Showing results for "The War" in City Life

It is 1943 in Nazi-occupied Paris, and nobody is safe. Nobody, except perhaps one small group of people, who’ve always existed outside the law… At Le Cirque Casini, the trapeze artists still fly. The strong men still perform amazing feats. The sad-faced clowns still make people laugh, even in a city with a broken heart. The Nazis do not trouble them, as long as they keep the people happy and entertained.

After years behind bars, Alex is finally free and determined to go straight. No more trouble, no more deals—just a clean slate for him and his family and a legit life running his old pub. But the streets don’t forget, and neither do old enemies. Coming home isn’t the reunion he hoped for. With his daughter Deana missing, Alex discovers the kids have dragged the wrong kind of trouble to his doorstep. A turf war is brewing and for the first time in his life, Alex is on the losing side.

Life-long friends Louisa, Jeannie and Kate are following in the footsteps of their families, working at the Clarks shoe factory. But when Britain declares war on Germany, the Somerset village of Street is shaken to its core. The Clarks factory is at the heart of life in the village, but the Clark family are Quakers and pacifists. Before long, there are fierce debates amongst the workers and tensions between those who oppose the war and those who believe the village men should go to fight.

‘A fierce, big-hearted novel.’ Joe Treasure, author of The Book of Air ‘Pushes us to find our kinder selves.’ Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You ‘A wonderful book.’ Maurice Wren, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council One of the Guardian’s Readers’ Books of the...

London, 1946. Struggling to cope with the idea of raising her daughter in a hostile environment, African Caribbean nurse Hope makes the difficult decision to entrust her precious baby to her best friend, Eunice, to take back home to Antigua. But their plan goes disastrously wrong. In the decades that follow, all of them will witness - and play a part in - the seismic changes rocking the British Isles, as the old establishment crumbles, immigration builds and the country adjusts to the realities of a post-war, post-colonial future.

England, 1940. Only given two days leave after barely escaping Nazi troops in Paris, Lily Baker visits her fiancé’s family and is dismayed to learn he’s still missing in action. And going from an exciting overseas telephonist post to a routine office assignment leaves her bored… until the Blitz begins. Joining the Air Raid Protection service, Lily’s perilous new role puts her on the chaotic frontlines of deadly shelling and scared crowds turning hostile. But despite her heroism, she is plagued by guilt when she starts feeling attracted to a fellow A.R.P. member.

Kitty and Tom Conlon arrive in Liverpool in July 1916 to claim the house Tom’s great-uncle has bequeathed him in his will. The move to England couldn’t have come at a better time. Dublin is in turmoil following the Easter Uprising and Kitty’s brother is now in prison. The house in Weaver Street is all they hoped for, and after a shaky start with her new neighbours, Kitty believes the world is her oyster. Until that is, Tom is conscripted into the navy. With Tom away, it’s up to Kitty and the women of Weaver Street to get each other through the war.