Historical Fiction War Ii

Munich, 1935. The Bavarian capital is a magnet for young aristocratic Britons who come to learn German, swim in the lakes and drink beer in the cellars. What they don't see—or choose to ignore—is the brutal underbelly of the Nazi movement, which considers Munich its spiritual home. When a high-born English girl is murdered, Detective Sebastian Wolff is ordered to solve the crime. Wolff is already walking a tight line between doing his job and falling foul of the political party he abhors. Now Hitler is taking a personal interest in the case.

Novembre 1943. Les combats font toujours rage sur le continent. Bien qu'elle habite un village côtier du Devon, au sud-ouest de l'Angleterre, Carol Porter n'est pas épargnée par le conflit. La jeune femme, qui a déjà perdu son mari au combat, va bientôt devoir quitter sa maison : l'état-major allié a en effet réquisitionné la zone sur laquelle elle se trouve pour préparer le futur débarquement de Normandie... Pauline, la sœur aînée de Carol, doit de son côté surmonter d'autres épreuves.

Belgium, 1942. Young schoolteacher Andrée Geulen secretly defies the Nazis in Belgium, who are forcing Jews to wear a yellow Star of David. Andrée is not Jewish, but she feels a maternal connection to her students, who are living in constant fear, and decides to take action. No child should have to suffer under such persecution. But what can one woman do against an entire army? Ida Sterno is a Jewish woman who works with the Committee for the Defense of Jews in Belgium, a clandestine resistance group tasked with hiding children from the Gestapo. She wants to recruit Andrée.

Isa de Smit was raised in the vibrant, glittering world of her parents' small art gallery in Amsterdam, a hub of beauty, creativity, and expression, until the Nazi occupation wiped the color from her city's palette. The "degenerate" art of the Gallery de Smit is confiscated, the artists in hiding or deported, her best friend, Truus, fled to join the shadowy Dutch resistance. And masterpiece by masterpiece, the Nazis are buying and stealing her country's heritage. So when the unpaid taxes threaten her beloved but empty gallery, Isa decides to make the Nazis pay.

Septembre 1938. Hitler est prêt à déclarer la guerre. Le premier ministre du Royaume-Uni, Chamberlain, fera tout pour conserver la paix. Tout se jouera dans une ville : Munich. Tandis que l'avion de Chamberlain survole la manche, Hitler quitte le sud de Berlin en train. Tous deux se dirigent vers Munich. De leur côté, deux jeunes hommes entament le même voyage : Hugh Legat, secrétaire privé de Chamberlain, et Paul Hartmann, diplomate allemand et membre de la résistance au nazisme.

Set in the northern Italian town of Ferrara before, during, and after the Second World War, these interlocking stories present a fully rounded world of unforgettable characters. The Novel of Ferrara memorializes not only the Ferrarese people, but the city itself, which assumes a character and a voice deeply inflected by the Jewish community to which the narrator belongs.

Epic in scope, Marge Piercy's sweeping novel encompasses the wide range of people and places marked by the Second World War. Each of her 10 narrators has a unique and compelling story that powerfully depicts his or her personality, desires, and fears. Special attention is given to the women of the war effort, like Bernice, who rebels against her domineering father to become a fighter pilot, and Naomi, a Parisian Jew sent to live with relatives in Detroit, whose twin sister, Jacqueline - still in France - joins the resistance against Nazi rule.

Nora Brouwer, a radar operator, watches as Allied bombers crest the horizon. A cryptic call tempts her—safety or a daring mission? Her brother-in-law, Christiaan Brouwer, ensnared in an SS prison, faces a dire choice: betray his secrets or forfeit his life. What will honor demand? Floris Brouwer, once a Waffen-SS titan, now languishes at Mauthausen concentration camp. A chance to regain past glory beckons, but at war's dark price. Lisa Abrahams, master of espionage, yearns for more than London's shadows. With victory nearing, her heart races to find Christiaan and alter fate.

Jimmy Propfield joined the army for two reasons: to get out of Mobile, Alabama, with his best friends Hank and Billy and to forget his high school sweetheart, Claire. Life in the Philippines seems like paradise—until the morning of December 8, 1941, when news comes from Manila: the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. Within hours, the teenage friends are plunged into war as Japanese warplanes attack Luzon, beginning a battle for control of the Pacific Theater that will culminate with a last stand on the Bataan Peninsula and end with the largest surrender of American troops in history.

