Showing results for "life" in World War I

Restless, ambitious Ilyas was stolen from his parents by the Schutzruppe askari, the German colonial troops; after years away, he returns to his village to find his parents gone and his sister, Afiya, given away. Hamza was not stolen but was sold; he has come of age in the army, at the right hand of an officer whose control has ensured his protection but marked him for life. Hamza does not have words for how the war ended for him. Returning to the town of his childhood, all he wants is work, however humble and security - and the beautiful Afiya.

The once impoverished medical student Agnes Glock is now the fabulously wealthy Mrs Mulberry. Her estate in the mountains is magnificent, a haven for those too ravaged by the Great War to cope with the society that first condemned them to battle and which now shuns them. The War has, however, stolen Agnes's chance to graduate as a doctor, as well as the fiance she adored. Her husband, Douglas Mulberry, remains shellshocked and unable to speak. Their scandalous marriage is a farce, an act of kindness to keep Douglas's fortune from his uncle's grasp.

In 1915, as World War 1 rages in Europe and the numbers of dead and injured continue to grow, Australian nurse, Sister Cora Barker, leaves her home in Australia for England, determined to use her skills for King and country. When she arrives at Harefield House - donated to the Australian Army by its expatriate Australian owners - she helps transform it into a hospital that is also a little piece of home for recuperating Australian soldiers.

As the Great War continues to take its toll, headstrong 21-year-old Emily Bryce is determined to contribute to the war effort. She is convinced by a cheeky and handsome Australian pilot that she can do more, and it is not long before she falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage. When he is sent back to the front, Emily volunteers as a “land girl,” tending to the neglected grounds of a large Devonshire estate. It’s here that Emily discovers the long-forgotten journals of a medicine woman who devoted her life to her herbal garden.

Brothers Thom and Archie are the best of friends and never disagree, until the beautiful, young and very headstrong Molly James comes into their life. Molly might be playing a game with the brothers - but when war strikes and they both join up to fight, it isn't a game anymore. Based on the true story of the author's grandfather's wartime experiences, At the Going Down of the Sun explores the intense bond between soldiers and brothers fighting in war, and a love that may tear them apart.

Kitty and Tom Conlon arrive in Liverpool in July 1916 to claim the house Tom’s great-uncle has bequeathed him in his will. The move to England couldn’t have come at a better time. Dublin is in turmoil following the Easter Uprising and Kitty’s brother is now in prison. The house in Weaver Street is all they hoped for, and after a shaky start with her new neighbours, Kitty believes the world is her oyster. Until that is, Tom is conscripted into the navy. With Tom away, it’s up to Kitty and the women of Weaver Street to get each other through the war.

Ten-year-old Magda Brodie’s world is torn apart when her mother dies in the workhouse two weeks before Christmas. Her wastrel father arranges for her sisters to be sent to their grandparents in Ireland and for her younger brother to be adopted, leaving Magda distraught with worry as her family are scattered far and wide. Magda, as the eldest girl, is sent to live with her Aunt Bridget who, for whatever reason, holds a bitter resentment towards Magda. But adversity makes Magda strong and determined.

England, 2014: Audrey Collins knows only two things about her beloved grandmother's past: She was born into nobility and she immigrated to America at seventeen years old. So when Audrey inherits her gran's home in North Yorkshire, she arrives expecting a sprawling country estate fit for lords and ladies. Instead, she finds an abandoned stone cottage perfectly preserved as Gran left it when she fled in 1941—ration book and all—and begins to uncover what secrets her family has been keeping.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Toby's Room, a dark, compelling novel of human desire, wartime horror and the power of friendship. When Toby is reported 'Missing, Believed Killed', another secret casts a lengthening shadow over Elinor's world: How exactly did Toby die - and why? Elinor determines to uncover the truth. Only then can she finally close the door to Toby's room.

