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Showing 1 - 20 of 37 items
By Dave Maass. 2024
Mixing dystopian sci-fi, mythic fantasy, and zombie horror, Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis, is a graphic novel based on…
a suppressed opera written in 1943 by Peter Kien and Viktor Ullmann, two prisoners at the Terezín concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The authors did not live to see their masterpiece performed.Set in an alternative universe where Atlantis never sank but instead became a technologically advanced tyranny, the power-mad buffoonish Emperor declares all-out war—everyone against everyone. Death goes on a labor strike, creating a hellscape where everyone fights, but no one dies. Can the spirit of Life stop this terror with the power of love?Includes designs from the original opera, historical essays, photographs, and more."This is beautiful and strange, both for what it is and what it isn't. As a story it's fascinating and excellently told, as an artifact it's heartbreaking and affecting. More than a footnote in Holocaust literature or a lost libretto given visual shape, it's a reminder of what art is for, and how it saves and shapes us when everything else is gone.&”—Neil Gaiman&“Maass&’s playful script, with its pitch-black humor and fiendish turns of phrase, honors the original opera... This parable captures the defiant spirit of artists.&”—Publishers WeeklyBy Karen Dickson. 2021
A wartime family saga, perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin and Val Wood Shaftesbury, 1936. Mansfield House Hotel has…
been a refuge for Emily ever since she was orphaned at the age of 16. Not only did they give her employment as a chambermaid, but it&’s also where she met her fiancé Tom. When theatre agent Roland stays at the hotel and hears Emily singing, he is determined to take her away to Bristol and make her a star. But knowing she'd never leave her fiancé, he hatches a plan to get Emily away from Tom. Six years later, Emily has made a name for herself as 'The Bristol Songbird'. Her love for Tom is still as strong as ever, but she's not heard from him since that fateful night so long ago. And with the world enveloped in a war, it seems unlikely the two will ever meet again. Will Emily and Tom ever find their way back to one another? Or will the war – and Roland – succeed in keeping them apart? Praise for Karen Dickson: &‘A compelling saga that will hold you fast from the first page to the last. Loved it&’ VAL WOOD, author of The Lonely Wife 'This rollercoaster of a novel draws you in from the first page… I devoured this in one sitting and look forward to more from this author. In short a gem of a read' FIONA FORD, author of Wartime at Liberty's 'A delight to read... Lily Hayter is a wonderful heroine whose resilience and integrity shine through as she struggles to claim a life of her choosing and find a family. At the heart of the story is a warmth and humanity that makes it a truly uplifting read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was sorry when I reached the end because I wanted to linger in Dickson&’s world. I eagerly await more from Karen Dickson' VICKI BEEBY, author of The Ops Room Girls &‘An exciting, fresh and talented new voice – a five-star read!&’ CAROL RIVERS, author of Molly&’s Christmas Orphans'The characters in this novel are so believable that I cared deeply about them from the first chapter. A heartfelt, hopeful account of one young woman&’s fight to keep her child safe when all the odds are against her. Atmospheric and beautifully written' JAN CASEY, author of The Women of Waterloo BridgeBy Maurice Rajsfus. 2002
Un récit en deux temps: le port obligatoire de l'étoile jaune, imposé en 1942 aux Juifs de la zone occupée…
par la Gestapo mais appliqué par les policiers français; l'arrestation de l'auteur et de sa famille et leur déportation à AuschwitzBy Petie Kladstrup. 2002
Les vignobles faisaient partie des grandes richesses de la France et furent d'abondance pillées par les troupes allemandes d'occupation. L'ouvrage…
raconte comment les vignerons tentèrent de protéger leurs trésors des convoitises nazies. Élaboré à partir de nombreux témoignages, le récit d'épisodes dramatiques dans l'histoire du vin et de sa production. [SDMBy Aranka Siegal. 2003
Author recounts her experiences as a young Jewish girl during Hitler's rise to power. Recalls being trapped in Ukraine while…
visiting her grandmother, returning to her family in Hungary, and being forcibly moved to an Auschwitz ghetto. Describes the many wartime restrictions. For grades 6-9. Newbery Honor Book. 1981By Christopher De Vinck. 2020
A deeply touching novel about two young women whose differences, which once united them, will tear them apart forever, during…
Hitler&’s Nazi occupation of Belgium and France. Based on true events.For fans of All The Light We Cannot See and Tattooist of Auschwitz. Belgium, July 1939: Simone Lyon is the daughter of a Belgium national hero, the famous General Joseph Lyon. Her best friend Hava Daniels, is the eldest daughter of a devout Jewish family. Despite growing up in different worlds, they are inseparable.But when, in the spring of 1940, Nazi planes and tanks begin bombing Brussels, their resilience and strength are tested. Hava and Simone find themselves caught in the advancing onslaught and are forced to flee.In an emotionally-charged race for survival, even the most harrowing horrors cannot break their bonds of love and friendship. The two teenage girls, will see their innocence fall, against the ugly backdrop of a war dictating that theirs was a friendship that should never have been.By Elisa Macellari. 2020
