Showing titles in 20th Century

1939. The threat of war is looming over Blackpool, but Martha and Trisha are determined not to let it dampen their spirits. With two young evacuees for Martha to take care of, and Trisha's market garden business growing as Britain digs for victory, the friends have their hands full. Both are proud to see their daughters making their own way in the world, even in wartime. Sally has become a ballerina and Bonnie is training to become a doctor. The girls' friendship brings them all happiness and hope. But Martha is troubled by her visions for their daughters' futures.

In August 1943, Sergeant Craddock leads his battle-weary platoon down Via Garibaldi in Catania, Sicily. Struck by the oppressive heat and the alien new surroundings, the men soon settle into this lull in their combat experience. The next few weeks take on a dreamlike quality as newfound relationships flourish and the war itself - let alone homelife in Britain - recedes into the distance. Against this backdrop, the second book of Alexander Baron's War Trilogy meditates upon friendship, loyalty and love.

Spanning the Sicilian countryside to the brothels of Ostend, and the final book in Alexander Baron's War Trilogy, The Human Kind is a series of pithy vignettes reflective of the author's own wartime experiences. From the interminable days of training in Britain to brutal combat across north-west Europe, the book depicts many of the men, women - and, in some cases, children - affected by the widespread reach of the Second World War.

Nach dem BILD-Bestseller "Emilies Weg" kommt die emotionale Geschichte um die Bewohner von Gestüt Sommerroth und die letzten Trakehner Pferde zu einem bewegenden Ende. Ein halbes Jahr nach Kriegsende gehört Gut Sommerroth endlich Emilie und ihrem Johann. Zur Ruhe kommt das Paar trotzdem nicht, denn ein strenger Winter naht und der letzte Wunsch von Emilies Vater ist noch immer unerfüllt. Um die heimische Trakehnerzucht in seinem Sinne weiterzuführen, muss sie die berühmten ostpreußischen Züchter finden. Haben sie den Krieg überlebt? Trotz ihrer Schwangerschaft begibt Emilie sich auf die gefahrvolle Suche.

Kay Lynn Brooke is a wife and mother in Berkeley, California, building a solid future with her husband and family. Then on December 7, 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor throws Kay Lynn’s life, and the lives of everyone she knows and loves, into chaos.

Hampshire, 1916: Alice traces her hand over the cold glass of the window as the pale morning light slips into the empty room. The pain of loss is worse than a physical one. Reminders of Edmund are all around her. The coldness of the sheet on the other half of the bed. The unrelenting silence in the cottage when her stepdaughter Lottie is at school or tucked up asleep at the end of another day. Keeping up with their stained-glass commissions takes every ounce of her strength, and as Lottie becomes more withdrawn, Alice worries desperately about how best to care for the troubled girl.

Growing up a misfit in Nazi Germany, a victim of his father's beatings, Oskar's love of books is a constant comfort in a world turned upside-down by violence. As a student, as a pilot in the brutal Luftwaffe during the Second World War, in an unhappy marriage to an English bride, he finds himself returning over and over to the circumstances of his childhood. What was the source and cause of his father's abuse? Could there have been more to it than he had once believed?

In Paris 1940, survival means sacrifice. Like most in the city, Detective Eddie Giral has already lost so much under Occupation: the people he once loved, the job he once believed in. And his latest investigation into the murder of a black-marketeer has made it clearer than ever: Eddie is no longer just catching criminals. He's working for them. Because when a German trader is the next to die, the authorities decide it's innocent civilians who will pay the price - unless Eddie can find the killer in time.

Trixie and Vi are back in Gosport and doing their bit to help Britain win the war. Felling trees is backbreaking, but at least they know they're doing vital work. Trixie has a new boyfriend, Eddie. He's charming, handsome, and always flush with cash - a real Gosport catch, though Vi isn't so sure. Something about Eddie doesn't seem quite right, and Vi will do anything to convince Trixie that she's making a mistake with this relationship. Though Trixie loves Eddie, she finds it hard to forget Cy, the man she fell in love with at the start of the War, who was declared missing in action.

Eighty-year-old Mieke Geborn’s life is one of quiet routine. Widowed for many years, she enjoys the view from her home on the New Jersey shore, visits with friends, and tai chi at the local retirement community. But when her beloved grandson, Will, and his wife, Teru, show up for a visit, things are soon upended. Their marriage is threatening to unravel, and Will has questions for his grandmother—questions about family secrets that have been lost for decades and are now finally rising to the surface.

