Rattled by the discovery, Gillian attempts to unravel the truth behind the photos, setting her off on an epic journey through the past…1939. England is on the brink of war as Vivian Hughes falls in love with a handsome British official, but when bombs begin to fall and Vivian’s happy life is destroyed in the blitz, she will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves…As Gillian learns more about her grandmother’s past, the old photo begins to make more sense. But for every question answered, a new one takes its place. Faced with a truth that is not at all what she expected, Gillian attempts to shine a light not only on the mysteries of her family’s past but also on her own future.This gorgeously written multigenerational saga is a heart-wrenching yet hopeful examination of one woman’s struggle to survive, perfect for fans of The Nightingale and Beneath a Scarlet Sky.

    Around 1000 years back, anyone could go for a purgatory voyage to experience life after death for 12 days through a tunnel in Bharmaur, Himachal Pradesh. But no one could recall what happened to him during his purgatory voyage. Once, a person from Bundelkhand, named Kalidas went for a purgatory voyage. He experienced life after death and surprisingly, he was able to recall all those incidents of a different planet. After returning to his state, he embarked on a discourse about his purgatory voyage and his scary encounters with the King of Bundelkhand.Could anyone believe in his riveting account of the voyage or people smelled a foul play?• RECOMMENDATION •The novel "Purgatory Voyage" by Adarsh Kumar Khare is about a story that dates back to 925 AD of a village person, otherwise living peacefully, whose life is thrown into a turmoil consequent to an extraordinary experience of the afterlife, an outcome of his deed (karma) and sense of inquiry. The story is beautifully weaved with threads of mythology, traditional Hindu beliefs, and folklore. At the same time, there is a conscious effort to bring out the social behavior, rituals, and festivities of village life of that period along with the political order of the King with his subjects.There is a gripping narration of Kali, the protagonist of the novel, of other-worldly experience of his visits to after-life planets of hells and heavens, of torments and punitive actions meted out to sinners, and accounts of suffering the souls have to undergo for the various sins committed in their earthly lives. The author seems to have largely drawn from the “Pretkalp” part of Garud Puran for making such a vivid description of the splendors of the city of Yam, the horrors of various hells, and the excruciating journey of an ordinary soul through all this.The most interesting part of this novel is the day-by-day recount by Kali of incidents, pain, and suffering of his soul and other fellow souls in his 10-days sojourn to different types of hells and also exploring parts of Yam City and heaven. The curiosity of a reader is held on toes as the account of each day unfolds, much like the Arabian nights.I find ‘Purgatory Voyage’ by Adarsh Khare a hugely fascinating story in which one cannot leave reading halfway. It latches on to your curiosity and leads your imagination till you reach the end and sigh a sense of relief and joy of having gone through the upheavals along with the protagonist of the story. I think this is the achievement of Adarsh Khare in writing this book.Asit Kumar, Advisor in the Ministry of Petroleum, New Delhi.Purgatory Voyage is a very interesting novel based on one of the important ancient scriptures of India, specifically the Garuda Puran. Adarsh Kumar Khare has used his creative craft to bring back alive the old teachings of India in a story of fiction that should strike a chord with all age group people, particularly those who have some inclination to occultism. The author has followed a style of simple storytelling that generates curiosity in the mind ‘what next’. It was a joy to read the book describing what life after death could be like, with vivid descriptions of different hells and heaven, and punishment or reward according to committed sins or virtuous work. Most of the geographical locations including river, valleys, and forests bear names either similar or the same as those that exist in present-day India and that adds much credence and authenticity to arouse interest in the reader’s mind, even though it is a fiction. This book is a must for those who have some fascination towards Indian rich cultural heritage including ancient scriptures and those having the curiosity to peep into the future of life after death.Pradipta Kumar Das, Bestselling author of Power of the Universe lies within you.

    Having a fear of germs is inconvenient when you’re on a road-trip adventure. However, needing to know what it’s like to have a mom, and to finally see the beach means more than anything to an eleven-year-old.Some twenty years later, a man Sandy never wanted to see again shows up at her doorstep. When Sandy’s best friend places an ultimate life-changing decision in her hands, Sandy must venture back down the road, this time with the father she hates.Making these decisions will be much easier with Justin, a long-time friend, by Sandy’s side. Yet, Justin’s help only leads to continued mixed emotions Sandy has been fighting for some time.Sandy is searching for what she lost, but will she accept what she finds? A journey rich in history, the truth, and determining forgiveness with a touch of humor is the portrait of life.

    But what is his ultimate plan?Varro must get to the heart of the conspiracy, or die trying.'Spies of Rome: Blood & Honour' is the first book in a new series by bestselling author Richard Foreman.

