I have to read a book set in the 20th century for history class I was looking for any suggestions.
I would prefer something set in Russia since I have always been fascinated with the culture .
Most books that have been suggested to me so far all have to deal with the holocaust and I am trying to avoid this as much as possible since I've already read and done several reports on this in the past for other history courses.
( but if you feel you have a book with a truly unique perspective feel free to suggest one.)

It' cannot be about America and needs to have historical relevance.
The purpose of the paper is to annalyze any bias by the writer and historical accuracy so anything writen by a foriegn author would be a plus as it would be easier to see a differance in idiology this way.

I thank you in advance for any suggestions and please NO POLITICAL DISCUSSION.

I know that the purpose of my paper is to look for biases but a simple "Read this by so and so" will suffice no need to have this thread closed.

Fiction or non-fiction?

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is one of the best books I've ever read. It's about a Soviet gulag and is steeped in discussion of ideology.

Dr. Zhivago?

http://www.thefewbook.com/home.html by Alex Kershaw

It's not about America per se, but about American men who were mercenaries that broke federal laws to go fly for Great Britain, before The States entered the war, and basically ended up becoming heroes in The Battle of Britain. I'm not all the way through it, but it's been amazing so far.

Edit:
It should be noted, Alex Kershaw is a British Author/Historian, so it's written from a "foreign" perspective. Lots of other works on the subject are written by American authors, so you could gain a difference in perspective as your professor is asking.

it can be either so long as its not science fiction (it's for a history class so not too far fetched) non- fiction would be a prefrence but anything will do.

If you're looking for non-fiction I've heard great things about The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman and All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer . . . I own both but I'll admit I haven't gotten around to reading either of them yet. The second is about a CIA operation in Iran, I'm not sure if that makes it too American or not.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a good African historical fiction
Another good African fiction is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (which is more accurate than Poisonwood imo)

Not sure if its fully what you're looking for, but could you argue for one of the James Bond Novels? Its based in the 20th Century, involves russia, and has historical relevance (as to the relationship between the East and West in the cold war).

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
Animal Farm - George Orwell

EDIT: Two more:

The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns

Definitely this.

All Quiet on the Western Front, a classic book. One of the best books I've ever read.

The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States -Grigor Suny

I had to read it for my History of the Soviet Union class in college and it covers a wide range of Russia's history (though primarily about the USSR obviously). It's an awesome book but packed with a ton of information (including a few of chapters on the culture of the period) and sifting through it is not an easy task. Still it is one of the most comprehensive books on the subject that you can find.

(A note on the author: The reason we read that particular book is because our professor actually knows the author personally and both he and the author spent a lot of time in Russia. In particular my Professor studied the history of the Soviet Union's railroad, in particular cases of syphilis amongst the workers of the railroad)

I'd also recommend visiting http://www.soviethistory.org/ as well as it has a ton of information and media on Russia during the 20th century that you can look through by year. Mostly it's awesome because of all the video clips and pictures that they have. You would be hard pressed to find a better website.

Of Mice and Men

:D?

Anything by Antony Beevor, great non-fiction books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin:_The_Downfall_1945, tells about the last months of the Third Reich but also features a lot of Soviets too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalingrad_(book), tells about the events from Unternehmen Barbarossa until the famous battle.

His books are not just books about war, it's not endless listing of this division going to that village. They are massive collections of survivor testimonies, and tells about civilians, leaders, ordinary soldiers and general political climate at the time. The Berlin book also spawned a two-part documentary, which I enjoyed a lot.
They involve a lot of dialogue (for non-fiction) but they are all as-is dialogue really said by the people.

Well, when you think Russia, and books, you think suicidal novelists. But check out Russia's success at putting a tank on the Moon.

I think I have the perfect book for this: Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. It's a fantastic book about an Old Bolshevik who was a leader in the October Revolutions who's tried for treason against the country he helped create. It accomplishes the dreary bleakness of his situation very well. Great novel.

Eh... Recent history always bored the living hell out of me when I was in school.

The Jungle read that and get back to me