Saga World

Pauline Kermadec et Nathalie de Tresnel ont grandi ensemble. A dix-neuf ans, malgré des personnalités opposées, elles sont inséparables. Pauline, fille de diplomate réservée, pose un regard curieux et angoissé sur une Europe au bord du gouffre. Nathalie, issue d'une famille désargentée de la noblesse, lutte avec panache contre les préjugés et les convenances de son milieu. L'actualité de l'été 1938 les rattrape. Pauline doit suivre son père à Berlin, au chevet d'une paix toujours plus fragile.

Tuscany, 1942: having moved from England to the beautiful city of Lucca before the outbreak of war, Lizzie Thornton adores her job as tutor to eight-year-old Cristo – despite the fact that his father, Count Antonio de Falco, is a notable fascist and supporter of Mussolini. Then war is declared, and Lizzie is suddenly regarded as an enemy in the country she loves so much. When new tutor Vincenzo Baldini arrives, Lizzie is exposed to a new secret world; Vincenzo is actually a member of the Italian resistance, running an anti-fascist propaganda magazine.

It’s autumn 1940 and the Blitz has cast its shadow over London. Everyone is doing their bit to help, including the three Harrison sisters of the East End’s Victory Walk. Nurse Rose is snowed under in the hospital tending to victims of the bombings. Her sister Clover is on active duty on the south coast, while the baby of the family, Daisy, is growing up quickly working on the London Underground, now that thousands of people are taking shelter down below. Even in wartime, the sisters find time for a wedding, but the bride is keeping a secret, which threatens to come to light.

Scotland, 1942. The Lumberjills, the newest recruits in the Women’s Timber Corps, arrive in the Scottish Highlands to a hostile reception from doubtful locals. The young women are determined to prove them wrong and serve their country – but they’re also all looking for something more. Can the Lumberjills get through their struggles together – even when tragedy strikes?

Le monstre de Florence existe vraiment. C'est ainsi qu'on a appelé le ou les auteurs de doubles meurtres qui ont été perpétrés dans la région de la Toscane, en Italie, entre 1974 et 1985, semant l'effroi parmi la population. Chaque fois, un jeune couple est tué alors qu'il fait l'amour dans la nature. Au total, 16 personnes ont été assassinées. Chaque meurtre fait les grands titres de la presse nationale et internationale. Voici le récit des meurtres tels qu'ils ont réellement été constatés pendant ces 11 années d'horreur.

Germany 1937: Fear and betrayal stalk the streets. People disappear. Persecution of the Jews has become a national pastime. When Ruth Friedman's husband is arrested by the SS, she is left to fend for herself and her four children. She alone stands as their shield against the Nazis. But where can she go? Where will her family be safe? Ruth must overcome the indifference, hatred, and cruelty that surrounds her as she and her family race to escape the advancing Nazi army's final solution.

Bristol 1939. At forty years of age, Mary Anne Randall still turns heads. With an abusive husband spending most of his wages on beer, she has resigned herself to be the sole breadwinner to protect her family and keep the wolves from the door. In order to make ends meet, Mary Anne runs a pawnbroking business from the wash house at the end of the garden. Following the outbreak of war an opportunity presents itself to escape her loveless marriage and find true love. Will she take that chance, or carry on living just for her children and not for herself?

May 1944. Hope and excitement is in the air when news breaks of the allied forces landing in Normandy. D Day has arrived. However, the day-to-day struggles for the Tobacco Girls continue. Peace is on the horizon, but will their wishes and dreams win through and bring them a happy ever after?

Bristol 1941. Having left her abusive husband for very good reasons, Mary Anne Randall finds herself judged harshly by her friends and neighbours, after courageously risking everything for a second chance at happiness with Michael. With Michael away fighting, Mary Anne is less concerned by her tarnished reputation and focusses on keeping her beloved children safe. But with the bombs beginning to fall on Bristol, danger is all too close to home.

Mars 1942. La guerre suit son cours. Sybil vient de succomber au cancer qui la rongeait. Rupert n'a plus donné signe de vie. Le quotidien à Home Place est rythmé par le deuil, les restrictions de nourriture et de chauffage, l'attente de nouvelles à la radio. Polly et Clary ont dix-sept ans et s'installent à Londres pour y trouver du travail. Louise abandonne ses rêves d'actrice pour épouser Michael, officier dans la Marine, qui passe son temps en mer tandis que Louise donne naissance à Sebastien.

