded words for a dictionary of her own — an act of quiet defiance set against the women’s suffrage movement and the looming Great War.
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The Gown
by Jennifer Robson
From post-war London to Toronto in 2016, this dual-timeline historical novel weaves together past and present through a family mystery. More than half a century after her grandmother’s death, Heather Mackenzie sets out to uncover the truth behind a set of delicate embroidered flowers — heirlooms that closely resemble the motifs on Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding gown.
The Island of Missing Trees
by Elif Shafak
At the heart of the story are Kostas and Defne, who fall in love as teenagers in divided 1970s Cyprus, meeting in secret beneath a fig tree while violence brews around them. Years later in London, their daughter Ada senses the weight of unspoken history shaping her family. Spanning decades and borders, the novel shows how love, silence, and memory can shape a life long after war has ended.
Historical Fictions Set in Italy
My Brilliant Friend
by Elena Ferrante
Now an acclaimed HBO series, the first volume of Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels begins in 1950s Naples, where ten-year-old Elena and Lila grow up in a neighborhood marked by poverty, violence, and rigid social boundaries. Brilliant, defiant Lila and observant, determined Elena are bound by a fierce and often competitive friendship that pushes each of them to dream beyond the limits placed on them.
Eternal
by Lisa Scottoline
Set in Rome as Mussolini’s Fascist regime tightens its grip in the late 1930s, three lifelong friends — Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro — watch their once-secure world begin to unravel. Bound by childhood memories and complicated love, they struggle to hold on to one another as anti-Semitic laws reshape their city. When the Nazis occupy Rome, their friendship is forced to confront betrayal, sacrifice, and the painful cost of survival.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
by Mark Sullivan
In Nazi-occupied Milan during World War II, teenager Pino Lella becomes an unlikely spy for the Italian Resistance. Working as a driver for a high-ranking German officer, he secretly gathers intelligence while navigating danger at every turn. As Pino moves between privilege and peril, he is forced to grow up far too quickly, discovering that courage sometimes looks like quiet defiance in the face of overwhelming fear.
Historical Fictions Set in Germany
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
In Nazi Germany, young Liesel Meminger discovers the power of words while living with foster parents outside Munich. Narrated by Death, the novel follows her quiet acts of resistance through stolen books and shared stories. It remains one of the most unforgettable novels set in World War II Germany.
Historical Fictions Set in Spain
Our Last Days in Barcelona
by Chanel Cleeton
Set against the political unrest of 1960s Spain, this sweeping historical novel follows Isabela Perez, exiled from Cuba during the revolution and determined to protect what remains of her family. As she travels to Barcelona in search of her missing sister, Beatriz, she is drawn into a dangerous world of espionage tied to Franco’s regime.
The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Set in Barcelona in 1945, as the city heals after the Spanish Civil War, young Daniel — the son of an antiquarian bookseller — discovers a mysterious novel titled The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. When he learns that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of the author’s work, and that he may hold the last surviving book, his search for answers leads him into a web of secrets, tragic love, and buried crimes.
Historical Fictions Set in Netherlands
The Miniaturist
by Jessie Burton
In 17th-century Amsterdam, young Nella Oortman marries into a wealthy household filled with secrets. When a mysterious miniaturist begins sending uncanny replicas of her new home, hidden truths slowly surface. Dark, elegant, and richly atmospheric, it adds Dutch historical fiction to your map.
Historical Fictions Set in Monaco
Meet Me in Monaco
by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb
In 1955, photographer Sophie Duval finds herself unexpectedly connected to Grace Kelly during the actress’s whirlwind romance with Prince Rainier of Monaco. As Sophie navigates the glamour and scrutiny surrounding the royal wedding, she must also confront her own guarded heart. Set between Cannes and Monaco, this novel captures the Riviera’s elegance while exploring love, reinvention, and second chances.
Best Thrillers & Psychological Mysteries Set in Europe
Thrillers Set in France
The Paris Apartment
by Lucy Foley
When Jess arrives in Paris hoping to stay with her half-brother, she finds his upscale apartment empty — and the neighbors strangely evasive. As she begins questioning the residents of the elegant building, secrets hidden behind locked doors slowly surface. Set in a glamorous yet claustrophobic Parisian apartment block, this psychological thriller turns the City of Light into something far darker.
The Sanatorium
by Sarah Pearse
High in the French Alps, a former sanatorium turned luxury hotel becomes the unsettling setting for Elin Warner’s reunion with her estranged brother. Invited to celebrate his engagement to Laure, Elin hopes for reconciliation — but when Laure suddenly disappears, the celebration turns into a nightmare. As snow traps the guests inside and suspicion spreads through the isolated hotel, Elin must rely only on her instincts to uncover the truth.
