Showing results for "Genre" in 20th Century

The island of Tarawa, a tiny spit of sand out in the middle of the Pacific, teemed with five hundred pillboxes filled with artillery pieces and highly motivated Japanese soldiers. Their commanding officer encouraged his troops, saying, “It would take one million men one hundred years” to conquer Tarawa. They were convinced that the Americans would be slaughtered before they ever got ashore.

In the bustling heart of London’s East End, Maisie, Amanda and Bethan work long hours at the uniform factory. The pay is poor, the shifts relentless and the bombs fall far too close for comfort ­– but these three women refuse to give in to despair. For when not at the factory, the girls spend their days on the markets of Petticoat Lane, trying to source material in order to make dresses ­– doing their best to bring any small amount of joy in these troubled times. When a chance encounter leads them to a bundle of parachute silk, they decide to think bigger.

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He's a normal Italian teenager - obsessed with music, food, and girls - but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior. In an attempt to protect him, Pino's parents force him to enlist as a German soldier - a move they think will keep him out of combat.

Thirteen-year-old Lisa has escaped from Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport. She arrives in London unable to speak a word of English, her few belongings crammed into a small suitcase. Among them is one precious photograph of the family she has left behind. Lonely and homesick, Lisa is adopted by a childless couple. But when the Blitz blows her new home apart, she wakes up in hospital with no memory of who she is or where she came from. The authorities give her a new name and dispatch her to a children's home. With the war raging around her, what will become of Lisa now?

Bristol, 1939. School leaver Maisie Miles suspects her father, a small-time crook, has an ulterior motive for insisting she gets a job at the W. D. & H. O. Wills tobacco factory but keeps it to herself. She's befriended by effervescent Phyllis Mason and kind-hearted Bridget Milligan who take pity on her and take Maisie under their wing. But beneath their happy-go-lucky exteriors, they all harbour dreams and worries about what the future holds.

Following the death of her controlling husband, Margaret Routledge is no longer the downtrodden church mouse she once was. Now she’s the talk of the Close, frequenting seedy pubs and clubs where men gather to pick up good-time girls. It seems Margaret is past redemption until she sees neighbour Jenny Crawford’s headstrong 16-year-old daughter Gloria on the arm of a man of ill repute, and her motherly instincts return. By contrast, Jenny's eldest, land girl Tilly, has a heart of gold, but trouble brews when she helps a vulnerable mother and child with a dangerous past...

Born into privilege to one of the last Ottoman pashas, beautiful, spirited Selva is the brightest jewel in her father’s household - until she falls in love with Rafael Alfandari. Though Turkey has long been a safe haven for Jews, marriage between a high-ranking Muslim girl and a Jewish boy is strictly forbidden. Yet young love will not be denied, and Selva and Rafael defy their parents and marry, fleeing to Paris in hopes of a better life - only to find themselves trapped in the path of the invading Nazis.

Die Brüder Karl und Paul Effinger brechen aus Süddeutschland nach Berlin auf, um Schrauben zu produzieren. Dort heiraten sie in die alteingesessene Familie Oppner ein, es gelingt der gesellschaftlicher Aufstieg. Doch spätestens nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg beginnen die bürgerlichen Gewissheiten zu bröckeln. Auch die prachtvollen Feste können nicht mehr über den sich immer brutaler äußernden Antisemitismus in der Gesellschaft hinwegtäuschen. Die Auflehnung der jungen Generation wirbelt die gutbürgerliche Familie zusätzlich durcheinander.

Güstrow, Mai 1945: Die 14-jährige Marlen liegt zusammengekauert in der Schublade einer alten Bauernkommode in einem verlassenen Forsthaus. Wilma, eine der wichtigsten Künstlerinnen der Nachkriegszeit, wird langsam blind. Berlin, 2023: Hannah Borowski ist 34 Jahre alt und eigentlich ist alles gut, wenn ihre beste Freundin Rubi nicht plötzlich ausziehen würde, weil sie schwanger ist. Und wenn nicht plötzlich Hannahs Vater wieder aufgetaucht wäre.