The debut graphic novel from Thai-Italian illustrator Elisa Macellari, Papaya Salad tells the story of her great-uncle Sompong who found…
himself in Europe on military scholarship on the eve of World War II.A gentle and resolute man in love with books and languages, in search of his place in the world, Sompong chronicles his life during the war and falling for his wife, finding humor and joy even as the world changes irrevocably around him This Winner of the 2019 Autori di Immagini Silver Medal in the Comics category tells the human story of the War, from a perspective not typically seen."An historical and emotional journey through my family and my roots that are grown between Europe and Asia. A personal narrative that needs to be shared and hopefully arouses empathy in the reader." -- Elisa MacellariBy Barbara Whitton. 2020
It is 1943, and a month into their service as Land Girls, Bee, Anne and Pauline are dispatched to a…
remote farm in rural Scotland. Here they are introduced to the realities of 'lending a hand on the land', as back-breaking work and inhospitable weather mean they struggle to keep their spirits high.Soon one of the girls falters, and Bee and Pauline receive a new posting to a Northumberland dairy farm. Detailing their friendship, daily struggles and romantic intrigues with a lightness of touch, Barbara Whitton's autobiographical novel paints a sometimes funny, sometimes bleak picture of time spent in the Women's Land Army during the Second World War."Tales from the home front are always more authentic when written from personal experience, as is the case here. Barbara Whitton evokes the highs and lows, joys and agonies of being a Land Girl in the Second World War." -- Julie Summers"Witty, warm and hugely endearing, Barbara Whitton s Green Hands is full of engaging characters, burgeoning friendships and pure hard-graft. A lovely novel for anyone interested in wartime Britain, it leaves the reader with renewed admiration for the indefatigable work of the Women s Land Army." --AJ Pearce(P)2020 Headline Publishing Group LimitedBy Philip Smith. 2016
The horror of the Holocaust lies not only in its brutality but in its scale and logistics; it depended upon…
the machinery and logic of a rational, industrialised, and empirically organised modern society. The central thesis of this book is that Art Spiegelman’s comics all identify deeply-rooted madness in post-Enlightenment society. Spiegelman maintains, in other words, that the Holocaust was not an aberration, but an inevitable consequence of modernisation. In service of this argument, Smith offers a reading of Spiegelman’s comics, with a particular focus on his three main collections: Breakdowns (1977 and 2008), Maus (1980 and 1991), and In the Shadow of No Towers (2004). He draws upon a taxonomy of terms from comic book scholarship, attempts to theorize madness (including literary portrayals of trauma), and critical works on Holocaust literature.By Alexander Baron. 2019
Spring 1944, the south coast of England. The Fifth Battalion, Wessex Regiment, wait patiently and nervously for the order to…
embark. There is boredom and fear, comedy and pathos as the men all drawn from different walks of life await the order to move.With an economy of language that belies its emotional impact, From the City, From the Plough is a vivid and moving account of the fate of these men as they embark for the beaches of Normandy and advance into France, where the battalion suffers devastating casualties.Based on Alexander Baron's own wartime experience, From the City, From the Plough was originally published to wide acclaim and reportedly sold over one million copies. This new edition of the 1948 classic includes a contextual introduction from IWM which sheds new light on the dramatic true events that so inspired its author.(P)2019 Headline Publishing Group LtdBy Anthony Quayle. 2019
Autumn 1943. Realising that his feelings for his sweetheart are not reciprocated, Major John Overton accepts a posting behind enemy…
lines in Nazi-Occupied Albania. Arriving to find the situation in disarray, he attempts to overcome geographical challenges and political intrigues to set up a new camp in the mountains overlooking the Adriatic.As he struggles to complete his mission amidst a chaotic backdrop, Overton is left to ruminate on loyalty, comradeship and his own future.Based on Anthony Quayle's own wartime experience with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), this new edition of a 1945 classic includes a contextual introduction from IWM which sheds new light on the fascinating true events that inspired its author.(P)2019 Headline Publishing Group LtdBy David Piper. 2019
October 1941. Twenty-one-year-old Alan Mart is posted to India and taken under the wing of the dogmatic, overbearing Acting-Captain Sam…
