Historical Tragedy

Tragedy and Triumph is based on the extraordinary life of an Afghan teenager whose loving childhood is shuttered by war. Ahmad Ansari is badly injured in a rocket attack on his house during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970s. The memoir details challenges that young Ahmad faces since then, how he graduates valedictorian in Kabul to eventually earn a doctorate degree in France and join his refugee family in the United States.

Does time heal all wounds? Or do some last forever? Pennsylvania, 1971: Graham Davidson is a young man with survivor’s guilt after the death of three siblings. Estranged from his father and seeking a direction in his life, Graham learns about vision quests from a Crow Indian. He secures seasonal employment in Yellowstone National Park and embarks on a spiritual journey. Wyoming Territory, 1871: Under a full moon at a sacred thermal area, Graham finds himself in Yellowstone a century earlier - one year before it was established as a national park.

Life is going well for Maria. Welcomed into the Saward family, she has secured herself a job as a maid for Queen Alexandra and is living with her family in a beautiful cottage on the Royal Sandringham estate. The luxuries and privilege associated with the royal family are a far cry from the poverty and suffering she endured before, though the royals, like the nation, are tightening their belts. But when a mysterious relative turns up, seemingly on the run from the law, Maria's new-found happiness could be under threat.

Birmingham, 1858. Dora, a spirited young maid with a vivid imagination, finds solace in the library of the esteemed family she works for. But when a forbidden love leads to a secret that could ruin her, Dora has no choice but to leave the only place that has ever offered her security and...

When Robert Pomeroy, a young undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, finds a letter slipped under his door in the early hours of a rainy day, he flies into a panic. He hurries to the railway station. But he doesn’t reach his destination alive. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are called upon to investigate this tragedy on the railway. It soon becomes apparent that Cambridge’s hopes of success in the forthcoming boat race rested on Pomeroy’s shoulders.

Susan Cameron, a young Missouri woman, arrives in Wyoming Territory determined to homestead on her own. Her nearest neighbors, Ellen Watson Averell and James “Jimmy” Averell, operate a small road ranch not far from the Oregon Trail on homestead land formerly grazed illegally by Albert Bothwell’s cattle. Ellen purchased a small herd of cattle and brand, but Bothwell claimed the Averells were operating a rural brothel and that Ellen took calves for her “favors.” Trouble haunts Susan, her veterinarian friend, Michael, and the Averells from the moment Susan attempts to take possession of her new homestead land, culminating in the hangings of both Ellen and Jimmy Averell by six prominent cattlemen, who then spread vicious lies in their controlled Cheyenne newspaper, calling Ellen “Cattle Kate.” The mystery deepens when the cattlemen are brought to trial and all the witnesses to the hangings have died or disappeared and Susan and Michael are kidnapped by hired gunmen...

Unique to this title is: a historical introduction, an overview, a study of themes, and a list of famous quotes. You may of course skip all of it and go straight to the main title if you do not want any spoilers and come back later to the beginning. William Shakespeare, the 16th-century English poet, playwright, and actor, is generally regarded as the best writer in the English language and the world's best dramatist.

Believing in Tomorrow is the new sweeping family saga from the top ten bestselling author of One Snowy Night, Rita Bradshaw. Molly McKenzie is only eleven years old when her abusive father beats her to within an inch of her life. Escaping from the hovel she calls home, Molly is found by kind...

"Very occasionally a tragedy turns into a triumph. This wonderful, searing book is such a moment. Rush to read it & be thankful." – Miriam Margolyes Last night Ben phoned from Bermuda, collect as usual. I’d asked – though heaven knows why as we avoid soppy talk – if he still loved me. He...

Quella della "Spedizione Donner" è una storia vera che ancora oggi risveglia paure ataviche e curiosità morbose. Rimanda al 1846, quando una carovana di pionieri diretti in California rimase bloccata per mesi dalla neve nella Sierra Nevada. Alcuni di loro morirono di stenti dopo poco tempo. Altri, stipati nello spazio soffocante dei carri, portati alla follia dai morsi del freddo e della fame, si abbandonarono al cannibalismo. Quasi nessuno si salvò.

St. Paul, Minnesota, 1946: Introspective Shannon Malone and her more popular sister Eliza are Irish twins and best friends. As little girls, they relied on each other for companionship and affection as their mother remained distant, beating back the demons of her own mysterious childhood. As womanhood approaches, both look forward to promising - though different - futures. But when tragedy rocks the Malone family, secrets bloom and one sister leaves, possibly forever. The other, physically and emotionally scarred, vows to hold the invisible thread that runs deeply between them.

The eighteenth-century hanging of a schoolteacher for concealing the birth of a child out of wedlock has appeared in local legend over the last few centuries, but the full account of Ruth's story has never been told. Drawing on over two years of investigative research, author Carolyn Marvin brings to light the dramatic details of Ruth's life and the cruel injustice of colonial Portsmouth's moral code. As Marvin uncovers the real flesh-and-blood woman who suffered the ultimate punishment, her listeners come to understand Ruth as an individual and a woman of her time.

In this, perhaps Dickens' most profound and personal novel, we are invited to share in the sentimental education of Pip, the poor boy from the village forge who risks losing himself in snobbery and selfishness when he mysteriously inherits a fortune. The story moves from the bleak Kentish marshes of Pip's childhood to a thrilling climax that mingles tragedy and triumph.

July 18, 1969: A car driven by Senator Edward M. Kennedy plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Cape Cod. Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old former staffer for Kennedy’s brother Robert, died in the crash. The scandal that followed demeaned Kopechne’s reputation and scapegoated her for Ted Kennedy’s inability to run for the presidency instead of acknowledging her as an innocent victim in a tragedy that took her life. Kashatus’s biography of Mary Jo Kopechne illuminates the life of a politically committed young woman who embodied the best ideals of the 60s.

When Miss Julia received a phone call from her attorney, she could have never in her wildest dreams imagined what he was about to tell her. She was in a will and she had been granted guardianship of two small children—her brother's grandchildren, two young girls. But her brother had been dead for thirty years.

The two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War traces the extraordinary downfall of financier Jubilee Jim, bringing to life New York’s Gilded Age and some of its legendary players, including Boss William Tweed, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the...

Archaeology student Chione has vivid dreams about the discovery of an opulent tomb. After the founder of the Institute of Archaeology learns that Chione’s dreams might be connected to events in Egypt, he accepts an offer to examine a mysterious site in the Valley of the Queens. When they discover a burial chamber, ancient spells transport Chione and her ex-boyfriend, archaeologist Aaron Ashby, 3,500 years into the past. There, they learn of Tutankhamon and Tauret, a priestess in Pharaoh's Court.

Centered upon one of the most surprising and dramatic battles in American history, Darkness at Chancellorsville recreates what began as a brilliant, triumphant campaign for the Union - only to end in disaster for the North.

In the euphoria of the armistice, a young woman lay dying. Daisy had grown up, barefoot on the cobbles, in a village on the rugged North Devon coast; she was mindful of the perils of the uncertain sea. Her family had also been exposed to the dangers of disease and the First World War, but for Daisy, it was her own mother who posed the greatest threat of all.

Angel of the Ghetto tells the remarkable story of Sam Solasz, a boy born into a warm and loving Jewish family in Poland in 1928. Sam inhabited a protected world until the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, which tore his world apart. Ripped from his family, young Sam lived a nomadic and dangerous life. He had to learn to depend on his resourcefulness and the keen ability. He had to size up people and events around him.