    It is September 1940—a year into the war—and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. After losing her parents to influenza as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. All her birds are extraordinary to Susan—loyal, intelligent, beautiful—but none more so than Duchess. Hatched from an egg that Susan incubated in a bowl under her grandfather’s desk lamp, Duchess shares a special bond with Susan and an unusual curiosity about the human world. Thousands of miles away in Buxton, Maine, a young crop-duster pilot named Ollie Evans has decided to travel to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. His quest brings him to Epping and to the National Pigeon Service, where Susan is involved in a new, covert assignment. Codenamed Source Columba, the mission aims to air-drop hundreds of homing pigeons in German-occupied France. Many will not survive. Those that do make the journey home to England can convey crucial information on German troop movements—and help reclaim the skies from the Luftwaffe. The friendship between Ollie and Susan deepens as the mission date draws near. When Ollie’s plane is downed behind enemy lines, both know how remote the chances of reunion must be. Yet Duchess’s devotion and her singular sense of duty will become an unexpected lifeline, relaying messages between Susan and Ollie as war rages on—and proving, at last, that hope is never truly lost.

    World War II has ended, and her country is torn apart. Longing for a family, she marries Werner, an older bureaucrat who adores her. But after joining the fledgling secret police, he is drawn deep into its dark mission and becomes a dangerous man.When Bettina falls in love with an idealistic young renegade, Werner discovers her infidelity and forces her to make a terrible choice: spend her life in prison or leave her home forever. Either way she loses both her lover and child.Ten years later, Bettina has reinvented herself as a celebrated photographer in Chicago, but she’s never stopped yearning for the baby she left behind. Surprised by an unexpected visitor from her past, she resolves to return to her ravaged homeland to reclaim her daughter and uncover her beloved’s fate, whatever the cost.

    Marc joins in the ex-pat scene as his new friend Dora introduces him to a circle that includes the famous Sylvia Beach, owner of the bookstore Shakespeare & Company; and he accepts a job with William Bullitt, US ambassador to France. At art school, he finds himself further enchanted by the alluring model Marie.A year later, his fiancée goes south with her family, Americans scramble to escape Paris, and he is soon running with 10 Million other refugees from the advance of the German Army. After Marc is pulled from the sea on June 17th 1940, when the RMS Lancastria sinks, he decides to return to Paris in hopes of reconnecting with other trapped Americans, and his fiancée. His smuggling of Allied airman through the American Hospital to the Paris Resistance comes undone as a profound betrayal leads him into the hands of the Gestapo and onto Buchenwald. "The Siren of Paris" mines the human dilemma of revenge versus forgiveness. The historical story, based upon true events and real people during World War Two is set inside of an allegorical journey of the soul of the departed seeking passage to eternal peace from the worst war ever known to man.

    . . Cambridge on the morning of a day in April, the year of Our Lord 1569.And Christopher Radcliff, Doctor of Civil Laws at Pembroke Hall and recruiter of clever young men to the service of the Earl of Leicester, is amongst a crowd of excited townsfolk and university scholars gathered on a field to watch a game of foot ball. It is to be played between the apprentices of the town and pupils of the colleges and it is hoped it will reconcile differences between town and gown. Bets are placed, wagers made. On the field long-standing animosities surface and violence breaks out but not before the college team is victorious, thanks to the skill of a Pembroke Hall man, John Groom.Later that day, Radcliff is summoned to the senior tutor’s rooms. It transpires that John Groom has been locked up on a serious charge of assault – he’d nearly caused a cobbler’s apprentice to drown. If found guilty, Groom would be expelled from college and face imprisonment. But Christopher smells a rat. He believes the charge to be the fabrication of someone with a serious grudge against the young man, and yet it does seem as if Groom is hiding something. Enlisting the help of his friend Edward Allington and his wife Katherine, Dr Radcliff knows the truth lies somewhere within the infamous den that is Slegge’s gaming house…

    – President Barack Obama calls America’s alliance with Israel “unshakeable.” The Masada Complex questions this assertion with a realistic political thriller taking place in Arizona, Washington and Jerusalem.The Masada Complex unveils a chilling scenario. Its hero is Masada El-Tal, a beautiful Israeli expatriate, currently an investigative reporter in Arizona. Her exposure of a bribe payment causes a disgraced U.S. senator to commit suicide. Angered by Israel’s supposed culpability, an angry Congress moves to terminate all military aid to the Jewish state. At the same time, someone repeatedly attempts to assassinate Masada, whose relentless investigation becomes a race against time, leading to a shocking discovery and a spectacular climax.