Holl. Following the Japanese advance on Singapore, the men are deployed to Malaya. What follows is a quietly shattering and searingly authentic depiction of the claustrophobia of jungle warfare and the indiscriminate nature of conflict.Based on David Piper's own wartime experience in South East Asia, this new edition of a 1959 classic includes a contextual introduction from IWM which sheds new light on the dramatic true events that so influenced its author.(P)2019 Headline Publishing Group LtdBy Javier Cercas. 2014
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL 2018A TRUE STORY THAT IS PACKED WITH FICTION - FICTION CREATED BY ITS MAIN…
CHARACTER, ENRIC MARCOBut who is Enric Marco? A veteran of the Spanish Civil War, a fighter against fascism, an impassioned campaigner for justice, and a survivor of the Nazi death camps? Or, is he simply an old man with delusions of grandeur, a charlatan who fabricated his heroic war record, who was never a prisoner in the Third Reich and never opposed Franco; a charming, beguiling and compulsive liar who refashioned himself as a defender of liberty and who was unmasked in 2005 at the height of his influence and renown?In this extraordinary novel - part narrative, part history, part essay, part biography, part autobiography - Javier Cercas unravels the enigma of the man and delves with passion and honesty into the most ambiguous aspects of what makes us human - our infinite capacity for self-deception, our need for conformity, our thirst for affection and our conflicting needs for fiction and for truth.Translated from the Spanish by Frank WynneIt's the most wonderful time of the year - but can the East End Angels keep London safe?Meet The East…
End Angels, the newest members of Station Seventy-Five's ambulance crew . . .Frankie is trying hard to keep everything together. She can count on the support of the East End Angels, even in the face of family trouble.Winnie's beloved husband, Mac, is putting himself at risk every day in the bomb disposal unit and she's finding it hard while he's away.Bella is growing in confidence and happiness. Her friendship with Winnie's brother, James, is getting closer all the time.Christmas on the Home Front is a hard time with loved ones far away - but the women of the Auxiliary Ambulance service are making do and mending.The third novel in the acclaimed East End Angels series, following Bella, Winnie and Frankie and their lives as members of Station Seventy-Five's ambulance crew. Perfect for fans of Sheila Newberry and Katie Flynn.Readers love the East End Angels series . . . 'Wonderfully written by one very talented author . . . highly recommended''I loved reading this book . . . so looking forward to the next in the series''Reminded me of Call the Midwife''Absolutely brilliant for recreating life in London during the Blitz''A very well-written and researched, warm-hearted book . . . with a bit of romance!'*Don't miss Rosie Hendry's brand new novel, THE MOTHER'S DAY CLUB, coming 18th February 2021 and available now to pre-order*By Roy Jacobsen. 2005
'A compact and compelling novel by an iconic Norwegian writer...[and] thanks to Don Bartlett and Don Shaw's crisp translation, we…
see it obliquely' - IndependentSet in Finland in 1939, this is the story of one man who remains in his home town when everyone else has fled, burning down their houses in their wake, before the invading Russians arrive. Timo remains behind because he can't imagine life anywhere else, doing anything else besides felling the trees near his home. This is a novel about belonging - a tale of powerful and forbidden friendships forged during a war, of unexpected bravery and astonishing survival instincts. The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles is not a novel about war, but about the lives of ordinary people dragged into war, each of whom only wants to find the path back home. Roy Jacobsen uses the dramatic natural landscape of light and darkness, fire-blazing heat and life-robbing cold to spectacular effect.By Magda Szabó. 1970
A teenage girl's difficult journey towards adulthood in a time of war."A school story for grownups that is also about…
our inability or refusal to protect children from history" SARAH MOSS"Of all Szabo's novels, Abigail deserves the widest readership. It's an adventure story, brilliantly written" TIBOR FISCHEROf all her novels, Magda Szabó's Abigail is indeed the most widely read in her native Hungary. Now, fifty years after it was written, it appears for the first time in English, joining Katalin Street and The Door in a loose trilogy about the impact of war on those who have to live with the consequences. It is late 1943 and Hitler, exasperated by the slowness of his Hungarian ally to act on the "Jewish question" and alarmed by the weakness on his southern flank, is preparing to occupy the country. Foreseeing this, and concerned for his daughter's safety, a Budapest father decides to send her to a boarding school away from the capital. A lively, sophisticated, somewhat spoiled teenager, she is not impressed by the reasons she is given, and when the school turns out to be a fiercely Puritanical one in a provincial city a long way from home, she rebels outright. Her superior attitude offends her new classmates and things quickly turn sour.It is the start of a long and bitter learning curve that will open her eyes to her arrogant blindness to other people's true motives and feelings. Exposed for the first time to the realities of life for those less privileged than herself, and increasingly confronted by evidence of the more sinister purposes of the war, she learns lessons about the nature of loyalty, courage, sacrifice and love.Translated from the Hungarian by Len RixBy Patricia Laurence. 2021