Thomas and Mary Cooper, rooted in the working-class streets of East London, face the looming war with trepidation as they strive to protect their children, Elizabeth, Alice, and Albert, from its harsh realities. Elizabeth emerges as a strong voice for women’s rights amid the suffragette movement, while Alice’s life in New York unfolds against a backdrop of change and ambition. Meanwhile, Albert dreams of adventure, unaware of the truths awaiting him. As the war drags on, bringing devastating losses and fleeting victories, the Coopers endure the unrelenting trials of life in a world torn apart.

Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel takes place over the course of a single June day in the lives of some very different Londoners: wealthy society hostess Clarissa Dalloway, who is preparing for a party; her old friend Peter Walsh, recently returned from India, whose proposal of marriage Clarissa rejected years ago; Septimus Warren Smith, a WWI veteran suffering from shell shock; and his Italian-born wife, Rezia, who is trying to care for him as best she can. Woolf's beautiful prose captures the minds and souls of these vivid characters.

From the moment Len came into their lives, everything changed for Millie and Elsie. Both fell in love with him, but he chose Millie because of her attractive legacy - the Jam Factory. Millie’s expecting Len’s baby, and it should be the happiest time, but her husband’s true colours have come to the fore - and Millie is forced to leave the marriage. Now Millie is desperate to save her child from Len’s clutches. Will Len ever allow her to find happiness?

As snow begins to fall, and word reaches their town that the Red Army are approaching, German-born mother-of-two Emma knows she has no choice: She must pack their meagre belongings and leave their home, in search of safety. Even if safety is within Nazi Germany. But as the icy grip of winter tightens around them, her four-year-old son—her blue-eyed angel—Jacob becomes ill. Desperate for him to get well enough to continue their journey, she takes him to a hospital, where she hands him to a kind nurse. Then a terrible attack separates mother and son, and their lives change forever.

The son of a sweetmaker, Karl Jochum has ambitions for a life beyond his father's shop. Through hard work and perseverance he determines to open a cafe in Berlin where the Emperor will one day dine. As the city grows and prospers, so too does Karl's business empire, and he rises to become the proprietor of Europe's finest and most luxurious hotel. Situated close to Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, the Hotel Quadriga is a glorious monument to Imperialist Germany.

Gaetano Marino interpreta "La camera in attesa", classica novella di Pirandello incentrata sul patetismo degli affetti familiari sullo sfondo della Grande Guerra.

Gabrielle and Antoinette know they're destined for something better. Abandoned to a convent orphanage, they are raised for simple lives. But at night they dream of a glittering future, and the Chanel sisters are determined to prove themselves worthy. Their journey propels Coco and Ninette out of poverty to performing in bohemian cafés and stylish music halls, and soon on to Paris and a small hat shop on the rue Cambon, where a boutique business takes hold and expands to the glamorous French resort towns.

The Family Koenig is a historical novel about several generations of physicians in a Jewish family during the core years of the 20th century. It is a gripping book that is rich with historical detail that contains love stories, abandonment, wars, murders and suicides; and yet is a meditation on how its physicians find inner strength, become true healers, and find and nurture love.

A stunning and unexpected portrait of Lucy Maud Montgomery, creator of one of literature’s most prized heroines, whose personal demons were at odds with her most enduring legacy—the irrepressible Anne of Green Gables.

At 16, Nancy, the only member of her family to survive the Great Famine, leaves her small island for the mainland. Finding work in a grand house on the edge of Cork City, she feels irrepressibly drawn to the charismatic gardener Michael Egan, sparking a love affair that soon throws her into a fight for her life. In 1920, Nancy's son Jer has lived through battles of his own as a soldier in the Great War. Now drunk in a jail cell, he struggles to piece together where he has come from and who he wants to be.

A love story set against the backdrop of the First World War, the events in Lethbridge unfold in disparate locales, from London to Boston, from Maine to Niagara Falls, from the trenches of wartime France to the military hospitals of England. Yet the lives of its three protagonists come together in one place: the frontier western Canadian city of Lethbridge, Alberta. Inspired by a true story, Lethbridge author Terry McConnell tells the tale of an English lad abandoned by his family, and a young American escaping the tyranny of his own father.