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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > War fiction > Second World War fiction
From the author of The Last Rose of Shanghai comes a profoundly
moving novel about a diplomatic couple who risked their lives to
help Viennese Jews escape the Nazis, based on the true story of Dr.
Ho Fengshan, Righteous Among the Nations. 1938. Dr. Ho Fengshan,
consul general of China, is posted in Vienna with his American
wife, Grace. Shy and ill at ease with the societal obligations of
diplomats' wives, Grace is an outsider in a city beginning to feel
the sweep of the Nazi dragnet. When Grace forms a friendship with
her Jewish tutor, Lola Schnitzler, Dr. Ho requests that Grace keep
her distance. His instructions are to maintain amicable relations
with the Third Reich, and he and Grace are already under their
vigilant eye. But when Lola's family is subjugated to a brutal
pogrom, Dr. Ho decides to issue them visas to Shanghai. As violence
against the Jews escalates after Kristallnacht and threats mount,
Dr. Ho must issue thousands more to help Jews escape Vienna before
World War II explodes. Based on a remarkable true story, Night
Angels explores the risks brave souls took and the love and
friendship they built and lost while fighting against incalculable
evil.
It is January 1941, and the Blitz is devastating England. Food
supplies are low and tube stations have become bomb shelters. As
the U.S. maintains its sceptical isolationist position, Winston
Churchill knows that Britain is doomed without the aid of its
powerful ally. As bombs rain down over London a weary Harry
Hopkins, President Roosevelt's most trusted advisor, is sent to
London as his emissary and comes face to face with the Prime
Minister himself and an attractive and determined young female
driver who may not be what she seems. In Sleep in Peace Tonight, a
tale of loyalty, love, and the sacrifices made in the name of each,
James MacManus conjures to life not only Blitz-era London and the
behind the scenes at the White House, but also the poignant lives
of personalities that shaped the course of history during Britain's
darkest hour.
Berlin, 1989. As the wall between East and West falls, Miriam
Winter cares for her dying father, Henryk. When he cries out for
someone named Frieda-and Miriam discovers an Auschwitz tattoo
hidden under his watch strap-Henryk's secret history begins to
unravel. Searching for more clues of her father's past, Miriam
finds an inmate uniform from the Ravensbruck women's camp concealed
among her mother's things. Within its seams are dozens of letters
to Henryk written by Frieda. The letters reveal the disturbing
truth about the 'Rabbit Girls', young women experimented on at the
camp. And amid their tales of sacrifice and endurance, Miriam
pieces together a love story that has been hidden away in Henryk's
heart for almost fifty years. Inspired by these extraordinary
women, Miriam strives to break through the walls she has built
around herself. Because even in the darkest of times, hope can
survive.
The 50th anniversary edition of this classic World War 2 adventure
set in south-east Asia. February, 1942: Singapore lies burning and
shattered, defenceless before the conquering hordes of the Japanese
Army. The last boat escapes out of the harbour into the South China
Sea, and on board are a desperate group of strangers, each with a
secret to guard, each willing to kill to keep that secret safe.
Dawn sees them far out to sea but with the first murderous dive
bombers already aimed at their ship. Thus begins a nightmare
succession of disasters wrought by the hell-bent Japanese, the
unrelenting tropical sun and, ultimately, by the survivors
themselves, as they head south by Java Head.
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE SUMMER BY POPSUGAR,
FROLIC, PARADE, TRAVEL & LEISURE, SHE KNOWS, and SHE READS!
NAMED A REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOK OF 2020 (SO FAR). "Fast Girls is a
compelling, thrilling look at what it takes to be a female Olympian
in pre-war America...Brava to Elise Hooper for bringing these
inspiring heroines to the wide audience they so richly
deserve."-Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The
Last Romantics and The House Girl Acclaimed author Elise Hooper
explores the gripping, real life history of female athletes,
members of the first integrated women's Olympic team, and their
journeys to the 1936 summer games in Berlin, Nazi Germany. Perfect
for readers who love untold stories of amazing women, such as The
Only Woman in the Room, Hidden Figures, and The Lost Girls of
Paris. In the 1928 Olympics, Chicago's Betty Robinson competes as a
member of the first-ever women's delegation in track and field.
