Showing titles in 20th Century

From the best-selling author of The Beekeeper’s Promise comes a gripping story of three young women faced with impossible choices. How will history - and their families - judge them? Paris, 1940. With the city occupied by the Nazis, three young seamstresses go about their normal lives as best they can. But all three are hiding secrets. War-scarred Mireille is fighting with the Resistance; Claire has been seduced by a German officer; and Vivienne’s involvement is something she can’t reveal to either of them.

When Eva Gouel moves to Paris from the countryside, she is full of ambition and dreams of stardom. Though young and inexperienced, she manages to find work as a costumer at the famous Moulin Rouge, and it is here that she first catches the attention of Pablo Picasso, a rising star in the art world. A brilliant but eccentric artist, Picasso sets his sights on Eva, and Eva can't help but be drawn into his web.

An explorer at heart, former university professor Phillip Singleton's adventures have only taken place in his imagination - until recently. Exploring the Cornish coast to research a travel book, he encounters a living example of a pirate archetype. Dark-haired, black-bearded Carne Treleaven might have been hewn from the very rock his name describes, and Phillip is eager to discover more. As personalities clash, secrets unfold, and riches are revealed, the two polar opposites find the point where their similarities lay.

As the old world begins to fade from view and a new dawn emerges, All Change marks the fifth and final volume in Elizabeth Jane Howard's beloved and bestselling Cazalet Chronicles. 'Compelling, moving, unputdownable . . . Maybe my favourite books ever' - Marian Keyes, bestselling author of My...

If you're a fan of Jodie Picoult, you'll love Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain, bestselling author of The Midwife's Confession . . . North Carolina, 1960. Newlywed Jane Forrester, fresh out of university, is seeking what most other women have shunned: a career. But life as a social worker is...

FROM THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TEA PLANTER'S WIFE Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Silk Merchant's Daughter by Dinah Jefferies, read by Eliza Parkes. Dinah Jefferies' stunning new novel is a gripping, unforgettable tale of a woman torn...

In 1937, seventeen-year-old Ella’s life changes forever when she is sent to spend the summer on the beautiful Île de Ré and meets the charismatic, creative Christophe. They spend the summer together, exploring the island’s sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters, and, for the first time in her life, Ella feels truly free. But the outbreak of war casts everything in a new light. Ella is forced to return to Scotland, where she volunteers for the war effort alongside the dashing Angus. In this new world, Ella feels herself drifting further and further from who she was on the Île de Ré.

When Hazel is given the chance to parachute into Nazi-occupied France, she seizes the opportunity to do more for the British war effort than file paperwork. Alongside her childhood friend, French-born Rose, she quickly rises up the ranks of the freedom fighters. For Rose, the Resistance is a link to her late husband, and a way to move forward without him. What starts out as helping downed airmen becomes a bigger cause when they meet Sophia, a German escapee and fierce critic of Hitler who is wanted by the Gestapo.

An endearing stand-alone story from best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith. Val was working as a land girl when the Americans arrived at the nearby airfield in 1944. Mike, a young American airman, came into her life soon after, and so, too, did Peter Woodhouse, a dog badly treated on a neighbouring farm and taken in by her aunt. Little persuasion was needed for Mike to take Peter Woodhouse to the airbase, and over time he became the mascot of the American squad.

Peter Holstein writes his popular series of adventure novels under a pen name. With European politics boiling and his own neighbors suspicious of him, Peter debates whether it might be best to change his name for good. When Rosemary shows up at his door pretending to be a historian and offering to help him trace his family history, his question might be answered. But as the two work together and Rosemary sees his gracious reaction to his neighbors' scornful attacks, she wonders if her assignment is going down the wrong path.

When fun-loving glamour girl Quintessa Beaumont learns that the Navy has established the WAVES program for women, she enlists, determined to throw off her frivolous ways and contribute to the war effort. No-nonsense Lieutenant Dan Avery, hoping to make admiral, has been using his skills to fight German U-boats. The last thing he wants to see on his radar is a girl like Tess....

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Before the Rains by Dinah Jefferies, read by Naomi Frederick. A gripping, heart-wrenching tale of love against the odds from the Number One Sunday Times bestselling author Dinah Jefferies 1930, Rajputana, India. Since her...

It is 1916, and Roberta Jewett is surprised to find that her hometown of Camden, Maine, considers a divorced woman little more than a prostitute. Condemned by her mother and scorned by neighbors, she nonetheless perseveres in her struggle to forge a good life for her girls and herself. Embittered by her painful marriage to an unfaithful husband, she has no intention of being any man's victim again. So Roberta is taken aback to find the widowed carpenter Gabriel Farley has somehow found his way into her heart.

From the author of the Seven Sisters series, Lucinda Riley's The Italian Girl takes you from the back streets of Naples to the world's finest opera houses on a poignant, unforgettable journey of love, betrayal and self-discovery. Read by Yolanda Kettle (Philippa Gregory's The Queen's Fool)...

A British nurse in WWI German-occupied Brussels, Evelyn Marche spends her days at the hospital and her nights working at a café... or so it seems. Eve’s most carefully guarded secret is that she also spends her nights carrying out dangerous missions as a spy for a Belgian resistance group...

Brought to you by Penguin. FROM THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER - A SWEEPING, SUN-DRENCHED STORY OF LOVE, FAMILY AND UNTOLD SECRETS... Proud grandmother Matelda Cabrelli always has something to say. But, as she faces the end of her life, she worries she's failed to tell the stories that matter...

‘Fans of Jodi Picoult’s style will love how Diane Chamberlain writes’ – Candis. Big Lies in a Small Town, by the internationally bestselling author Diane Chamberlain, is a sweeping novel about two women connected by a painting that holds many dark secrets. North Carolina, 2018: Morgan...

In the dying days of a brutal civil war, Sohail Haque stumbles upon an abandoned building. Inside, he finds a young woman whose story will haunt him for a lifetime to come... Almost a decade later, Sohail’s sister Maya returns home after a long absence to find her beloved brother transformed. While Maya has stuck to her revolutionary ideals, Sohail has shunned his old life to become a charismatic religious leader.

From the superb Jeffrey Archer, The Prodigal Daughter is the magnificent story of love and politics. It is the enthralling sequel to the global phenomenon Kane and Abel, described by The Times as a 'classic novel of modern literature'. Hers was the ultimate ambition . . . The titanic battle...

Step into the formidable world of The Stolen Marriage, an absorbing novel by Diane Chamberlain, painting a vivid portrait of love, betrayal, and uncertainty in a small town. In 1944, Tess DeMello abruptly trades a promised future with the love of her life for a marriage shrouded in mystery with...