He stared at the unfamiliar watch on his wrist. Three hours ago, he had stood on English soil. Three hours ago, he had been Martin Hearne, British Intelligence agent. Now he was in Nazi-occupied Brittany, posing as Bertrand Corlay, with the Frenchman’s life reduced to headings in his memory. Hearne looked down at the faded uniform, which had once been Corlay’s, felt once more for the papers in the inside pocket. He was ready. From now on, he was one step away from death.

1942: With the war's outcome hanging in the balance, President Roosevelt sends an unlikely new taskforce on a unique mission. They are librarians and microfilm specialists trained in espionage, working with a special branch of the Office of Strategic Services and deployed to neutral cities throughout Europe. By acquiring and scouring Axis newspapers, books, technical manuals, and periodicals, the librarians can gather information about troop location, weaponry, and military plans.

December 1943. In the years before the rise of Hitler, the Gerber family’s summer cottage was filled with laughter. Now, as deep drifts of snow blanket the Black Forest, German dissenter Franka Gerber is alone and hopeless. Fervor and brutality have swept through her homeland, taking away both her father and her brother and leaving her with no reason to live.

Sicily, 1943. Three American women, all nurses in the Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron, are determined to do all they can for their country. Vita is fun-loving, Dot shy and sweet-natured, and Evelyn practical and determined, but for all their differences, a life of military service pulls the three together as firm friends. When they’re selected for a daring mission, the women are proud to play their part. But disaster strikes when their plane crash-lands behind enemy lines in occupied Albania. finally find their way home?

Lilli Sternberg longs to be a ballet dancer. But outside the sanctuary of the theatre, her beloved city is in chaos. The Nazi party are gaining power, and the threats to those who deviate from the party line are increasing. Jewish families are being targeted and their businesses raided; even her father’s shop was torched because of their faith. When Lilli meets Captain Marco Zeiller during a chance encounter, her heart soars. But Marco has been spotted by the Reich as an officer with potential.

It’s 1936. The seaside-resort village of Split on the Adriatic coast bustles. The tourist spots are booming, passenger steamers dot the harbor, and Jewish émigrés have found tenuous refuge from persecution. But as war in Europe looms, Split is also a nest of spies, fascists, and smugglers—and now, a locale suspiciously scouted by a German Reich film crew. Then one summer morning it becomes the scene of a murder investigation when a corpse is found entangled in fishing nets in the port.

Stalingrad, November 1942. Lieutenant Breuer dreams of returning home for Christmas. But he and his fellow German soldiers will spend winter in a frozen hell – as snow, ice and relentless Soviet assaults reduce the once-mighty Sixth Army to a diseased and starving rabble. Breakout at Stalingrad is a stark and terrifying portrait of the horrors of war, and a profoundly humane depiction of comradeship in adversity.

Die Pfarrerstochter Luise träumt davon, das Fliegen zu erlernen. Gegen alle Widerstände gelingt es ihr, ihren Traum zu verwirklichen und Pilotin zu werden. Als die Nazis an die Macht kommen, muss sie die Fliegerei aufgeben und kehrt nach Franken zurück. Hier ist plötzlich alles anders: Alle schweigen, ganz egal, was passiert.

France 1944: Frankie opens her eyes and winces. The daylight coming through the shutters is acid-bright, but that’s not what is causing her pain. As she tries to speak through burned and blistered lips, she realises there is only darkness where her memories should be. She is fed sips of water by a kindly old French man, Antoine, who tells her that his grandson found her lying next to her burning plane, crying out for a man called Michael. A man she cannot remember.

‘What a page turner!' Daisy Wood, author of The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris ' A delicious Art Deco novel with a delightfully acerbic heroine.' Marius Gabriel, author of The German Daughter 'Original and immersive.' Eva Glyn, author of An Island of Secrets In a bookshop nestled in the sprawling...

Operation Anglo, 31 August 1942. Beneath the waves, HMS Traveller closes in on the coast of Rhodes in the Eastern Mediterranean. Aboard, eight SBS commandos check their weapons and munitions as they prepare to infiltrate and sabotage two Axis bomber fields. That part of their mission will be a success... but only two of the eight commandos will make it back to the submarine. Ex-Black Watch Sgt Jim Hunter will be one of the lucky ones, but what he will face next will make Operation Anglo look like a cakewalk.