"Told with attention to historical fact and channeling actual personalities of the era, Swan Song should interest both music lovers and lovers of a fast-paced historical novel." -Addie R. Appelbaum, St. Petersburg Opera Guild, Vice-President of Programming Ursula Becker's operatic star is on the rise in Nazi Berlin...until she discovers that she is one-quarter Jewish. Although Hitler is aware of her lineage, her popularity and exquisite voice protect her and her family from persecution. When William Patrick Hitler arrives in Germany and is offered employment by his Uncle Adolf, a chance encounter with Ursula leads to a romantic relationship that further shields the young diva from mistreatment. But for how long? Ursula is ordered to sing at Hitler's Berghof estate where she throws down a gauntlet that unleashes the wrath of the megalomaniacal leader. Fearing for her life, Ursula and Willy decide to emigrate to England. But as the ship is about to sail, Ursula disappears. Willy crosses the globe in an effort to find her, even as his uncle taunts him, relishing in the horror of the murderous cat-and-mouse game.

Dis 1899 en alles dui daarop dat oorlog tussen Boer en Brit onafwendbaar is. Emma moet kies tussen twee mans, die een ’n jeugvriend en die ander ’n joernalis wat vir die vyand werk. Daarom moet sy eintlik ook vir of teen haar volk kies. Is haar liefde sterk genoeg om die oorlog te oorleef en regverdig dit die opoffering wat sy moet maak vir hierdie opwindende, Boheemse man? Emma volg haar hart en verlaat die Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek voor die oorlog begin om haar in Engeland te vestig saam met die man van haar drome. Kort voor lank besef sy dat mense nie altyd is wat hulle voorgee om te wees nie. Na ’n traumatiese paar jaar in die buiteland keer sy terug na haar oorlogsgeteisterde vaderland. Sy besluit dat sy alles in haar vermoe sal doen om haar mense hulle versplinterde lewe te help heelmaak.

From the moment they met in 1940 in Ravensbrück concentration camp, Milena Jesenska and Margarete Buber-Neumann were inseparable. Czech Milena was Kafka’s first translator and epistolary lover, and a journalist opposed to fascism. A non-conformist, bi-sexual feminist, she was way ahead of her time. With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, her home became a central meeting place for Jewish refugees. German Margarete, born to a middle-class family, married the son of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. But soon swept up in the fervor of the Bolshevik Revolution, she met her second partner, the Communist Heinz Neumann. Called to Moscow for his “political deviations,” he fell victim to Stalin’s purges while Margarete was exiled to the hell of the Soviet gulag. Two years later, traded by Stalin to Hitler, she ended up outside Berlin in Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp built for women.

Milena and Margarete loved each other at the risk of their lives. But in the post-war survivors’ accounts, lesbians were stigmatized, and survivors kept silent. This book explores those silences, and finally celebrates two strong women who never gave up and continue to inspire. As Margaret wrote: “I was thankful for having been sent to Ravensbrück, because it was there I met Milena.”