Elizabeth Bowen: A Literary Life reinvents Bowen as a public intellectual, propagandist, spy, cultural ambassador, journalist, and essayist as well as…
a writer of fiction. Patricia Laurence counters the popular image of Bowen as a mannered, reserved Anglo-Irish writer and presents her as a bold, independent woman who took risks and made her own rules in life and writing. This biography distinguishes itself from others in the depth of research into the life experiences that fueled Bowen’s writing: her espionage for the British Ministry of Information in neutral Ireland, 1940-1941, and the devoted circle of friends, lovers, intellectuals and writers whom she valued: Isaiah Berlin, William Plomer, Maurice Bowra, Stuart Hampshire, Charles Ritchie, Sean O’Faolain, Virginia Woolf, Rosamond Lehmann, and Eudora Welty, among others. The biography also demonstrates how her feelings of irresolution about national identity and gender roles were dispelled through her writing. Her vivid fiction, often about girls and women, is laced with irony about smooth social surfaces rent by disruptive emotion, the sadness of beleaguered adolescents, the occurrence of cultural dislocation, historical atmosphere, as well as undercurrents of violence in small events, and betrayal and disappointment in romance. Her strong visual imagination—so much a part of the texture of her writing—traces places, scenes, landscapes, and objects that subliminally reveal hidden aspects of her characters. Though her reputation faltered in the 1960s-1970s given her political and social conservatism, now, readers are discovering her passionate and poetic temperament and writing as well as the historical consciousness behind her worldly exterior and writing.By Nathacha Appanah. 2007
In the remote forests of Mauritius, young Raj is almost oblivious of the Second World War raging beyond his tiny…
exotic island. With only his mother for company while his father works as a prison guard, solitary ever since his brothers died years ago, Raj thinks only of making friends.One day, the far-away world comes to Mauritius, and Raj meets David, a Jew exiled from his home in Europe and imprisoned in the camp where Raj's father works. David becomes the friend that he has always longed for, a brother to replace those he has lost. Raj knows that he must help David to escape. As they flee through sub-tropical landscapes and devastating storms, the boys battle hunger and malaria - and forge a friendship only death can destroy. The Last Brother is a powerful, poetic novel that sheds new light on a little-explored aspect of 20th-century history.By Prof Bernhard Schlink. 2018
A #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Bernhard Schlink speaks straight to the heart' New York Times'Brilliant... A tale of love and loss in…
20th century Germany' Evening Standard'A cleverly-constructed tale of cross-class romance' Mail on Sunday'A poignant portrait of a woman out of step with her time' Observer Olga is an orphan raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village around the turn of the 20th century. Smart and precocious, she fights against the prejudices of the time to find her place in a world that sees her as second-best.When she falls in love with Herbert, a local aristocrat obsessed with the era's dreams of power, glory and greatness, her life is irremediably changed.Theirs is a love against all odds, entwined with the twisting paths of German history, leading us from the late 19th to the early 21st century, from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to the German south-west.This is the story of that love, of Olga's devotion to a restless man - told in thought, letters and in a fateful moment of great rebellion.By Ida Simons. 2014
It is the middle of the roaring twenties, and Gittel is living The Hague with her parents, whose blazing rows…
are the traditional preserve of Sundays and public holidays. What luck, then, that Gittel is Jewish, and must submit to "the double helping of public holidays that is the lot of Jewish families".After every matrimonial slanging match, Gittel's mother runs off to her parents' home in Antwerp - with her daugher in tow. Much to her delight, Gittel makes the acquaintance of the well-to-do Mardell family, who allow her to practise on their Steinway. Gittel feels that she is taken seriously by Mr Mardell, the head of the household, and by thirty-year-old Lucie, whom she adores. When these friendships turn out to be nothing but an illusion, Gittel learns her first lessons about trust and betrayal. Her second comes soon after, when her father, whose talents for business leave much to be desired, attempts to make a quick killing in Berlin on the eve of the Wall Street Crash.Though this intimate portrayal of familial strife is set in the shadow of the Holocaust, Simons says little about the horror that awaits her characters, yet she succeeds in giving the reader the sense that the novel is about more than a young girl's loss of innocence. In a fluid, almost casual style, she has written a masterly and timeless ode to a relatively carefree interlude in a dark and dramatic period.Translated from the Dutch by Liz Waters