Destined for further glory, she returns home feted as America's
Golden Girl until a nearly-fatal airplane crash threatens to end
everything. Outside of Boston, Louise Stokes, one of the few black
girls in her town, sees competing as an opportunity to overcome the
limitations placed on her. Eager to prove that she has what it
takes to be a champion, she risks everything to join the Olympic
team. From Missouri, Helen Stephens, awkward, tomboyish, and poor,
is considered an outcast by her schoolmates, but she dreams of
escaping the hardships of her farm life through athletic success.
Her aspirations appear impossible until a chance encounter changes
her life. These three athletes will join with others to defy
society's expectations of what women can achieve. As tensions bring
the United States and Europe closer and closer to the brink of war,
Betty, Louise, and Helen must fight for the chance to compete as
the fastest women in the world amidst the pomp and pageantry of the
Nazi-sponsored 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
These are further exciting instalments of the popular aerial combat
story from the classic war comic, Battle! Johnny Redburn has just
led Falcon Squadron on a successful mission over Stalingrad. But
Major Rastovitch has a new mission for Johnny: to fly an important
Russian official to a top-secret conference in England in the
incredible "Flying Gun". The stakes are high and danger never far
away...
From Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, the bestselling authors of Meet
Me in Monaco, comes a coming-of-age novel set in pre-WWII Europe,
perfect for fans of Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Kate
Quinn. Three cities, two sisters, one chance to correct the past .
. . New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine
Sommers learn their grandmother is dying, they agree to fulfill her
last wish: to travel across Europe-together. They are to deliver
three letters, in which Violet will say goodbye to those she hasn't
seen since traveling to Europe forty years earlier; a journey
inspired by famed reporter, Nellie Bly. Clara, ever-dutiful, sees
the trip as an inconvenient detour before her wedding to
millionaire Charles Hancock, but it's also a chance to embrace her
love of art. Budding journalist Madeleine relishes the opportunity
to develop her ambitions to report on the growing threat of
Hitler's Nazi party and Mussolini's control in Italy. Constantly at
odds with each other as they explore the luxurious Queen Mary, the
Orient Express, and the sights of Paris and Venice,, Clara and
Madeleine wonder if they can fulfil Violet's wish, until a shocking
truth about their family brings them closer together. But as they
reach Vienna to deliver the final letter, old grudges threaten
their reconciliation again. As political tensions rise, and Europe
feels increasingly volatile, the pair are glad to head home on the
Hindenburg, where fate will play its hand in the final stage of
their journey.
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Voices in the Evening
(Paperback)
Natalia Ginzburg; Translated by D.M. Low; Introduction by Colm Toibin
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R358
R289
Discovery Miles 2 890
Save R69 (19%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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After WWII, a small Italian town struggles to emerge from under the
thumb of Fascism. With wit, tenderness, and irony, Elsa, the
novel's narrator, weaves a rich tapestry of provincial Italian
life: two generations of neighbors and relatives, their gossip and
shattered dreams, their heartbreaks and struggles to find
happiness. Elsa wants to imagine a future for herself, free from
the expectations and burdens of her town's history, but the weight
of the past will always prove unbearable, insistently posing the
question: "Why has everything been ruined?"
It is 1940 and twenty-year-old Charlotte Richmond watches from her
attic window as enemy planes fly over London. Still grieving her
beloved brother who never returned from France, she is working hard
to keep her own little life ticking over: holding down a dull
typist job at the Ministry of Information, sharing gin and
confidences with her best friend Elena, and dodging her difficult
father. She has good reason to keep her head down and stay out of
trouble. She knows what happens when she makes a nuisance of
herself. On her way to work she often sees the boy who feeds the
birds - a source of unexpected joy amidst the rubble of the Blitz.
But every day brings new scenes of devastation, and after yet
another heartbreaking loss Charlotte has an uncanny sense of
foreboding. Someone is stalking the darkness, targeting her
friends. And now he is following her. She no longer knows who to
trust. She can't even trust herself. She knows this; her family
have told so her often enough. As grief and suspicion consume her,
Charlotte's nerves become increasingly frayed, and soon her very
freedom is under threat . . . Riveting and deeply moving, The
Midnight News is a tour de force from Sunday Times bestselling
author Jo Baker - a breathtaking story of friendship, love and war.
February 1941 The world is at war and Joyce Cooper is doing her bit
for the war effort. A proud member of the Civil Defence, it is her
job to assist the people of Notting Hill when the bombs begin to
fall. But as the Blitz takes hold of London, Joyce is called upon
to plot the devastation that follows in its wake. Night after night
she must stand before her map and mark the trail of loss and
suffering inflicted upon the homes, families and businesses she
knows so well. February 1974 Decades later from her basement flat
Joyce watches the world go by above her head. This is her haven;
the home she has created for herself having had so much taken from
her in the war. But now the council is tearing down her block of
flats and she's being forced to move. Could this chance to start
over allow Joyce to let go of the past and step back into her life?
