Showing titles in World War I

The slums of Poor House Lane are no place to bring up a child, and Kate O'Connor struggles to make ends meet when her beloved husband is killed, leaving her a single mother with a baby to support on the meagre handouts she gleans from charity. So when the childless Tysons, owners of Kendal's shoe factory, offer to adopt her son, Callum, and employ Kate as his nanny, she seizes the chance to ensure he has a better life. To be so close to her son, yet no longer be his mother, is bittersweet.

A story of the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Set between Victorian Liverpool and Dundee and the battlefields of the First World War, three families face the perils of life on the economic cliff-edge, where a single misstep can send lives plunging out of control. Crossing a century of dramatic change, their journey begins in the aftermath of the slave trade, moving through the era of Empire expansion and Industrial Revolution to a time of religious strife and global conflict.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” is one of the most powerful anti-war novels ever written—a timeless classic that strips away the myths of glory and honor to reveal the brutal, dehumanizing truth of warfare. Told through the eyes of Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier on the front lines of World War I, this harrowing narrative plunges listeners into the mud-soaked trenches, the constant threat of death, and the emotional numbness born of unspeakable loss.

The legendary tale of romance, fishing, fiestas, and bullfighting. The remarkable Lady Brett Ashley bowls over the men, drinks heavily, and bathes continually. Jake Barnes, the Paris correspondent and impotent with a World War 1 injury, longs for Brett but can’t have her.

In the Great War, every act of courage counted… Angelina Green never knew her mother, who left her in a cardboard box by the East London docks on a freezing November night when she was a tiny baby. Saved by a local orphanage, she knows she owes her life to the kindness of others. And she’s...

As spring wildflowers bloom in the American midwest in 1917, Lorraine McQuarrie envisions those same flowers rising from the trenches in war-torn France. Ever a fearless young woman, Lorraine knows the Great War is coming for her nation and her loved ones. She would brandish a helmet and uniform if she could; anything to save her youngest brother from the fate of a German rifle. It’s not until General John Pershing calls upon women to join the war effort that Lorraine finds her opportunity. For the first time, American women will join their husbands, sons, and brothers at the front lines.

Surrounded by beautiful gardens in the glorious Sussex countryside, Summerhayes House seems like a true hidden paradise, but behind its polished floors and perfect green lawns is a family divided. The Summer family’s beloved home is under threat, and 19-year-old Elizabeth Summer finds herself caught in the heart of the crisis.

Panoramiczny obraz państwa polskiego odradzającego się po latach niewoli. Cezary Baryka urodził się i wychował w pięknym, kosmopolitycznym Baku, w Imperium Rosyjskim. Choć oboje rodzice byli Polakami, mówił po rosyjsku znacznie lepiej niż po polsku. Gdy miał 14 lat, jego dostatnie i szczęśliwe życie przerwał wybuch I wojny światowej. Ojciec został powołany do wojska. W Baku wybuchła rewolucja, potem wojna Ormian z Tatarami, potem przyszli bolszewicy. Dom Baryków został kompletnie splądrowany, matka Cezarego umarła.

Hampshire, 1916: Alice traces her hand over the cold glass of the window as the pale morning light slips into the empty room. The pain of loss is worse than a physical one. Reminders of Edmund are all around her. The coldness of the sheet on the other half of the bed. The unrelenting silence in the cottage when her stepdaughter Lottie is at school or tucked up asleep at the end of another day. Keeping up with their stained-glass commissions takes every ounce of her strength, and as Lottie becomes more withdrawn, Alice worries desperately about how best to care for the troubled girl.

May, 1910. The village of Oystertown is home to those who make their living from the sea. Yet social circles soon extend beyond the harbour, when a boating disaster brings Janna Shilling and her family into contact with the aristocratic Layards who own a mansion just outside of town. Recently arrived in town are the Picards, who lead a bohemian existence, their family home a disused windmill. An artist, Pascal has settled in the small fishing village because of its extraordinary light.