Acclaimed romance author Katie Lane inspires listeners to believe in true love. When Faith Aldridge learns she has a twin sister, she treks to Bramble, Texas, to find her. But Bramble’s residents think Faith is her sister, Hope, and they take action to reunite Faith with Hope’s ex-flame, Slate. When the real Hope finally shows up, Faith pulls out all the stops to hold onto her newfound passion.

Alburet came to Alpha World as a tester for the government. What he found wasn’t what he expected, but what he needed. Together with his three wives, they had survived the revelations and grown closer. Now, other problems had come to the fore, demanding to be dealt with.

The women of Mulberry Lane anxiously wait for news. Peggy doesn’t know if she’ll ever again see Able, the American father of her twins, while a very odd letter from estranged husband, Laurie, threatens to set the cat among the pigeons. Rose can’t stop loving Jimmy, while Tom can’t stop loving her. Will Gordon ever again be the man he once was? Can he be a proper husband to Maureen, and if he can’t, what will become of their marriage?

May 1917: Emma Lewis Swan's husband, Tom, has gone from Boston to France, eager to do his duty as a surgeon on the Western Front. Emma, a sculptress, has stayed behind, pursuing her art despite being dismissed by male critics. On the bustling sidewalk she spies a returned soldier. His brutally scarred face inspires first pity, and then something more - a determination to use her skill to make masks for disfigured soldiers. Emma's union with Tom has been steady yet passionless, marred by guilt over a choice she made long ago.

De très beaux textes où le réalisme côtoie le grotesque, le fantastique ou l'absurde et ne fait pas obstacle à un foisonnement imaginaire souvent débridé. Gogol, à travers ces "petites histoires", nous donne à découvrir sa vision de la société russe du XIXe siècle, une "peinture au scalpel" pleine d'ironie et souvent drôle.

It's 1911, and Greta Goldbaum is forced to move from glittering Vienna to damp England to wed Albert, a distant cousin. The Goldbaum family are one of the wealthiest in the world, with palaces across Europe, but as Jews and perpetual outsiders, they know that strength lies in family. But World War I looms, and even the influential Goldbaums cannot alter its course. For the first time in 200 years, the family will find itself on opposing sides, and Greta will have to choose: the family she's created, or the one she left behind.

As war looms in Europe, 18-year-old Jane Shaw runs the household as an unpaid servant on a meagre budget. When tragedy strikes and she loses her beloved younger brother in suspicious circumstances, Jane takes a position in service looking after Ned, a troubled young boy. Here she meets dashing David Heron, Ned's Uncle and they form an immediate attachment until she is dismissed after being accused of stealing a piece of jewellery. Returning home, Jane and her sister, Melia, are soon orphaned and left at the mercy of their Aunt Alice.

Les bombardements de Hiroshima et Nagasaki, qui ont eu lieu à la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, consistent en deux attaques des États-Unis sur deux villes du Japon. C'est la première fois dans l'histoire qu'est utilisée la bombe atomique. Les États-Unis avaient demandé au Japon de capituler en juillet 1945, mais le Japon avait refusé. La menace de l'utilisation de la bombe atomique s'était alors installée. Les Américains craignent que l'attaque au sol du Japon par les troupes américaines puisse provoquer la mort d'un million de soldats américains.

Growing up on a farm in early twentieth-century rural Iceland, Karitas Ólafsdóttir, one of six siblings, yearns for a new life. An artist, Karitas has a powerful calling and is determined to never let go of her true being, one unsuited for the conventional. But she is powerless against the fateful turns of real life and all its expectations of women. Pulled back time and again by design and by chance to the Icelandic countryside - as dutiful daughter, loving mother, and fisherman’s wife - she struggles to thrive, to be what she was meant to be.

When her husband returns shell-shocked and broken from the Great War and his mother makes her life a misery, Betty Wellow discovers how bitter and hard life can truly be. But it is not until a devastating storm sweeps through their small fishing village and endangers her life that she sees her chance to escape - and takes it. Fleeing to Bristol, she changes her name to Mabel Brook and takes a position as a maid. But tragedy strikes once more after the sudden death of her mistress, and she is cast back onto the streets.