An emotional and compelling historical fiction novel perfect for
fans of Fiona Valpy, Mandy Robotham and Catherine Hokin. Readers
love Jan Casey: 'Captivating, heart-wrenching'saga... I adamantly
recommend' NetGalley Reviewer, 'A story of courage and hope'
NetGalley Reviewer, 'Drew me in straight away and I just wanted to
keep on reading until I finished it' NetGalley Reviewer,
'Gut-wrenching and hopeful, this book is just beautiful. I stayed
riveted the entire time and could not put it down' Goodreads
Reviewer, 'Full of fervour and the characters grow from beginning
to end! I could not put the book down!' NetGalley Reviewer, 'A book
that you won't want to put down. I loved all the characters and
where this book took me. A lovely read' NetGalley Reviewer, 'Was
desperate to see how it panned out... Very interesting reading it
from both sides rather than just your own country. Recommend it'
NetGalley Reviewer,
A spy navigates the labyrinthine horrors of Nazi Germany, on a
mission to save the woman he loves "Charyn's blunt, brilliantly
crafted prose bubbles with the pleasure of nailing life to the page
in just the right words. . . . [Cesare is] provocative, stimulating
and deeply satisfying." -Washington Post On a windy night in 1937,
a seventeen-year-old German naval sub-cadet is wandering along the
seawall when he stumbles upon a gang of ruffians beating up a
tramp, whose life he saves. The man is none other than spymaster
Wilhelm Canaris, chief of the Abwehr, German military intelligence.
Canaris adopts the young man and dubs him "Cesare" after the
character in the silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari for his
ability to break through any barrier as he eliminates the Abwehr's
enemies. Canaris is a man of contradictions who, while serving the
regime, seeks to undermine the Nazis and helps Cesare hide Berlin's
Jews from the Gestapo. But the Nazis will lure many to
Theresienstadt, a phony paradise in Czechoslovakia with sham
restaurants, novelty shops, and bakeries, a cruel ghetto and way
station to Auschwitz. When the woman Cesare loves, a member of the
Jewish underground, is captured and sent there, Cesare must find a
way to rescue her. Cesare is a literary thriller and a love story
born of the horrors of a country whose culture has died, whose
history has been warped, and whose soul has disappeared. Jerome
Charyn is the author of more than fifty works of fiction and
nonfiction. Among other honors, he has received the Rosenthal
Family Foundation Award for Fiction from the American Academy of
Arts and Letters and his novels have been selected as finalists for
the Firecracker Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Charyn
lives in New York.
'A heartbreaking portrait of an ordinary family shattered by a war
they didn't want' The Times They've wrecked the world, these men,
and still they're not done. They'd take the sky if they could.
Germany, 1945, and the bombs are falling. In Heidenfeld, Etta and
her husband Josef roam an empty nest: their eldest son Max is
fighting on the frontlines, while fifteen-year-old Georg has
swapped books for guns at a Nurnberg school for the Hitler Youth.
At home, news of the war provokes daily doses of fear as the planes
grow closer, taking one city after the next. When Max is
unexpectedly discharged, Etta is relieved to have her eldest home
and safe. But soon after he arrives, it's clear that the boy who
left is not the same returned. With Georg a hundred miles away and
a husband confronting his own difficult feelings toward patriotic
duty, Etta alone must gather the pieces of a splintering family,
determined to hold them together in the face of an uncertain
future.
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Magnus
(Paperback)
Sylvie Germain; Translated by Christine Donougher
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R260
Discovery Miles 2 600
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Magnus is a deeply moving and enigmatic novel about the Holocaust.
Magnus is a man searching for his own identity, attempting to piece
together the complex puzzle of his life. But his true story turns
out to be closer to a painting by Edward Munch than the romantic
tale of family heroism and self-sacrifice on which he was nurtured
by the woman he believed was his mother. In Magnus, Sylvie Germain
uses imagination and intuition to unlock the enigma of human life
and confer on history the power of myth and fable.
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We Germans
(Hardcover)
Alexander Starritt
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R806
R703
Discovery Miles 7 030
Save R103 (13%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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