Fiction

Half a Crown by Jo Walton. It's the third of an alternate history series (the first two are Farthing and Ha'Penny) in which England avoided WWII by coming to an early accommodating with Hitler. The first two take place in the late 1940's, and the first one is very much a straight forward murder mystery set in the alternate time line. The second and third are more closely alternate history.

The third novel takes place in 1960, and that world's version of WWII (although it's not called that) has been dragging on for some twenty years. Jews have been systematically rounded up and sent to the death camps in Europe, although apparently Britain is getting ready to open its own death camp quite soon.

I don't want to say any more, because anything additional will be a plot spoiler. But I do strongly recommend all the books.

Jo Walton has written several other books, the only one of which I've read so far is My Real Children, in which an elderly woman can remember two entirely different versions of her life. I loved that one.

I also got to meet Walton at CoSine, a science fiction con that's in Colorado Springs in January. She is funny, sharp, and very friendly.