Biographical Fiction

The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and by whom he has been touched. Inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival....

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world....

The soldiers called her the Angel of Waterloo...Henrietta Bartlett, the esteemed surgeon's daughter who was born on a battlefield, lost her mother on a battlefield, and was widowed on the battlefield, where she worked alongside her father on that fateful day in June 1815....

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He's a normal Italian teenager - obsessed with music, food, and girls....

Dolly Maunder is born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society's long-locked doors are just starting to creak ajar for determined women. Growing up in a poor farming family in rural New South Wales, Dolly spends her life doggedly pushing at those doors.

The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons—the impulsive and sensual Dmitri....

A family torn apart. A king with an iron fist. Will their faith be strong enough to survive persecution and reunite? Three books. Lots of harrowing, historical adventure! Listen to find out more....

The politics of empire-building and the hypocricies, back-stabbings and corruptions of Rome's first family come to light....

Autumn 1192. With Jerusalem still in the Saracens' hands, and a peace treaty agreed with their leader Saladin, Richard the Lionheart is free at last to travel back to his strife-ridden kingdom....

Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore. The Executioner's Song follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood....

Waking in the small hours, Marcel Proust embarks on a retrospective journey, endeavouring to capture the elusive moments that shaped his life....

Based on the incredible true story of two unsung heroines who defied the odds to save countless lives, this powerful novel reveals how acts of extraordinary courage by ordinary women saved so many in the countdown to WW2.

From the author of the number one best seller Beneath a Scarlet Sky comes a new historical novel inspired by one family’s incredible story of daring, survival, and triumph....

Born a veritable great lion of God to a devout Jewish family, Saul of Tarsus is raised by his parents to embrace their love of humanity. Dogged by what he perceives as a lack of true faith, he embarks on a journey to save his people from sacrilege....

My name is Elena and I used to be a human being. Now I am a sex slave. If you are reading this diary then I am either dead or I have managed to escape....

1950: Margaret Devonshire (Megs) is a 17-year-old student of mathematics and physics at Oxford University. When her beloved eight-year-old brother asks Megs if Narnia is real, logical Megs tells him it’s just a book for children, and certainly not true....

Ellen is planning the perfect Christmas. This year – this year – Christmas will be PERFECT. This is the year when all the dreams come true....

The Scarlet Lion is the final novel in an unforgettable standalone trilogy about William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, Regent of England—and one of the country’s greatest forgotten heroes.

A stirring work of historical fiction that explores the meaning of Mary Magdalene in the face of her erased history, Magdala is a fascinating invitation to re-examine the hidden messages in Jesus’ teachings and what it truly means to be a powerful woman....

In the throes of crisis, Rome braces for change. Caesar, Rome’s greatest general and conqueror of Gaul, now faces being stripped of his command and...

Paris, 1940. The Nazis have occupied the city - and the Ritz. The opulent old hotel, so loved by Parisians, is now full of swaggering officers, their minions and their mistresses. For American Olivia Olsen, working as a chambermaid at the hotel means denying her nationality....

The Secret War of Julia Child traces Julia's transformation from ambitious Pasadena blue blood to Washington, DC file clerk, to head of General "Wild Bill" Donovan's secret File Registry as part of the Office of Strategic Services.

Life for the MacLean family in Missoula, Montana, in 1937 centers around family, fly fishing and the Big Blackfoot River. Fly fishing is the one activity where the family can bridge troubled relationships,...

During the Holocaust at the German concentration camp near Plaszow, thousands of Jews lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis. More than a thousand others were spared...

Белая гвардия — первый роман выдающегося русского писателя и драматурга Михаила Булгакова. События романа происходят во время Гражданской...

Tayo, un veterano de la Segunda Guerra Mundial de ascendencia mixta, regresa a la reserva de los lagunas. Está profundamente marcado por su experiencia como prisionero de los japoneses y herido por el rechazo de su pueblo. Solo sumergiéndose en el pasado indio puede empezar a recuperar la paz que le fue arrebatada. Pero, por muy poderosa que sea la historia de Tayo, el triunfo perdurable de Ceremonia se extiende mucho más allá de la narración de los acontecimientos.

This is the story of Perry Barnes, a multi-talented man who made one bad teenage mistake in the weeks leading up to his high school graduation in 1942. On a lark he "borrowed" some jewelry that wasn't technically his. The local judge took it personally and gave Perry the choice of an assignment to a newly formed Army special operations unit at the start of World War II, or go to jail for 15 years. As a result, he winds up being trained by the United States government in the skills and arts of sabotage, killing, self-preservation, espionage, and ultimately how to be a first class jewel thief.

Pulitzer prize-winning author David K. Shipler’s fictionalized story of a Vietnamese interpreter, based on his own experiences as a war correspondent, brings back the tensions within Vietnam during the war, focusing on a local with close ties to American journalists and politicians.

Ariel needed money, and Joseph Hortha had it. Bound by gratitude toward the late Chilean president and a persistent need to know whether murder or suicide ended his life during the 1973 coup, the two men embark on an investigation that will take them from Washington DC and New York, to Santiago and Valparaíso, and finally to London.

Born in 1859 to Irish immigrants, Mary Dowling arrived at the height of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic fervor in America. The hardscrabble life her family led provided the foundation of grit and determination that would serve her well. She married the enterprising John Dowling. He offered her oversight of their burgeoning bourbon company's financial books and sought her insight as they grew from distillery investors to sole proprietors of Waterfill and Frazier.

