6 books like 1917
- The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien — 1917 shows war as a series of impossible choices made by people too young to carry them.
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque — 1917 puts you in the trench and keeps you there, measuring time in breaths and footsteps.
- Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes — 1917 follows orders that seem insane from the ground level, where strategy is invisible and only the…
- Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks — 1917 sends two men into landscapes so destroyed they become alien, where fields turn to craters and …
- Regeneration by Pat Barker — 1917 shows the moment before breaking, when duty and fear weigh equally and you keep moving because …
- The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers — 1917 gives you the texture of war before it gives you meaning: mud, wire, bodies, the mechanical act…
Picked for the feeling of 1917, not its genre. Each one is explained below. One movie isn’t much to go on: rate four more and the books are picked for you.
Why these books
1917 traps you inside a mission that cannot pause. The film moves in what feels like real time, following two soldiers across No Man's Land with a message that might save a battalion. It refuses spectacle in favor of dread, the sick weight of responsibility, and the small human gestures that puncture terror. These books carry that same forward momentum and moral urgency, where survival depends on holding steady when everything around you is collapsing.
The Things They Carried
1917 shows war as a series of impossible choices made by people too young to carry them. O'Brien's linked stories follow foot soldiers through Vietnam, tracking the physical and emotional loads they haul: fear, guilt, the weight of a friend's death, the stories they tell to make sense of chaos. The book moves with the same relentless forward pressure, where stopping to think might mean breaking down entirely, and where duty becomes a kind of terrible devotion.
All Quiet on the Western Front
1917 puts you in the trench and keeps you there, measuring time in breaths and footsteps. Remarque's novel does the same for a young German soldier in World War I, stripping away heroism to show the grinding sameness of fear, the boredom punctuated by horror, the way war makes the body an object and survival a reflex. Both refuse to let you step back for perspective. You stay trapped in the present tense alongside men who know they are expendable.
Matterhorn
1917 follows orders that seem insane from the ground level, where strategy is invisible and only the mission matters. Marlantes's Vietnam novel tracks a Marine company ordered to take a remote hill, hold it, then abandon it, all while the jungle and the chain of command conspire to kill them. The book shares the film's claustrophobic focus on soldiers caught between enemy fire and the absurdity of military logic, where courage and waste become indistinguishable.
Birdsong
1917 sends two men into landscapes so destroyed they become alien, where fields turn to craters and barbed wire replaces trees. Faulks's novel alternates between the Battle of the Somme and its aftermath, following soldiers tunneling beneath enemy lines and surfacing into bombardment. The book captures the same visceral terror of the Western Front, the sensory overload of shellfire, and the way love and memory become fragile anchors when the present offers nothing but endurance.
Regeneration
1917 shows the moment before breaking, when duty and fear weigh equally and you keep moving because stopping means collapse. Barker's novel is set in a hospital where shell-shocked officers are treated during World War I, exploring what happens when the mind refuses to hold the weight anymore. It shares the film's attention to the cost of steadiness, the price of not looking away, and the way war makes ghosts of men before they die.
The Yellow Birds
1917 gives you the texture of war before it gives you meaning: mud, wire, bodies, the mechanical act of moving forward. Powers's novel follows two young soldiers in Iraq, tracking the disintegration of their friendship and the failure of language to explain what they saw. The prose is sparse and immediate, refusing to redeem or explain, just as the film refuses to cut away. Both insist you feel the weight before you understand it, if understanding is even possible.
Is 1917 based on a book?
1917 isn’t based on a book — it’s an original screenplay by Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, inspired by accounts from Mendes's grandfather.
What should I read if I loved 1917?
Start with The Things They Carried, All Quiet on the Western Front and Matterhorn. 6 books on this page were picked for the feeling of 1917, not its genre, with a reason for each.
Which book is most like 1917?
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. 1917 shows war as a series of impossible choices made by people too young to carry them.
These are for everyone who loved 1917. Want books picked for you?
Someone who loved 1917 and Monty Python and the Holy Grail reads different books from someone who loved 1917 and Psycho. One movie isn’t much to go on. Rate four more — 1917 already counts — and the books are picked for you.
Rate four more moviesOr read one book with friends — three of you rate movies, one book you’ll all like.