Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

Also known as Demons, The Possessed is a powerful socio-political novel about revolutionary ideas and the radicals behind them. It follows the career of Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky, a political terrorist who leads a group of nihilists on a demonic quest for societal breakdown. They are consumed by their desires and ideals, and have surrendered themselves fully to the darkness of their "demons". This possession leads them to engulf a quiet provincial town and subject it to a storm of violence.

Madeleine Talmage Force is just 17 when she attracts the attention of John Jacob "Jack" Astor. Jack's mother was the Mrs. Astor, American royalty and New York's most formidable socialite. Despite their 29-year age difference and the scandal of Jack's recent divorce, Madeleine falls headlong into love. On their honeymoon in Egypt, the newlyweds finally find a measure of peace away from photographers and journalists. Madeleine feels truly alive for the first time - and is happily pregnant. The couple plans to return home in the spring of 1912, aboard an opulent new ocean liner.

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. By his side at every turn is the loyal knight Ferdia, also known as Rufus. Together they will face not just Richard's archenemy Philippe Capet of France, but also the king's treacherous younger brother, John.

Im Hörspiel 'Abgesang auf Leo G.' tritt die Kunstfigur Leo Greller als mäßig erfolgreicher Liedermacher der `Hamburger Schule´ an der Seite ehemaliger Weggefährten auf.

Diese hier handelt von dem bewegten Leben einer irdischen Heiligen, die manche für eine ganz normale Verrückte hielten. Prinzessin Alice erzählt vom bewegten und überraschenden Leben der hochadligen Alice von Battenberg, der Großmutter des britischen Königs Charles III. Eine atemberaubende Schönheit, erzogen dazu, Königin zu werden. Ihre Familie wandte sich ab und brachte sie in einer der frühen Psychiatrien unter, der sie unter größter Gefahr aber mit großem Einfallsreichtum entkam. Fortan lebte sie in größter Einsamkeit in Griechenland, wo sie eine Suppenküche für die Ärmsten unterhielt.

Es ist die Geschichte von Rossella Casini, einer zwanzigjährigen Frau aus Florenz, die sich Hals über Kopf in Francesco, einen Studenten aus Kalabrien, verliebt. Was sie nicht weiß: Er stammt aus einer mächtigen Familie der 'Ndrangheta. Als sie in sein Heimatdorf reist, bricht eine gewaltsame Familienfehde aus. Rossella flieht nicht, sie will kraft ihrer Liebe Francesco dort herausziehen. Doch auf einmal verschwindet sie spurlos.

The price of genius is one hell of a hangover. When Henry Lawson - New South Wales' most promising young writer and a budding alcoholic - is banished from Sydney to 'find the real bush', he hopes for fresh material and a new start. Instead, he stumbles into a mind-bending collision of myth...

When war breaks out in Israel in 1973, childhood friends Haim and Dov are called up together to serve in a tank battalion. In the chaos of battle, the friends are separated. A month later, on his first leave, Haim returns home alone. Weary and saddened, but sustained by religious faith, he struggles to come to terms with his experiences. One question remains uppermost in Haim's mind: What happened to Dov?

William Perry’s friendship had a significant influence on Henry Ford and the hiring of African-Americans at the Ford Motor Company. In later years, Henry used the metaphor of having shared a cross cut saw with William Perry, to explain his belief that African-Americans and whites should work together in harmony, with “The coloured man (sawing) at one end of the log and the white man at the other. “

Read in the style of a secret diary, this famous sequel to I, Claudius gives a wry and human view of the Roman world, bringing to life some of the most scandalous and violent times in history. Claudius has survived the murderous intrigues of his predecessors to become, reluctantly, Emperor of Rome. He recounts his surprisingly successful rule; how he cultivates the loyalty of the army to repair the damage caused by his nephew Caligula; his friendship with the Jewish King Herod Agrippa; and his invasion of Britain.

In late March 1944, as Stalin’s forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel must make a terrible decision: Do they wait for the Soviet bear’s intrusion and risk being sent to Siberia? Or do they reluctantly follow the wolves—murderous Nazi officers who have pledged to protect “pure-blood” Germans? The Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed in Ukraine for more than a century.

Waking in the small hours, Marcel Proust embarks on a retrospective journey, endeavouring to capture the elusive moments that shaped his life. A sip of tea and the taste of a madeleine prompt further recollections, and the floodgates of memory open, pouring forth a torrent of vivid reminiscences.

Alice had not expected to spend most of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: is Y2K going to be a thing? Y2K was not a thing. But there were worse disasters to come: Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague.

With one impatient phone call, a young Christopher Isherwood is drawn into the film industry. On the other end of the line is the brilliant yet temperamental Austrian director Friedrich Bergmann. Christopher’s job is to rescue the script of a saccharine love story set in nineteenth-century Vienna, a film called Prater Violet. Meanwhile, in the real Vienna of 1934, the Austrian right crushes a socialist uprising. Bergmann is distraught; his family is in danger in Vienna, while his prophecy of a coming war goes unheeded by his British colleagues.

Nevzrušené dětství na americkém Středozápadě. A také strach z nočních můr a fyzického násilí, halucinace a plačtivost. Záliba v rybaření, lovu, turistice a čtení. Prázdnota ústící v samotářská dobrodružství a vloupačky. Studium anglické literatury na prestižní americké univerzitě, kterou nenáviděl. Poflakování po Evropě, homosexuální pajzly. Po návratu domů život z renty, flinkání a psychoterapie. Z ní vyražen jako „nenapravitelný lhář". Příležitostná zaměstnání jako krysař, soukromý detektiv, výčepní, dělník. Život na hraně a návyk na drogy.

Le petit Wolfgang adore son père, Léopold Mozart, son guide, son modèle, son dieu vivant. Mais vient le temps où l'enfant prodige s'élève plus haut que le maître, et l'admiration se mue en dédain. L'un rompt, s'émancipe, grisé de passions nouvelles ; l'autre souffre, se résigne, cède sa place, contraint d'inventer des liens différents. Un drame silencieux qui, peut-être bien, s'immisce dans toute relation entre père et fils.

La vida de Coro Egurrola, una empresaria vasca de éxito, a punto de casarse, da un vuelco total cuando recibe un requerimiento notarial de una desconocida para la venta de una casa en una aldea castellana de la que jamás ha oído hablar. De esta manera tan sorprendente, Coro descubrirá la existencia de su verdadera abuela, Magdalena, y las tragedias que sufrió durante la guerra civil.

Deu anys després de la mort del seu pare, el narrador d'aquest llibre decideix escriure-la. Amb l'ombra del suïcidi que priva el dol, es pregunta: és possible trobar les paraules d'un comiat que no es va produir? Així, aquest relat personal i íntim esdevé una recerca per entendre com es forgen els vincles familiars, a què condemna el silenci, on s'amaga la veritat d'una història. Però l'escriptura falla, i l'autor recorre a les biografies d'escriptors que es van suïcidar i a les seves darreres notes per reconstruir un adeu possible, temptatiu.

This stunning novel plunges into the tumultuous life of screen icon Katharine Hepburn, a star whose fierce independence, passionate spirit, and fluid sexuality shattered Hollywood’s rules and redefined what it meant to be a woman in film. “A riveting and unputdownable journey through fame...

Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.