Seemingly overnight, the German blitzkrieg of Warsaw in 1939 turns its streets to a war zone and shatters the life of each citizen - Polish, Jewish, or otherwise. Sophie Kumiega, a British bride working in the city's library, awaits news of her husband, Janek, recently deployed with the Polish Air Force. Though Sophie is determined that she and the baby in her womb will stay safe, the days ahead will draw her into the plight of those around her, compelling her to help, whatever the danger.

1939, Poland: Would you save a child in a warzone? Marcin is just hoping to keep himself safe during the Nazi invasion. But once he befriends his Jewish neighbors, his fate is sealed, and when their building is raided by the Nazis, Marcin finds himself hiding their son, Adam. Marcin vows to keep Adam safe at all costs. But as he starts an impossible journey across the borders of wartorn Europe towards safety, he begins to realize Adam isn’t the only child who needs his help. And when they encounter more orphaned children in hiding, Marcin becomes determined to save as many as possible.

In a history where war's darkness intertwines with ancient terrors, John Cody and the soldiers by his side fight a hopeless battle across a darkened 1940s Europe. What begins as a quest to liberate a fallen world quickly reveals an even deeper nightmare: towns and cities swallowed by silence, histories erased, and an unearthly presence lurking in the void.

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.

At Heim Hochland, a Nazi breeding home in Bavaria, three women’s fates are irrevocably intertwined. Gundi is a pregnant university student from Berlin. An Aryan beauty, she’s secretly a member of a resistance group. Hilde, only eighteen, is a true believer in the cause and is thrilled to carry a Nazi official’s child. And Irma, a forty-four-year-old nurse, is desperate to build a new life for herself after personal devastation. All three have everything to lose.

Rachel, the mother of the aging professor Thomas Vanderlinden, shared her life with two men. Both went by the name of Rowland Vanderlinden. The first husband went abroad and never returned. The second, whom Rachel also unquestioningly accepted as her husband, was a mystery. In an attempt to understand his mother's adventurous decisions regarding love and marriage, Thomas sets out on a journey to the far reaches of the Pacific to find the first Rowland, and his real father. As the mystery of the two Rowlands unfolds throughout the novel, so too does a fascinating portrait.

Catherine wrestles with self-pity after a machine-shop accident. With her fiancé and brothers on the front lines in France, she must find a new way to fight on the home front. At her side are her steadfast GWR friends, among them Maggie, facing the loss of her father and family home, and Lily, desperate for news of her childhood sweetheart. All are determined to keep morale high and do their bit to win the war.

Seventeen-year-old Maddie has grown up in a boarding house on one of Blackpool's poorest streets. Life is busy, but happy, as she works alongside her mother taking care of their visitors. But when war breaks out, her happiness is shattered as her fiancé is called up to fight for his country, and suddenly Maddie's future is filled with uncertainty.

Following the death of his beloved father, Arthur is sent to Canada for safety with a group of evacuees on the eve of the Second World War. Alone and afraid, plagued with seasickness, and an unknown future, he can't imagine things getting any worse. Far from what he feared, Arthur is welcomed with warmth and kindness. But even on the other side of the world, the war can’t be escaped and before long, his new family are touched by it too. Faced with another dramatic change in his life, everything starts to change again for Arthur.

Britain is in the throes of war, but Katharina Valentine feels sidelined. Employed as a shorthand-typist in the War Office, she is transferred to the basement below – having had no idea that this dark, airless, underground maze, home of the top-secret Cabinet War Rooms, even existed, let alone what her work will entail. Unexpected staff shortages present an opportunity to work directly for Winston Churchill himself, and Katie jumps at the chance. And as she grows closer to Wing Commander Baxter Edwards, things start to look up…

After having given up her baby at seventeen, Sonya is inspired by her work at an orphanage to discover what happened to her daughter twenty-five years ago. Reunited, they struggle to bond whilst braving the war together. Nurse Lily has returned to St Ives to finish training as a midwife. But when old flame Tristan is brought in wounded, she must put the past firmly to bed in order to care for him. And working at Tristan’s convalescent home, Mary longs for the romance she reads of in her novels. But her overprotective mother is making that more difficult at every turn.