Showing titles in World War II & Holocaust

Amelia is shattered from an unimaginable loss when she seizes a chance to escape to a remote Italian village. But shortly after arriving at the sun-drenched castello, Amelia discovers a trunk hidden in the basement, and beneath tissue-wrapped evening gowns that still carry the scent of violets, she finds a set of leather-bound diaries and charcoal sketches belonging to a woman called Flavia.

Alle sieben Jahre blüht der Wald. Von der Mutter gedrängt, heiratet sie mit 21 in eine angesehene Familie, obwohl sie einen anderen liebt. Ganz anders ihre Schulfreundin Burgi, die früh der Enge ihres Elternhauses entflieht und ihrem Drang nach Freiheit unbeirrt folgt. Beide Frauen zahlen einen hohen Preis, um ein selbstbestimmtes Leben zu führen. Aber sie gehen konsequent ihren Weg.

Oslo, 1938. Johanna von Fehrsburg hat in Norwegen mit Sven ein neues Leben aufgebaut. Doch der Schatten des nationalsozialistischen Deutschlands reicht weit. Als ihr Bruder Karl-Georg eine gefährliche Widerstandsmission plant, nimmt Johanna gegen dessen Willen seinen Platz ein. In Berlin taucht sie unter falscher Identität in eine Stadt ein, die sie kaum wiedererkennt. Während sie im Auftrag des Widerstands Informationen sammelt, begegnet sie Moritz – dem Mann, der ihr einst das Herz brach.

After losing her husband, Bradley, in the Titanic disaster, Florence Cumings' heartache is far from over. Her teenage son, Wells, is killed in the WWI battle of Belleau Wood while defending France with the Allies. Two decades later, her second husband, Chess, dies of influenza shortly before her eldest son, Jack, succumbs to the effects of injuries sustained in the Great War. Now, in the midst of WWII, Florence lives alone in New York City until her granddaughter Eva comes to stay with her.

A beautifully written tale based on the true-life story of Varian Fry, called "the artists' Schindler," who rescued thousands of Europe's finest creative minds from certain death in WWII. In 2000, Sophie Cass, an ambitious journalist, may have finally found her big break. Convinced a celebrated...

'A fast-paced, beautifully written, and moving story. Refreshing to read a book set in a different theatre of war. Wartime Shanghai jumped off the page' CLARE FLYNN 'Wow what a stunning read this was … All the moments in this book held me' Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Unputdownable read'...

A debut novel by the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Light of Days, following two very different Jewish women in Warsaw in the late 1930s as they unexpectedly come together in their search for love, meaning, and a sense of home, and as they grapple with the storm...

Nick Turnhouse is now a senior captain, some two thirds of the way up the List, perhaps as little as five years short of automatic promotion to Rear Admiral. As such, he must accept more responsibility, and he will be expected to offer more than blind obedience to his orders. It is time to...

Sicily, 1939. Seventeen-year-old Concetta has just received life-changing news: her family is leaving their sun-drenched Sicilian village and moving to America. Desperate to stay with her secret love Gaetano—a fisherman's son her father would never accept—Concetta spends one last night with him beneath a blanket of stars. There, among the citrus-scented air and cricket song, he hands her a leaving gift: a fountain pen, with a promise to keep their love alive through letters – and return to one another one day.

Nobody leaves Auschwitz alive. Mala, inmate 19880, understood that the moment she stepped off the cattle train into the depths of hell. Edward, inmate 531, is a camp veteran and a political prisoner. They are locked up for no other sin than simply existing. But when they meet, the dark shadow of Auschwitz is lit by a glimmer of hope. Edward makes Mala believe in the impossible. That despite being surrounded by electric wire, machine guns topping endless watchtowers and searchlights roaming the ground, they will leave this death camp.

On the day of the historic 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast - in which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II - three men, flush with jubilation, made a pact. After their deaths, each year on the anniversary of the broadcast, their souls would return to the Chinese village of their younger days. Now, seventy years later, the pledge is being fulfilled by American missionary Pastor Billy, brash gunner’s mate Ian Ferguson, and local soldier Liu Zhaohu. All that’s missing is Ah Yan - also known as Swallow.

A superbly controlled emotional thriller of passion, betrayal and conscience, set in post-War Germany, soon to be made into a major film. Hamburg, 1946. Thousands remain displaced in what is now the British Occupied Zone. Charged with overseeing the rebuilding of this devastated city and the...

Sometimes the past won't stay hidden, it demands to be uncovered. The Forgotten Life of Arthur Pettinger is a moving story from best-selling author Suzanne Fortin. Arthur Pettinger's memory isn't what it used to be. He can't always remember the names of his grandchildren, where he lives or which way round his slippers go. He does remember Maryse though, a woman he hasn't seen for decades, but whose face he will never forget.

FBI cryptographer Eloise Marshall is grieving the death of her brother, who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor, when she is assigned to investigate a seemingly innocent letter about dolls. Agent Phillip Clayton is ready to enlist and head oversees when asked to work one more FBI job. A case of coded defense coordinates related to dolls should be easy, but not so when the Japanese Consulate gets involved, hearts get entangled, and Phillip goes missing. Can Eloise risk loving and losing again?

Brzeziny, Poland, 1939. Zofia's comfortable lifestyle overturns when her husband, Jabez, who monitors Nazi activity, has gone missing. Rather than fleeing the country with her young son, as she had promised Jabez who is fearing retaliation, she decides to stay. She cannot possibly leave her friend, Aanya. Since their childhood they have amazed fellow Brzeziners that it does not matter that Aanya is Jewish and deaf, and that Zofia is Catholic and hearing. Now, more than ever with war looming, Zofia will do whatever is necessary to protect her family and Aanya.

Im Jahr 1899 entflieht Josef Naumann, 20 Jahre alt, seinem vorbestimmten Leben in Hamburg und nimmt Arbeit in einem Handelshaus in Wladiwostok an. Dort erlebt er Konflikte und Kriege zwischen Russland, China, Japan und den Kolonialmächten. Im 1. Weltkrieg gerät er in zaristische Verbannung, lebt sieben Jahre in der Taiga und gründet dort eine Familie. Von Rotarmisten mit dem Tode bedroht gelingt ihm mit seiner Familie die Flucht in einem Pferdetreck durch kriegerische Fronten.

The Soviet army is sweeping into East Prussia, with their sights set on punishing Germans for the Nazis' reign of terror. Thirteen-year-old Giti and her younger brother, Otto, live with their mother and grandmother. When soldiers arrive and brutally attack the two adult women, killing their grandmother, the farm is set ablaze. The children, along with their severely wounded mother, are loaded into a crowded train bound for the Soviet Union.

One of the best-selling and most famous sagas of the last four decades, The Shell Seekers is an enduring classic which has touched the hearts of millions worldwide. Set in Gloucestershire, London, Cornwall and Ibiza, and shifting between 1939 and 1985, this poignant drama explores themes of memory, fate, trauma and connection.

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.

Though war rages across mainland Europe and London is strafed by German aircraft, the little village of Pipley in Hertfordshire bustles along much as it always has. Adrift since her best friend, George, joined the Royal Air Force, 22-year-old Olive Bright fills her days by helping at her father's veterinary practice and tending to her beloved racing pigeons. Desperate to do her bit, Olive hopes that the National Pigeon Service will enlist Bright Lofts' expertise and use their highly trained birds to deliver critical, coded messages for His Majesty's Forces.