Putin by Stu Armstrong is a gripping blend of fact and fiction, delivering a compelling narrative that explores the life and legacy of one of the world’s most controversial leaders. Meticulously researched and infused with dramatic storytelling, this audiobook takes listeners deep into the psyche of Vladimir Putin, from his early days as a KGB operative in Soviet-era East Germany to his rise as the unchallenged ruler of modern Russia.

La storia d’amore di una francese quindicenne con un giovane miliardario cinese, sullo sfondo di un ritratto di famiglia, nell’Indocina degli anni Trenta. Strade brulicanti di vita, il jazz, l’odore della pioggia e dei gelsomini. Racconti rivelazione di una lucidità struggente, di terribile e dolce bellezza, L’amante è l’opera che ha dato a Duras la consacrazione di un’immensa popolarità.

“Parola dopo parola ho creato la persona che sono e il paese inventato in cui vivo”. Come i personaggi di alcuni suoi romanzi memorabili, Isabel Allende, segnata dal dolore per l’esilio, torna con il ricordo alla sua gioventù e alle sue radici, a un paese ormai “inventato” e sfocato a causa della lunga distanza, dei traumi causati dal golpe, della diaspora della famiglia e della sua personale odissea, intessuta di passioni, drammi, successi. Dopo tanta vita e tanti abbandoni, tanti libri scritti e tanta nostalgia, Isabel torna al suo Cile.

De l'anonymat à la gloire, du pouvoir à la chute : suivez la vie de Napoléon Bonaparte via celle de Rosalie, une humble servante.En 1795, Rosalie trouve un emploi de servante dans un petit hôtel parisien et se retrouve face à un jeune officier récemment renvoyé de l’armée. Elle devient une des servantes de Joséphine qui lui lit d’une voix moqueuse les lettres enflammées de son amoureux fou de " Général en Chef des Armées d’Italie ".Au fil des années, Rosalie assiste aux évènements marquants de la vie de Napoléon.

En mand bliver løsladt efter mange år i fængsel. Han flytter ind hos en gammel ven. Han er som et barn, uden pas, uden sundhedskort, uden NemID. Det eneste, han har, er en ide om at gå. Langt. Hele vejen til Verdens Ende.”Okay, tænker jeg. Jeg er ædru alkoholiker. Ikkeryger. Jeg er drabsmand. Jeg er far. Jeg er 52 år. Jeg vejer 75 kilo plus minus. Jeg er drabsmand. Jeg er far. Ikkeryger. Jeg er løsladt. Jeg er ædru. Jeg er clean. Jeg er drabsmand. Jeg er min ven Mikaels ven. Jeg er ikke ung. Jeg er nøgen. Plus minus. Jeg nikker derinde, nikker til mig selv i spejlet.

Exklusive Auszüge und Sinnabschnitte gelesen von der Autorin. In ihrem berührenden Erzählband "Stapfenstreich" umkreist die Oldenburger Autorin Lina-Sophie Jacobs den frühen Tod ihres Vaters. Dafür verdichtet sie Erinnertes, Empfundenes und Erfundenes auf neuartige Weise und führt vor Augen, was uns der eigene Körper über Verluste erzählt - und was er uns verschweigt.

1932 zieht Erna aus einem kleinen Ort im Weserbergland nach Berlin - in die Metropole voller Versprechungen. Doch dem neunzehnjährigen Mädchen bleibt nicht viel Zeit, um die Sehnsucht nach einem aufregenden Leben in der Großstadt zu stillen. Viel zu schnell müssen die unbeschwerten Stunden den Stunden der Angst und der Trauer weichen. Erna versucht ihre aufrechte Haltung im Angesicht der Tyrannei zu bewahren. Schwerverletzt überlebt sie den Krieg und findet zwischen Trümmern und Tod ein neues Leben.

Книгу Марии Конюковой можно считать одновременно и портретом на фоне эпохи, и описанием эпохи на фоне портрета. Герой романа — дед Марии, который большую часть жизни прожил в Советском Союзе. Существование в Советской империи превратило его, талантливого, умного человека, физика-ядерщика, в представителя особой породы людей, которую советский писатель Илья Эренбург именовал ужаснувшимися. В книге о жизни и выживании homo soveticus`а автор пытается осмыслить эпоху СССР 1970–80-х годов, к оценке которой мы только сегодня начали подходить.

The Rappahannock Line continues the story of Irish immigrant Daniel Ryan who serves in Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. As the year 1862 draws to its close, the powerful Union army gathers its strength on the Rappahannock River in Virginia to renew its advance on the Confederate capital. Lee's army confronts it there bringing on a further bloody collision.

Den Kennern von H.P. Lovecraft dürfte der Künstler Richard U. Pickman ein Begriff sein. Der Maler morbider und monströser Werke soll sich durch seine exzellente Technik und den ungeheuren "Realismus" seiner alptraumhaften Werke ausgezeichnet haben. Wenig ist bekannt über das Leben dieses Ausnahmekünstlers und auch sein Werk ist, der außergewöhnlichen Qualität zum Trotz, in Vergessenheit geraten. Durch eine ebenso unwahrscheinliche wie bizarre Fügung bin ich in Besitz einer modrigen, wurmzerfressenen Kiste gelangt in welcher sich Tagebücher, Notiz- und Skizzenbücher Pickmans befinden.