First World War Fiction

Joined by Peter Pienaar, the old Boer Scout; John S. Blenkiron, the American determined to fight the Kaiser; and Sandy Arbuthnot, adventurer Richard Hannay travels across war-torn Europe in search of the grotesque Stumm and the evil beauty of Hilda von Einem. This espionage novel set during the First World War features thrilling disguises, despicable plots, and some of the most devious spies in literature.

On an orange-tinted evening in September 1905, Scheherazade is born to an opium-dazed mother in the ancient city of Smyrna. At the very same moment, a dashing Indian spy arrives in the harbour with a secret mission from the British Empire. He sails in to golden-hued spires and minarets, scents of fig and sycamore and the cries of street hawkers selling their wares. When he leaves, 17 years later, it will be to the heavy smell of kerosene and smoke as the city, and its people, are engulfed in flames.

When Ailsa Reid becomes the subject of a trial by media after an incident at the school where she works, she escapes to the comfort of her grandparents' house in Fife. But she arrives to find her grandmother, Moira - recently diagnosed with dementia - has gone missing, and her grandfather, Rupert, gravely injured. Desperate to ensure Moira's safe return, Ailsa must rely on the help of her estranged mother, Rowan, who abandoned her at birth. Tensions simmer between the two women as they attempt to piece together the lead-up to Moira's disappearance.

A toy soldier. A butter dish. A compass. Mundane objects, perhaps, but to the remarkable authors in this collection, artifacts such as these have inspired stories that go to the heart of the human experience of World War I. Each author was invited to choose an object that had a connection to the war - a writing kit for David Almond, a helmet for Michael Morpurgo - and use it as the inspiration for an original short story.

August 1, 1914, Berlin: Kaiser Wilhelm II cancels the German invasion of Belgium over the objections of his generals, sending his armies east against Russia instead of west to France, and sets off a chain of events that will radically change the course of modern history. Gray Tide in the East is the best-selling counterfactual history of the First World War, if the Germans had not invaded Belgium in 1914 and thereby brought Great Britain and, eventually, the United States into the war.

Everyone in Denmark knew that Yousef Ahmed, a refugee from Iraq, brutally murdered the right-wing politician Sanne Melgaard. So, when part-time blues musician, frustrated home renovator, and full-time private detective Gabriel Præst agrees to investigate the matter because his ex—the one who got away—asked him to, he knew it was a no-win case. But as Gabriel starts to ask questions, his face meets with the fists of Russian gangsters; the Danish prime minister asks him for a favor; and he starts to realize that something may be rotten in the state of Denmark.

Abril de 1915. La Primera Guerra Mundial sigue su implacable marcha. Entre las tropas británicas enviadas al frente, se hallan los hermanos Reavley. Joseph, el mayot de los tres, ejerce de capellán en las trincheras, mientras que Judith es conductora y traductora del general que está al mando del ejército británico.

Vlad flea is with his friend Crisp VC, the carrier pigeon. They are on a mission to deliver a secret message. It is March 25, 1918, and the friends are behind enemy lines. They must dodge the dog-fights, survive the trenches and seek help from the staff of the hospital tent as they race to reach Britain safely.

Tomi was born in Hawaii. His grandfather and parents were born in Japan and came to America to escape poverty. World War II seems far away from Tomi and his friends, who are too busy playing ball on their eighth-grade team, the Rats. But then Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese, and the United States declares war on Japan. Japanese men are rounded up, and Tomi’s father and grandfather are arrested. It’s a terrifying time to be Japanese in America. But one thing doesn’t change: the loyalty of Tomi’s buddies, the Rats.

1915, London: Working in the dusty bookshop that her Aunt Violet mysteriously inherited, Hannah Merrill is accustomed to finding twists in every tale. But discovering her beloved best friend Lily-Anne – with a paperknife through her heart – in the middle of the bookshop, is not a plotline she saw coming. The case is anything but textbook. With the discovery of a coded German message, and Hannah’s instinct that Lily-Anne’s husband is keeping secrets, she determines to get to the bottom of it. She can’t do it alone though.

H.G. Wells set the standard for futuristic literature that teemed with both social commentary and a prescient view of the world to come. Here, we present The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds, two of the most popular and thrilling science fiction novels ever created. First, travel with a scientist named Griffin who develops an ingenious serum that can render people completely invisible. Then follow the narrator as he describes the unthinkable: a deadly and terrifying invasion of Earth by the inhabitants of Mars. Can mankind survive?

If you knew how dark tomorrow would be, what would you do with today? "This is the magic circus book that I have been looking for all my life."―Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of Every Heart A Doorway "With earnestness that matches the author's poignant story, narrator Petrea...

It is spring 1916, and a stalemate on Europe's western front has descended into horror. France and Great Britain are on one side of the barbed wire, a fierce German army is on the other. Jeff Shaara opens a window onto the otherworldly tableau of trench warfare, as seen through the eyes of a typical British soldier who experiences the bizarre and the horrible - a "Tommy" whose innocent youth is cast into the hell of a terrifying war.

In 1913, before there is a rumor of war in Europe, Matthias Wrenn and Con Hatchel, lifelong friends from Ballyrannel in the Irish midlands, decide to see the world at the expense of the king of England and join the British army. A year later, while en route to India, their troop ship is recalled and they soon find themselves in the European slaughterhouse that was World War I.

It's 1918, and the Great War is entering its final phase. In Northern France, young Aimee has just found out that her mother is part of a spy network working with the British. After reluctantly befriending Marius, a German boy who has been left behind by his countrymen, she must try to help him get back behind German lines while evading traitor she has helped to discover.

H.G. Wells set the standard for futuristic literature that teemed with both social commentary and a prescient view of the world to come. Here, we present The Island of Doctor Moreau and The War of the Worlds, two of the most popular and thrilling science fiction novels ever created. First, meet Edward Prendick as he tries to navigate the island where he has been stranded, where the enigmatic Doctor Moreau conducts his unnatural experiments. Then follow the narrator as he describes the unthinkable: an invasion of Earth by the inhabitants of Mars. Can mankind survive?

Thousands of short stories were published during the First World War, which coincided with the heyday of the fiction magazine in Britain. Much of this material has never been republished since the end of the war and is virtually lost to the modern audience. This new collection is an important work of recovery, introducing little-known magazine short fiction - which was primarily written for a civilian readership - by major writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle as well as more neglected authors.

Primera Guerra Mundial, marzo de 1916, Joseph Reavley, gravemente herido en el intento de rescatar a un compañero durante el combate, es enviado a casa, en Cambridgeshire, para recuperarse al lado de su hermana Hannah. La inesperada visita de un amigo común los involucra en un invento que podría neutralizar el efecto devastador de los submarinos alemanes, así como el asesinato de uno de los científicos implicados en el mismo.

A fascinating collection of short stories by great writers that examine aspects of the first world war, from action in the trenches, to the psychological impact of war on individuals and their relationships, to heroic adventure stories, to ghosts and war graves. A wonderful collection!

While collecting driftwood on their local beach in Dorset, Ben and Sidney find a message in a bottle washed up on the shore. The message is written in rhyme - is it just a poem? Through a series of adventures, the boys, along with Sidney's twin sister, Vera, discover that there is much more to the message than meets the eye....