Showing titles in 20th Century

An espionage thriller that has been called the first great spy novel, it has sustained its popularity, being embraced by each new generation. The first in a series of five novels it features the spy Richard Hannay, an action hero with a stiff upper lip who gets caught up in a dangerous race against a plot by German spies to destroy the British war effort. When Richard Hannay offers sanctuary to an American agent seeking his help in stopping a political assassination, he takes the first step on a trail of peril and espionage.

Past loves are like ghosts. They haunt you forever. The stunning new novel from the bestselling author of The Masterpiece and Tuscan Rose. I was war-weary, sad and officially divorced - and that was a recipe for recklessness. Rome, 1951. Veronica Gold is in the city as the correspondent for...

**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2026** MARLON JAMES'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS ‘Darkness is a mood in Jamaica . . .' The Disappearers is Marlon James’s triumphant return to the Jamaica of A Brief History of Seven Killings – a place...

The legendary Emma Harte, heroine of A Woman of Substance, returns… The legendary Emma Harte, heroine of A Woman of Substance, returns… At the centre of this sweeping saga stands Paula O'Neill, beloved granddaughter of Emma and the guardian of her vast business empire. Paula believes that...

Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.

The first in Ken Follett's breathtaking Century Trilogy, Fall of Giants is a captivating tale that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. A World in Chaos 1911, a thirteen-year-old boy, Billy...

Three very different women are recruited to the mysterious Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla has the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses - but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, working to translate decoded enemy secrets. Self-made Mab masters the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and the poverty of her East-End London upbringing. And shy local girl Beth is the outsider who trains as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts.

The definitive edition of the classic World War I romance novel, featuring all of the alternate endings: “Fascinating…serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten notes and long passages crossed out, giving readers a sense of an author’s process” (The New York Times)...

A SECRETARY LIKE NO OTHER IN AN EPIC SPANNING 40 YEARS All Hanna Fischer ever wanted to do was to study physics under the great Albert Einstein. But when, as a teenager in 1919, her life is suddenly turned upside-down, she is catapulted into a new and extraordinary life - as a secretary, a...

Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II stands as the crowning achievement of one of America's most celebrated storytellers. Like no other books about the war, Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events - and all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II - as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.

'This impeccably researched wartime thriller had me gripped from the opening pages – I loved it.' Eliza Graham 'A nail-biting read from start to finish … a must for WW2 fiction fans' Tessa Harris Holland, 1944: Undercover British agent Nancy Callaghan has been given her toughest case yet. A...

Wild whispers abound the Yorkshire Moors where someone means trouble… Penrith, Yorkshire Dales 1901 Tor Hardy has prospered in Cornwall but remains tied to the Pennines and the troubled mine at Penrith Scar. When a strike erupts, he returns to help his friend Jonathan Crossley, only to uncover...

From the globally best-selling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring. It is 1932, and the losses of the First World War are still keenly felt. Violet Speedwell, mourning for both her fiancé and her brother and regarded by society as a ‘surplus woman’ unlikely to marry, resolves to escape her suffocating mother and strike out alone. A new life awaits her in Winchester. Yes, it is one of draughty boarding-houses and sidelong glances at her naked ring finger from younger colleagues; but it is also a life gleaming with independence and opportunity.

London, 1940. Bombs fall and Josie Banks’ world crumbles around her. Her overbearing husband, Stan, is unreachable, called to service. Her home, a ruin of rubble and ash. Josie’s beloved tearoom boss has been killed, and Josie herself is injured, with nothing left and nowhere to go. Evacuated to the English countryside, Josie ends up at the estate of the aristocratic Miss Harcourt, a reluctant host to the survivors of the Blitz. Now a threat looms larger than anyone imagined. And a dangerous secret is about to upend Josie’s life again.

Paris, 1943. The scent of fresh baguettes hangs in the air as Coralie unbolts the door to her bakery with trembling fingers. She must get out of the city. Hiding her precious leather recipe book inside her coat, she promises never to let the secret locations of the people she worked tirelessly to save fall into German hands… Present day. Raven is unhappy about being shipped off to the other side of the country for the summer to stay with the mysterious French grandmother she barely knows.

1939. When the man Georgie has always loved is sent to France on a secret mission, every knock of the door fills her with dread. Beth is determined to do her bit for the war effort. Caught up in a whirlwind romance, she marries only to become a war widow. Desperately trying to make her way back from Paris to her family in England, a fateful and tragic encounter brings Hetty to Chateau de Faubourg, where she joins the resistance.

From the New York Times bestselling author comes this extraordinary masterpiece of historical fiction that will have you wiping tears from your face Paris, 1939 While working at the Louvre, Éliane Dufort falls for talented painter Xavier. But when the Nazis occupy the city, Xavier leaves for...

The phenomenal new novel, based on a true story, from the multimillion-copy bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's Journey and Three Sisters. 1942. Singapore is falling to the Japanese Army. English musician Norah Chambers places her eight-year-old daughter Sally on a ship...

The story of a life. The story of the year. 'Lessons shows [McEwan] at the very peak of his powers. He has written his masterpiece' Daily Telegraph When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has descended; young Roland Baines's life is turned upside...

The Key to Rebecca is a gripping espionage thriller set during the Second World War, from master storyteller and author of The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett. A Ruthless Spy 1942. Alex Wolff’s goal is Cairo. Following a relentless trek across the scorching Sahara, he arrives in the city...