Showing results for "Biographical Stories" in Genre Fiction

Born into the factious world of war-torn Arabia, Muhammad's life is a gripping and inspiring story of one man's tireless fight for unity and peace. In a world where greed and injustice ruled, Muhammad created change by affecting hearts and minds. Just as the story of Jesus embodies the message of Christianity, Muhammad's life reveals the core of Islam. Deepak Chopra shares the life of Muhammad as never before, putting his teachings in a new light.

This is A Madman's Diary, and Other Stories by Lu Xun, a renowned writer of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun was a novelist, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, and poet who wrote both in Vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese. He became the titular head of the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai in the 1930s.

Tadeusz Borowski’s concentration camp stories were based on his own experiences surviving Auschwitz and Dachau. In spare, brutal prose he describes a world where where the will to survive overrides compassion, and prisoners eat, work, and sleep a few yards from where others are murdered; where the difference between human beings is reduced to a second bowl of soup, an extra blanket, or the luxury of a pair of shoes with thick soles; and where the line between normality and abnormality vanishes.

USA TODAY BESTSELLER "Tate blends fact and fiction with elegance...A captivating, emotionally resonant portrait of a singular woman who refused to be diminished." — LIBRARY JOURNAL "Tate has a rare gift for storytelling that strikes straight to the heart." — SADEQA JOHNSON, New York Times...

From the author of A Most English Princess comes a rich novel about young Princess Alix of Hesse—the future Alexandra, last Empress of Imperial Russia—and her sister, Princess Ella. Their decision to marry into the Romanov royal family changed history. They were granddaughters of Queen...

From the acclaimed author of Speak comes a kaleidoscopic novel about Robert Oppenheimer—father of the atomic bomb—as told by seven fictional characters. J. Robert Oppenheimer was a brilliant scientist, a champion of liberal causes, and a complex and often contradictory character. He loyally...

Good things happen when your life is freed from the restrictions of gravity and time. Jake Spinner is a modern-day Don Quixote mixed in with a large dose of Winnie the Pooh.

In 1963 Sylvia Plath took her own life in her London flat. Her death was the culmination of a brief, brilliant life lived in the shadow of clinical depression—a condition exacerbated by her tempestuous relationship with mercurial poet Ted Hughes. The ensuing years saw Plath rise to martyr status while Hughes was cast as the cause of her suicide, his infidelity at the heart of her demise. For decades, Hughes never bore witness to the truth of their marriage—one buried beneath a mudslide of apocryphal stories, gossip, sensationalism, and myth. Until now.

After eight months as a maid of court, Catherine Howard has become Queen. Separated from past friends and surrounded by people who resent her rise to the throne, the sole close companion she has left is Jane Boleyn, the infamous Lady Rochford. And this is not the only strain upon Catherine. People from her past come calling, the threat that the King may find out she is not the pure, innocent maiden he thinks she is puts her in peril. Catherine must imitate the Queens of the past in order to survive.

Java Island, 1941. Six-year-old Rita Vischer cowers in her family’s dug-out bomb shelter, listening to the sirens and waiting for a bomb to fall. Her charmed life on Java—living with other Dutch families—had always been peaceful, but when Holland declares war on Japan and the Japanese army invades Indonesia, Rita’s family is forced to relocate to a POW camp, and Rita must help care for her little brother, Georgie.

“Perfect for fans of Grace Kelly, royal-watchers, and fans of biographical fiction alike."—PopSugar A Library Reads Pick and Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choice! A life in snapshots… Grace knows what people see. She’s the Cinderella story. An icon of glamor and elegance frozen in...

"Die Schule ist die einzige moderne Kulturfrage, die ich ernst nehme und die mich gelegentlich aufregt. An mir hat die Schule viel kaputt gemacht, und ich kenne wenig bedeutende Persönlichkeiten, denen es nicht ähnlich ging." So Hermann Hesse über sein viel diskutiertes Werk an einen seiner Brüder, der sich später - nicht zuletzt aufgrund in der Schulzeit gelegter Probleme - umbrachte.

On a windy night in 1937, a 17-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.

It is 1948, and post-war Britain is on her knees. The call has gone out to the British Empire for volunteers to help rebuild the Mother Country, and young men and women from across the Caribbean have been quick to respond, paying the considerable sum of £28.10s to board HMT Empire Windrush. As five hundred disparate passengers begin the two-week voyage, it becomes clear that their lives will never be the same again.

Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Sir Edward Leithen is told that he has but one year left to live. He relinquishes his law practice and resigns from public office in order to make peace with himself and to reconcile himself with his maker. However, he also wants to die standing, not to creep into the 'bleak bag's end of life'. This will involve one last physical challenge.

Europe, on the eve of the Second World War, and a Jewish family feels the Nazi danger closing in. Led by their indomitable mother, Marie, the Reesers make a daring escape from under the watchful eyes of the Gestapo, fleeing their comfortable home in Czechoslovakia to safety and a new life in Canada. Their lives are saved, but all else is lost, including four beautiful and valuable paintings that Marie loved.

Nach dem verheerenden Schul-Amoklauf, bei dem auch ihre beste Freundin getötet wurde, will Sina kein Abi mehr machen, einfach weg und nur vergessen. Selbst ihre enge Bindung zu Liam, ihr einziger Halt, gibt sie auf. Als sie Tom kennenlernt und sich verliebt, fühlt Sina sich wieder geborgen. Doch Toms Verhalten wird immer toxischer. Er kontrolliert und gaslightet sie, sodass absolute Wachsamkeit, um keinen falschen Schritt zu tun, zu ihrer Überlebensstrategie wird. Bis sie Liam nach Jahren wiedertrifft. Er macht ihr klar, dass Tom Gift für sie ist. Aber kann Liam sie noch so lesen wie früher?

In death, she would become infamous, yet in life passed often unseen. Jane Parker, daughter of the scholar Lord Morley, leaves her home at a tender age, embarking on a career in the dangerous Tudor Court. From the halls of her father's house to the palaces of London, from England to Calais and the Field of the Cloth of Gold Jane will travel, seeing much of this world, and others.

The true story of 14-year-old Lucy who survived the concentration camp of Auschwitz. LUCY DEUTSCH (born Lucy Lebovitz in 1930 in a village in the Karpathian mountains) was 14 years old when was deported to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau with her parents and three siblings. While her mother and two younger siblings went straight to the crematorium, Lucy could escape the gas chamber by pretending to be eighteen years old. Lucy’s strength and faith of a better future ahead helped her to survive the unimaginable cruelty of the Nazi machinery in the concentration camp.

Rönne, ein junger Arzt, fährt mit dem Zug durch Deutschland, um in einer entfernt gelegenen medizinischen Anstalt den Chefarzt zu vertreten. Doch statt sich den Patienten zu widmen, verliert Rönne nach und nach den Bezug zur Realität und versinkt in sich selbst. Er muss die Klinik wieder verlassen und begibt sich, dem Wahnsinn verfallen, auf Reisen. Die in den vier Rönne-Novellen beschriebene Kälte und Verlorenheit ist von Benns persönlichen Erfahrungen als Arzt und Sanitätsoffizier geprägt: "Ich lebte am Rande, wo das Dasein fällt und das Ich beginnt." Rolf Becker gibt den vier kurzen Prosatexten eine Stimme.