    Hunting rabbits loses its appeal for a game of war with their .22 rifles. The fun abruptly ends as their boyish prank goes awry. They set fire to an empty shack which turns out to be home to a hapless drifter, or so they believe.Hect has the idea to set fire to the shanty. Tim readily agrees, although he thinks the target is a wasp nest in a mesquite bush. Hect fills a bottle with fuel from a wrecked truck and hurls the Molotov cocktail at the shed. The sun-dried wood bursts into a fireball. Shocked at his friend’s aim, Tim gapes as a blazing figure peers out a fiery window. He and the human torch gaze at one another for a long moment until sirens from town interrupt. The boys, believing their prank will land them a seat on “Sparky,” the pet name for the electric chair in Gatesville Prison, become fugitives from the law.Armed with a forehead-slapping sense of naiveté, the two run into the harsh desert. Because of pampered lifestyles, they could not be less prepared to endure hunger, an unforgiving sun, life on the road, con artists, wily street people, and a world of poverty and slums, plus the mean streets of Juarez, Mexico.

    Shan Hai Gaaru". This 2011 U.S. edition features an excerpt of the author’s WNYC Leonard Lopate Essay Contest-winning new novel "Memoirs of a Eurasian". In the post-Cultural Revolution Shanghai of 1984, university senior Sha-fei Hong longs to study in the U.S. for graduate school, ostensibly to pursue the American Dream, but partly to escape her sexually-harassing Communist cadre stepfather. She meets the visiting Chinese-American businessman Gordon Lou, who has political ambitions and ties to the Chinatown underworld in the U.S. He takes Sha-fei to the American Consulate in Shanghai to look into studying in America. There, Sha-fei meets the intern Edward Cook, a young, Caucasian American lawyer who has a strong preference for all things Asian. Within a year, these three people of entirely different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds cross paths in New York. Value systems and self-interests clash. The curtain falls on a dramatic stage of ambition, sex, intrigue, and murder.

    But when he sees the brutality and disrespect to Mauryavansh by the Pashtun rebels, he cannot stay silent. His sword is as quick as his temper, and the result is swift and bloody justice. Taxila is saved—but the Emperor is furious. Emperor Bindusara, egged on by his favorite queen, Noor Khorasan, becomes convinced that Ashoka’s show of initiative is an act of treason. Even the wise words of nonagenarian Kautilya, emerging from retirement, fall on deaf ears. Queen Khorasan’s well-mounted plot to control the empire sweeps up everyone who opposes her. Suddenly, Ashoka is forced to choose between his mother’s life and his own. What will the young prince do?India’s epic storyteller brings alive the battles, brutality, lust and politics of ancient India in vivid detail with thrilling action, and no-holds-barred storytelling. Relive the extraordinary life story of India’s greatest emperor as a young man in Ashoka: Satrap of Taxila.

    But when he is called back into service to combat a plague of monstrous beasts known as abominations, he meets a fate worse than death and is condemned to a life of anguish, solitude, and remorse.She is a fierce young warrior, raised among an elite order of knights. Driven by a dark secret from her past, she defies her controlling father and sets out on a dangerous quest to do what none before her ever have—hunt down and kill an abomination, alone.When a chance encounter sets these two against one another, an incredible twist of fate will lead them toward a salvation they never thought possible—and prove that the power of love, mercy, and forgiveness can shine a hopeful light even in history’s darkest age.

    But Sophia's not worried; she knows she will be safe with her extended family. Unfortunately, the beautiful country that she remembers from her childhood visits is almost unrecognizable. Almost every man is in uniform, and everyone she meets seems watchful and secretive. It quickly becomes apparent that Germany is not what it used to be, and neither is her cousin, Diedrich. Will Sophia return home when Diedrich gives her an ultimatum that defies her conscience? Or will her desire to fulfill her aunt's wishes keep her in a dangerous foreign land on the brink of war?

    They’re wrong. They think she’s merely cataloging art in a Louvre museum and unaware they’re stealing national treasures for their private collections. They have no idea she’s carefully decoding their notes and smuggling information to the Resistance. But Éliane is playing a dangerous game. Does she dare trust the man she once loved with her secrets, or will he only betray her once again? She has no way to know for certain . . . until a trip to a stunning home on the French Riviera brings a whole new level of peril. Present Day: Wanting to forget the tragedy that has left her life in shambles, Remy Lang heads to a home she’s mysteriously inherited on the Riviera. While working on her vintage fashion business, she discovers a catalog of the artworks stolen during World War II and is shocked to see a painting that hung on her childhood bedroom wall. Who is her family, really? And does the Riviera house hold more secrets than Remy is ready to face?Natasha Lester brilliantly explores the impossible choices ordinary people faced every day during extraordinary circumstances, weaving fact with fiction and celebrating women who push the boundaries of their time.