|
|
Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > War fiction
It is 1940, the Blitz is raging over London and other key cities in
Britain and tens of thousands of children are being evacuated to
safe havens, both within the UK and the Commonwealth. Patricia is
six-years-old when she is squirrelled away in an evacuation school
deep in the heart of Shropshire. She is left there with the promise
from her parents that 'the war will be over very soon and then you
can come home'. The 'very soon' lengthens into five long years.
This book chronicles the challenges, adventures and misadventures,
the triumphs, tragedies and angst that face Patricia.
Set amid the social turmoil of the late sixties, "Right to Kill"
is a Brooklyn tale about street smart characters, loyalty, romance,
gritty combat, murder, and a touch of humor - all contributing to
epic moral dilemma.
A law student from a blue-collar neighborhood, Sean Cercone,
puts his life on hold to join the Marine Corps. He makes his way
from Gravesend, Brooklyn through Marine officer training and onto
the blood soaked fields of Quang Tri. The crucible of vicious
combat in Vietnam and a senseless killing back home crush his moral
compass.
Sean makes a clandestine trip out of the war zone back to his
neighborhood to carry out vengeful mission and subsequently returns
undetected to Vietnam. Coming home a second time damaged in body
and mind, his family, boyhood friends, a war widow, and a holocaust
survivor all try to help him attain peace and move on with his
life.
Fifteen-year-old Weston Newcomb is fairly surprised when he
passes the early entrance exam into the university at Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, in May of 1943. But the escape from his home in
Loris is welcome. Skipping his senior year at a small town high
school, West is now somewhat at a disadvantage, both in youth and
in education at this large university.
In his first class, he encounters a strangely antagonistic
professor, a specialist in Thomas Wolfe, who complicates his life.
However, his classmates give him a much broader education. Each new
acquaintance seems to have lived a life startlingly different from
his own. Self-centered and solipsistic but hungry for skills to
serve others, West encounters a gamut of friendships as he
stumbles, fumbles, and struggles toward social and sexual
adulthood.
Counterpoint to his progress are the guns of World War II. Nazis
have invaded Poland, the Japanese have struck Pearl Harbor, and
atrocities engulf the planet. Only gradually does West perceive the
importance of the war. He integrates personal growth and a
discovery of authoritarianism at its worst. He experiences the dark
midnight of FDR's death and the bright noon of war's end. He finds
his chance for manhood in a world he must help to rebuild. West
learns that war is hell, but so is growing up.
When Mark, an American soldier serving in Germany in the early
1950s, meets Lauren, a young German girl, their lives change
forever. But love is never easy, and for these two it may well be
impossible. In a world still reeling from the horrors of war and
genocide, the budding love between a Jewish soldier and a German
Catholic girl is controversial and dangerous.
It is a time in history that demands the same dedication and
focus on duty as in the war years. Both of the lovers are pressured
from all sides, and each feels the impossibility of their love-but
neither can deny or forget it. Mark is faced with military duty, a
possible court martial, and a threatening sociopath. Lauren is
expected to play the role of the dutiful German daughter who
follows the path dictated by her father. In addition to her
obligations to her father, she is expected to focus only on school,
work, her church, and her duty to country.
Their very different backgrounds stand as obstacles they can't
disregard. Neither is so naive as to ignore the considerable
cultural and societal pressure they face. But the heart does not
always listen to logic, and soon they are irresistibly drawn
together-come what may.
Despite all the many forces they face, can they find the
strength to stay together in a world that propels them apart?
"Carl and I must make twenty trips back and forth carrying wounded
to those who can offer comfort and medical aid. Each time I look at
our litter-now covered with blood and gore-and wonder whether we've
done our bit in time. Others scurry about clearing the aftermath of
the battle. Burial details are already working to inter the dead
before daylight and scavengers descend on this killing ground. The
smell is worse than any hog butchering I was ever a party to.
Already I can hear the buzz of flies and see the beady little eyes
of small animals drawn to the smell of fresh blood. We stand over
one soldier writhing in this "sacred ground" as the sergeant called
it and lift him ever so gently onto the litter. These men's blood
may make the ground sacred, but by now I can see this place for
what it actually is-a sea of Virginia mud trying to clutch and
claim the dying. This wounded boy wears the blue of the Feds. He's
calling out a name and reaching toward me, grasping at me with his
trembling fingers as I lean closer. A strange feeling of
comradeship comes to me when I realize how like my own fellow
soldiers this Yankee fighter looks-just another man doing his duty,
whatever his beliefs may be."
 |
Sundog
(Hardcover)
Jeff Janoda
|
R1,258
Discovery Miles 12 580
|
Ships in 18 - 22 working days
|
|
|
From "one of the most distinguished writers of modern Italy" (New
York Review of Books), a classic novel of society in the midst of a
war. This powerful novel is set against the background of Italy
from 1939 to 1944, from the anxious months before the country
entered the war, through the war years, to the allied victory with
its trailing wake of anxiety, disappointment, and grief. In the
foreground are the members of two families. One is rich, the other
is not. In All Our Yesterdays, as in all of Ms. Ginzburg's novels,
terrible things happen--suicide, murder, air raids, and bombings.
But seemingly less overwhelming events, like a family quarrel,
adultery, or a deception, are given equal space, as if to say that,
to a victim, adultery and air raids can be equally maiming. All Our
Yesterdays gives a sharp portrait of a society hungry for change,
but betrayed by war. During the period described in the novel,
Natalia Ginzburg was married to the writer Leone Ginzburg. Because
of his underground activities, he was interned under Mussolini's
reign, along with his family, in a restricted area in the Abruzzi.
When the Ginzburgs later moved to Rome, Leone was arrested and
tortured by the fascists, and killed, leaving Natalia alone to
raise her three children. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our
Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a
broad range of books for readers interested in fiction--novels,
novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire,
historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery,
classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics
including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While
not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a
national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are
sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise
find a home.
|
You may like...
A Gentle Rage
Gregory Gessner
Hardcover
R635
Discovery Miles 6 350
|