Historical novels on occupation?

[Tobia]

Hello all,

I'm writing an assignment on non-fiction elements in contemporary fiction novels. I'm supposed to pick three, and I've pulled Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated and Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo from my own library. I'm thinking the theme might be military or national occupations/invasions, but I can't complete the list from my own collection. Can anyone recommend a good novel? Keeping in mind the following criteria:

- Must be a fictionalized account of a non-fiction event; it can be more non-fiction than fiction, or more fiction than non-fiction.
- Must be contemporary (by my imposed definition, written within the last twenty years)
- Does not have to be geographically confined to Eastern Europe, as the other two are; Tibet, for instance, would be fine.
- Ideally I don't want this paper to be about WWII, so while the Japanese occupation of China is a totally legitimate topic for suggestion and the fodder for many excellent books, I would *prefer* something else.

But most importantly:

- Is it a good book? I have to read it, after all.


Thanks very much! Happy reading.

[Dark Muse]

Captain Corelli's Mandolin is about Italy's occupation of Greece during WWII and I found it to be quite an enjoyable book.

[mal4mac]

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984) by Milan Kundera, is centred on the Prague Spring in 1968. Slightly out of your 20 year limit, but if you can bend it, it's well worth it...