It was a match made in champagne-soaked heaven, but all too soon the bubbles dried up and divorce papers were issued just in time to ring in the end of the Great War. Jewel thieves and ex-lovers Jasper and Esme find themselves circulating among the elite of British aristocracy where the diamond-lined pockets are ripe for picking. But when the last Valkyrie tiara ever created becomes the talk of the season neither will stop to obtain it, not even when they inadvertently find themselves in the middle of a game of cat-and-mouse where their lives are suddenly at stake.

From bestselling author Kirsty Manning comes a stunning novel based on a true story of clandestine courage in World War II as prisoners of war risk their lives to secure evidence of Nazi atrocities—and how one man concealed it for decades before passing it on to his family who struggle to understand their inherited legacy of trauma.

Having grown up surrounded by nature, Bella Gardner loves nothing more than getting her hands dirty. When war breaks out, she immediately signs up for the Air Transport Auxiliary, frustrated she can’t play a more active role, yet keen to do something for the war effort. But when her brother is involved in a tragic accident, Bella must make a decision that changes the course of her life forever.

Ein bewegender Roman über die Suche nach Heimat und Glück: das Finale der Fremde-Heimat-Reihe von Bestsellerautorin Sibel Daniel 1951: Die willensstarke Alma hat mit ihrer Familie die Umsiedlung nach Polen und die furchtbare Flucht vor der Roten Armee überlebt. Dass Janos und sie sich wiedergefunden haben, ist ihr großes Glück. Doch Alma spürt, dass Deutschland ihr keine neue Heimat werden kann. Es ist die Liebe, die ihr die Kraft gibt, weiter von einem Leben als Winzerin zu träumen. Sie weist ihr den Weg nach Amerika: Mit Janos, der kleinen Maria sowie den Brüdern Alwin und August besteigt Alma ein Schiff nach New York.

Die Freiheit unter den Pinien. 1944 an der Côte d’Azur: Die Künstlerin Marguerite wird vom britischen Geheimdienst angeworben, um sich mit dem örtlichen Priester anzufreunden. Über Etienne soll sie an Informationen über die deutschen Offiziere, die seine Kirche besuchen, gelangen. Doch damit, dass sie sich in den Priester verlieben würde, hat Marguerite nicht gerechnet. Zumal ihre Verbindung sie beide zunehmend in Gefahr bringt. Denn Marguerite bewahrt ein Geheimnis – eines, das sie selbst dem Mann, den sie liebt, nicht anzuvertrauen vermag.

As war rages and brave soldiers returning home from the frontline need nurses more than ever, fiercely proud redhead Sylvia Roberts is determined to help in any way she can. In spite of her mother’s belief she isn’t good enough, Sylvia believes that becoming a home front nurse is her calling. Together with the two friends she makes on her first day in the job – Freda and Veronica – she knows she can help save lives. And, as the devastation of war shows no signs of ceasing, their work becomes ever more vital.

Novelist, poet and critic Kingsley Amis was one of Britain’s greatest postwar writers. A master of comic fiction, he came to fame in 1954, and won the 1986 Booker Prize for The Old Devils. Included in this collection are dramatisations of seven of his short stories and two novels, all imbued with his characteristic wit and social satire. These are complemented by readings of selected correspondence and an interview with Amis himself.

London: 1968. Liz Houghton is languishing as an obituary writer at a London newspaper when a young girl’s disappearance captivates the city. If Liz can break the story, it’s her way into the newsroom. She already has a scoop: Her best friend Marisa is a police officer who is assigned to the case. Liz follows Marisa to Dorset, where they make another disturbing discovery. Twenty-five years ago, three girls disappeared while evacuating from London during the Blitz. One was found murdered in the woods near a train line. The other two were never seen again.

Cleo Jaffray was an American. A war in Europe had nothing to do with her. She told herself that right up until the man she loved went missing in Poland and Cleo was forced to turn to the only person who might be able to help—her aunt Daisy, the US Minister to Norway. Daisy Harriman has never shied away from a challenge, be it canvassing for women’s suffrage or driving Red Cross ambulances in WWI, so as only the second woman ambassador, she is determined to prove the naysayers wrong and succeed in her post.

Home alone one morning, Sheldon witnesses a dispute between the woman who lives upstairs and an aggressive stranger. When events turn dire, Sheldon seizes and shields the neighbor’s young son from the violence, and they flee the scene. As Sheldon and the boy look for a safe haven in an alien world, past and present weave together, forcing them ever forward to a wrenching moment of truth.