NSC. *collapses in giggles*
Seriously, I've just restarted The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell (novelist). Set just off Nagasaki in a Dutch trading zone at the time the Japanese wanted to trade with the West but not actually have Westerners land on their islands. I started it on holiday and left it at my mum's place overseas but I got it again on Amazon as I enjoyed the first bit so much. Short chapters, witty dialogue, historical and a bit grim which ticks all my boxes.
Interesting - I'll have a look. Ta. I'm half way through The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Narrated by Death, it's the story of a little girl, living with her foster parents in 1939 Germany as her biological parents have been sent to concentration camps, who steals books. Beautifully written and pretty dark.