It is our capacity to love that ensures hope remains when terror and darkness falls, and we have chosen 12 novels set within the Second World War that highlight a variety of relationships. Friendship, tenderness, passion, affection, devotion, respect, yearning, all of these attachments and emotions sing out in these stories. Several of these novels contain heart-rending moments, while other tales cherish humour, and a lightness of touch. Some books take you to the immediate vicinity of war, others remain on the home front, all though concentrate on a connection that attempts to survive during the most tragic of times.