Showing titles in 20th Century

Poland, 1980. Anxious, disillusioned Ludwik Glowacki, soon to graduate university, has been sent along with the rest of his class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz - and together, they spend a dreamlike summer swimming in secluded lakes, reading forbidden books - and falling in love. But with summer over, the two are sent back to Warsaw, and to the harsh realities of life under the Party. Exiled from paradise, Ludwik and Janusz must decide how they will survive; and in their different choices, find themselves torn apart.

In the India of 1942, two rapes take place simultaneously - that of an English girl in Mayapore, and that of India by the British. In each, physical violence, racial animosity, the coercion of the weak by the strong all play their part, but playing a part too are love, affection, loyalty, and recognition that the last division of all to be overcome is the colour of the skin.

She gave him her innocence . . . Lady Aline Marsden was brought up to marry a man of her own class, but from the moment she meets John McKenna, she risks everything to be with him. He gave her his heart Although their love is forbidden, McKenna's passion for the beautiful Aline is too compelling...

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST Frank and April Wheeler are a bright, beautiful, talented couple in the 1950s whose perfect suburban life is about to crumble in this "moving and absorbing story” (The Atlantic Monthly) from one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century. "The Great...

The spellbinding series continues. Following the bestselling The Seven Sisters, The Storm Sister is the second Instalment in Lucinda Riley's epic saga of love and loss, inspired by the mythology of the Seven Sisters constellation. Read by Hattie Morahan (The Burning Chambers, Girl with a Pearl...

Wiltshire, December 1915. Widow Olivia Hanbury is persuaded by her cousin Donald to move in with his meek little wife while he is serving in France. When he's wounded and returns home to convalesce, tensions immediately rise between him and lively Olivia. But things begin to look up when Olivia becomes involved in starting the new Women's Institutes and is introduced to Alex, an antiques dealer. Meanwhile, Phoebe Latimer is holding the fort at Greyladies, an ancient manor house, while her husband is away at war. But someone is attempting to rid Greyladies of the German internees based there.

It's 1976 and in the Vile Parle suburb of Mumbai, bastion of the Maharashtrian middle-class, Ila Bendre's mother is determined to get her four daughters married off as soon as possible. Ila wants a career and life of her own, and she'll do whatever it takes to escape married bliss, no matter what the neighbours might say. But when Ila's Bollywood-obsessed younger sister, Latika, takes the matter of marriage into her own hands, it looks as if the Bendre family's reputation in this close-knit community will be ruined once and for all...

'Absolutely not to be missed' - Kate Quinn on this sumptuous historical epic from the author of Mexican Gothic. Golden Age Hollywood - a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue. Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary...

At 18, Alexandra Wickham is presented to King George V and Queen Mary in an exquisite white lace and satin dress her mother has ordered from Paris. With her delicate blond looks, she is a stunning beauty who seems destined for a privileged life. But fate, a world war, and her own quietly rebellious personality lead her down a different path. By 1939, Europe is on fire and England is at war. From her home in idyllic Hampshire, Alex makes her way to London as a volunteer in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. But she has skills that draw the attention of another branch of the service.

Britain, March, 1944. After a desperate aerial battle over Somerset, a German bomber goes down in flames. When Joan discovers the Luftwaffe pilot hiding in her barn, her first instinct is to turn him in – against her better judgment, she offers him shelter instead. As they work side by side in the fields, a forbidden love begins to flourish. As the walls close in on their unlikely affair, Dieter and Joan's lives become fraught with danger, until passion and patriotism finally collide.

Brought to you by Penguin. FAERIES DISAPPEARED OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, AS SUDDENLY AS SLIPPING THROUGH A DOORWAY. IT WAS ONLY THE VERY FOOLISH, OR THE VERY DETERMINED, WHO HELD OUT HOPE FOR THEIR RETURN... In the wake of World War I, the world is a decidedly unmagical place. Mouse Dunne once...

A lost child: On the eve of the first world war, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her – but the Authoress has disappeared without a trace. A terrible secret: On the night of her 21st birthday, Nell O'Connor learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family.

The fairest flower in Mawbry is Erienne Fleming, the enchanting, raven-haired daughter of the village mayor. Charming, spirited and exquisitely lovely, she is beset on all sides by suitors, any one of whom would pay a king's fortune for a place in her heart. But Erienne has eyes for only one...

On a dark and dangerous road, a daring British adventurer saves the life of a countess of royal blood. In all his travels, Colonel Tyrone Rycroft has never encountered a woman as breathtaking, alluring, and inscrutably mysterious as the bewitching Synnovea. But his selfless bravery has drawn him...

New York, 1915. Elizabeth Arden has been New York’s golden girl since her beauty salon opened its famous red door five years prior. Against all odds, she’s built an empire. Enter Helena Rubinstein: ruthless, revolutionary–and the rival Elizabeth didn’t bargain for. With both women determined to succeed–no matter the personal cost–a battle of beauty is born. And as the stakes increase, so do the methods: poaching employees, planting spies, copying products, hiring ex-husbands. But as each woman climbs higher, so too does what she stands to lose.

‘The Silk Code had me absolutely hooked… A great storyline full of bravery, trust, love, survival, betrayal and determination.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Based on the true story of ‘Englandspiel’, one woman must race against the clock to uncover a traitor, even if it means...

For fans of The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See, a spellbinding story of impossible love set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime. She must choose between loyalty to her country or a love that could be her destruction… As the dutiful daughter of a high-ranking Nazi officer...

The daughter and granddaughter of prominent Manhattan lawyers, Meredith McKenzie is destined for the best of everything: top schools, elite social circles, the perfect marriage. Spending her childhood in Germany as her father prosecutes Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, Meredith soaks up the conflict between good and evil as it plays out in real time. When her family returns to the United States, she begins blazing her own trail, swimming against the tides, spurred on by her freethinking liberal grandfather, determined to become a lawyer despite her traditional, conservative father's objections.

Eleanor Lyndon was minding her own business when a lord of the realm fell—quite literally—into her life. When Charles Wycombe, the dashing and incorrigible Earl of Billington, toppled out of a tree and landed at Ellie's feet, neither suspected that such an inauspicious meeting would lead to marriage. But Charles must find a bride before his thirtieth birthday or he'll lose his fortune. And Ellie needs a husband or her father's odious fiancée will choose one for her. And so they agree to wed.

As the beloved stepdaughter of the Earl of Castleton, Lady Mariah Lyons cherishes her home at Plumford Manor, but her idyllic world will be threatened when the estate passes to Cyril Lightbourne, a childhood friend she hasn’t seen or heard from in years. Once, Mariah dreamed their friendship would kindle into something more, but that was before she heard Cyril was courting the cruelhearted Lady Pearl. Now Mariah is willing to welcome him as a friend and pray he will be the heir her stepfather needs, but she’ll keep her heart locked safely away from anyone with such poor taste.