When Julia flees her unhappy marriage for the handsome tailor Eve Perret, she expects her life from now on will be a challenge, not least because the year is 1911. They leave everything behind to settle in Vienna, but their happiness is increasingly diminished by Julia's longing for a child. Ada Bauer's wealthy industrialist family have sent her to Dr Freud in the hope that he can fix her mutism and do so without a scandal. But help will soon come for Ada from an unexpected quarter and change many lives irrevocably.

England: 1944. When psychologist Maddie Gresham is sent a mysterious message telling her to report to Trent Park mansion, she wonders how she will be helping the war effort from a stately home. Having signed the official secrets act, she soon finds captured Nazi generals are being detained at the house. Bugged with listening devices in every room, it’s up to Maddie to gain the Nazis’ trust and coax them into giving up information. 

1914. Working in a bustling café on London's Shaftesbury Avenue, Joyce Taylor dreams of opening her own restaurant. But when the man she loves enlists in the war and a surprise request comes through from her dying grandmother, Joyce's life gets turned upside down. Struggling to keep the café afloat with her new found responsibilities, it's not long before Joyce starts to feel the pressure might be all too much. Luckily, her supportive friends Annie and Rose are on hand to help.

From the highly acclaimed author of The Photographer of the Lost, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick, comes a tale of a young war widow and one life-changing, sun-drenched visit to Cornwall in the summer of 1923... Esme Nicholls is to spend the summer in Cornwall. Her late husband Alec, who died...

Salzburg, März 1913. Der Schausteller Otto Witte wird in eine Irrenanstalt eingewiesen, weil er steif und fest behauptet, König von Albanien gewesen zu sein. Der junge Doktorand Alois Schilchegger ist von diesem Mann fasziniert und nimmt sich seiner an. Ottos Version der Weltgeschichte beginnt im Oktober 1912 in Konstantinopel. Das Osmanische Reich droht auseinanderzubrechen. Albanien nutzt die Gunst der Stunde, erklärt sich unabhängig und sucht einen König. Otto und sein Kumpan, der Schwertschlucker Max Hoffmann, riskieren einen waghalsigen Coup: Albanien sucht einen König?

La jeunesse provençale de Giono, entre une mère repasseuse et un père cordonnier, est forcément solaire, musicale, saturée de parfums, de portraits, de tableaux... Dans ces souvenirs parus en 1932, les simples deviennent des héros, les animaux voisinent avec les anges et la nature se gorge de mythes. Transcrite dans la langue du bonheur, voici la genèse d'un très grand écrivain.

As snow begins to fall, and word reaches their town that the Red Army are approaching, German-born mother-of-two Emma knows she has no choice: She must pack their meagre belongings and leave their home, in search of safety. Even if safety is within Nazi Germany. But as the icy grip of winter tightens around them, her four-year-old son—her blue-eyed angel—Jacob becomes ill. Desperate for him to get well enough to continue their journey, she takes him to a hospital, where she hands him to a kind nurse. Then a terrible attack separates mother and son, and their lives change forever.

At 17, Veronica O'Shay is happier running wild on the family farm than behaving in the ladylike manner her mother requires, and she despairs both of her secret passion for her brother's friend Jack Murphy and what promises to be a future of restraint and compliance. But this is 1913 and the genteel tranquillity of rural Beecroft is about to change forever as the O'Shay and Murphy families, along with their friends the Dwyers, are caught up in the theatre of war and their fates become intertwined.

May 1917. The elegant streets of Boston are thousands of miles away from the carnage of the Western Front. Yet even here, amid the clatter of horse-drawn carriages and automobiles, it is impossible to ignore the war raging across Europe. Emma Lewis Swan's husband, Tom, has gone to France, eager to do his duty as a surgeon. Emma, a sculptress, has stayed behind, pursuing her art despite being dismissed by male critics. 

Brought to you by Penguin. As the Great War rages across Europe, twenty-one year old Ruby Archer decides to ‘do her bit’ at an East End munitions factory. The work is relentless and deafening, but the camaraderie of the other girls carries her through. As the threat of another Zeppelin...