Thrillers Set in UK
The Silent Patient
by Alex Michaelides
When Alicia Berenson shoots her husband five times and then refuses to speak another word, the case shocks London. Psychotherapist Theo Faber becomes obsessed with uncovering her motive, believing he alone can break her silence. Set between a secure psychiatric facility and the streets of London, this psychological thriller builds toward one of the most talked-about twists in recent fiction.
A Slow Fire Burning
by Paula Hawkins
When a young man is found brutally murdered on a London houseboat, suspicion quickly falls on three women whose lives intersected with his in complicated ways. Laura, Miriam, and Carla each carry their own grudges, secrets, and fragile versions of the truth — and none of them are as innocent as they first appear.
Greenwich Park
by Katherine Faulkner
In London’s affluent Greenwich neighborhood, Helen’s carefully controlled life begins to unravel when she befriends Rachel, a carefree and unpredictable expectant mother she meets at a prenatal class. While Rachel’s bold personality initially feels like a welcome distraction from Helen’s quiet anxieties, her increasingly erratic behavior raises unsettling questions.
The Family Upstairs
by Lisa Jewell
The Maidens
by Alex Michaelides
At Cambridge University, Mariana Andros becomes convinced that a charismatic Greek tragedy professor is connected to a series of murders. As she investigates a secret society of female students known as “The Maidens,” her obsession deepens. Blending dark academia and psychological suspense, this thriller is steeped in the atmosphere of elite British academia.
Thrillers Set in Scandinavia
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired to investigate the decades-old disappearance of a young woman from one of Sweden’s most powerful families. To uncover the truth, he partners with Lisbeth Salander — a fiercely intelligent, socially isolated hacker with a talent for exposing what others try to hide. As their investigation cuts through layers of corruption, misogyny, and family secrets, the icy landscape of Sweden mirrors the darkness they uncover.
Save for Later
The Snowman
by Jo Nesbo
When women begin disappearing during Norway’s first snowfall, Detective Harry Hole notices a chilling pattern: a snowman left behind at each crime scene. As he digs deeper, he uncovers a killer who plans carefully and strikes without warning, turning the quiet winter landscape into something menacing. Against the stark, frozen backdrop of Oslo, this investigation forces Harry to confront both a ruthless mind and the limits of his own control.
Best Contemporary & Literary Fiction Set in Europe
Contemporary Books Set in Italy
One Italian Summer
by Rebecca Serle
After her mother’s death, Katy travels alone to Positano on the Amalfi Coast, determined to understand the place that once meant everything to her. There, beneath the lemon trees and along the glittering Mediterranean, she comes face to face with the version of her mother she never truly knew. As past and present blur in the warmth of southern Italy, Katy is forced to confront her grief, her expectations, and the complicated truth of love between mothers and daughters.
Problematic Summer Romance
by Ali Hazelwood
At twenty-three, Maya Killgore can’t seem to get Conor Harkness out of her mind — even though he insists their age gap and complicated history make anything between them impossible. When a destination wedding in Taormina forces them to spend a week together under the Sicilian sun, distance becomes harder to maintain. Surrounded by ancient ruins and wedding chaos, Maya begins to question whether some “wrong” choices might feel exactly right.
Love & Gelato
by Jenna Evans Welch
Contemporary Books Set in France
One Summer in Paris
by Sarah Morgan
Contemporary Books Set in UK
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
by Gail Honeyman
In Glasgow, Eleanor Oliphant lives by strict routines, finding comfort in predictability and keeping others at arm’s length. But when a simple act of kindness turns into an unlikely friendship, her carefully ordered world begins to shift. As laughter and connection return to her life for the first time in years, she must confront the painful past that has shaped her isolation.
The Midnight Library
by Matt Haig
In Bedford, Nora Seed finds herself in a strange library that exists between life and death, its shelves filled with books representing every path her life could have taken. Guided by her former school librarian, she begins stepping into alternate versions of her existence — from careers she abandoned to relationships she let slip away. With each new life, Nora must confront what truly makes a life meaningful, and whether the one she left behind might still be worth saving.
The Bookshop on the Corner
by Jenny Colgan
When Nina loses her job in Birmingham, she impulsively moves to the Scottish Highlands and transforms a van into a traveling bookshop. Surrounded by rolling hills and small villages, she begins matching neighbors with the perfect stories for their lives. As her mobile bookshop becomes a community fixture, Nina discovers that sometimes the bravest chapter begins when you turn the page.
What are your favorite novels set in Europe? Let me know in the comments below!