Book picks similar to
The Last Sketch by Gosia Nealon
historical-fiction
1001-books-a-thousand-dreams-pursue
holocaust
1001-books-4-the-new-year
Runaway Pumpkins
Teresa Bateman - 2020
Pluckily, they decide to take what they have and do what they can. Together they decorate the only surviving pumpkin for their harvest fair.But good fortune comes knocking the next day when a group of kind neighbors arrives at the school. They found the smashed pumpkins and turned them into celebratory seasonal fare, perfect for sharing: yummy soup, cake, pie, and even fries!
The Girl with the Silver Star
Rachel Zolotov
When Raisa, Abraham, and their daughters, Luba and Sofia, emerge from the bomb shelter, they find an unfamiliar city before them; chaos and terror burn in every direction. Fearing for their lives, they must leave at once to find the rest of their family. But before they are able to escape, Abraham is conscripted into the Russian Army and the family is forced to part ways. Raisa’s love and strength are put to the ultimate test as she finds herself on her own with her two young daughters in tow. How will she manage alone without her soulmate by her side?Relying on hope, resourcefulness and courage, they walk, hitch hike and take trains heading for Uzbekistan, over 2,500 miles from home. Along the way they run from bombs, endure starvation, and face death.Raisa finds solace in the women around her. Her mother, sisters, old friends and new help carry her through the difficult war years, but Raisa’s longing to reunite with Abraham still rages inside her heart. Will they ever see each other again? Will Raisa and her family find their way back to their homeland?The Girl with the Silver Star is a captivating journey through war-torn Soviet Union as it illuminates a unique part of WWII history, the female heroes. Raisa’s journey is a tribute to the nameless women, their determination, bravery, grief and unwavering love during impossible times. Their stories shouldn’t be forgotten.
The English Girl
Sarah Mitchell - 2021
Back in the village, everyone is nervously awaiting the arrival of the German prisoners, who will change everything…Grief and anger spill over in Fran’s small village when German prisoners of war are sent to the nearby camp. After the death of her beloved brother on the front lines in Europe, it is hard for Fran to see these young men as anything but his killers. But prisoner Thomas, with his gentle nature and piercing blue eyes that see into Fran’s very soul, will force her to question everything she thought she knew.Thrown together on the day one of the mines on the beach explodes, they begin to meet in secret. Fran even dares to dream about a future when their countries are no longer enemies and their blossoming love is not something they must hide from the world. But when Thomas receives shocking news from home, Fran must decide how much she is willing to risk for love…1989, Berlin: Tiffany arrives in Berlin just as the wall that divided a nation finally falls. As citizens celebrate in the streets, she joins the tide of people crossing the newly opened border between West and East. In her pocket is a crumpled letter addressed to her grandmother, yellowed with age, that has led her in search of a wartime secret with the power to change her future…Inspired by an incredible true love story, this is a beautiful, sweeping tale about the power of hope in the face of war and the legacy of a terrible choice. Fans of Fiona Valpy, The Forgotten Village and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will be absolutely gripped from the very first page until the final, heart-stopping conclusion.
The Medea Complex
Rachel Florence Roberts - 2013
1885. Anne Stanbury wakes up in a strange bed, having been kidnapped from her home. As the panic settles in, she realizes she has been committed to a lunatic asylum, deemed insane and therefore unfit to stand trial for an unspeakable crime. But all is not as it seems…. Edgar Stanbury, her husband as well as a grieving father, is torn between helping his confined wife recover her sanity and seeking revenge for his ruined life. But Anne’s future rests wholly in the hands of Dr. George Savage, chief medical officer of Bethlem Royal Hospital. The Medea Complex is the darkly compelling story of a lunatic, a lie, and a shocking revelation that elucidates the difference between madness and evil….
Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook
Celia Rees - 2020
The Control Commission hires British civilians to work in Germany, rebuild the shattered nation and prosecute war crimes. Somewhat aimless, bored with her job as a provincial schoolteacher, and unwilling to live with her stuffy genteel parents any longer, twentysomething Edith Graham applies for a job with the Commission—but is instead recruited by the OSS. To them, Edith is perfect spy material…single, ordinary-looking, with a college degree in German. And there’s another thing—the OSS knows that Edith’s brother went to Oxford with one of their most hunted war criminals, Count Kurt von Stabenow, who Edith remembers all too well from before the war.Intrigued by the challenge, Edith heads to Germany armed with a convincing cover story: she’s an unassuming schoolteacher sent to help resurrect German primary schools. To send information back to her OSS handlers in London, Edith has crafted the perfect alter ego, cookbook author Stella Snelling, who writes a popular magazine cookery column that embeds crucial intelligence within the recipes she collects. But occupied Germany is awash with other spies, collaborators, and opportunists, and as she’s pulled into their world, Edith soon discovers that no one is what they seem to be. The closer she gets to uncovering von Stabenow’s whereabouts—and the network of German civilians who still support him—the greater the danger. With a unique, compelling premise, Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook is a beautifully crafted and gripping novel about daring, betrayal, and female friendship.
The Knife-Edge Path (WW2 Historical Fiction Book 3)
Patrick T. Leahy - 2019
As Geli Straub becomes the seductive Mlle. Simone Miroux, on orders to discover whether SS officer Kurt Langsdorff is all he seems to be, her plot to betray him falters on conflicted feelings. Drawn past the point of no return into his life, she cannot sell him out. How, then, is she to save him without shedding the identity of the woman who deceived him, and on whom her life depends?
An Address in Amsterdam
Mary Dingee Fillmore - 2016
She's falling in love, and her city has been the safest place in the world for Jewish people since the Spanish Inquisition. But when Rachel's Gentile boyfriend is forced to disappear rather than face arrest, she realizes that everything is changing, and so must she. Although she is often tired and scared, she delivers papers for the underground under the Nazis noses. But after eighteen months of ever increasing danger, she pushes her parents to go into hiding with her. The dank basement where they take refuge seems like the last place where Rachel would meet a new man but she does. An Address in Amsterdam shows that, even in the most hopeless situation, an ordinary young woman can make the choice to act with courage and even love.
Unshed Tears
Edith Hofmann - 2012
It has only very recently been published. Although it has been written as a novel, it details events, which were all too tragically true.Edith Hofmann is a survivor of the Holocaust, born in Prague in 1927 as Edith Birkin. In 1941, along with her parents, she was deported to the Lodz Ghetto, where within a year both her parents had died. At 15 she was left to fend forherself.The Lodz Ghetto was the second-largest ghetto to Warsaw, and was established for Jews and Gypsies in German-occupied Poland. Situated in the town of Lodz in Poland and originally intended as a temporary gathering point for Jews, the ghetto was transformed into a major industrial centre, providing much needed supplies for Nazi Germany and especially for the German Army.Because of its remarkable productivity, the ghetto managed to survive until August 1944, when the remaining population, including Edith, was transported to Auschwitz and Chelmno extermination camp in cattle trucks. It was the last ghetto in Poland to be liquidated due to the advancing Russian army. Edith was only 17, and one of the lucky ones.For the majority, it was their final journey. A small group of them were selected for work. With her hair shaved off and deprived of all her possessions, she travelled to Kristianstadt, a labour camp in Silesia, to work in an underground munitions factory.
Scattered Rays of Light: The Incredible Survival Story of The Kotowski Family During WW2 (Holocaust Survivor Memoir, World War II Book 1)
Dovit Yehudit Yalovizky - 2020
Immediate danger of destruction. Tiny rays of hope.Yaakov was the youngest son of the Kotowskis, a well-to-do Jewish family in the small Polish town of Skulsk, who enjoyed the respect and admiration of local Jews and Christians alike.The quiet life of the family was disrupted abruptly when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.Soon, its members were deported to a faraway village where they suffered horrific torments at the hands of the Germans and their collaborators.The head of the family, who was blessed with sharp instincts, grasped what was about to take place and instructed his children to disperse in different directions, in the hope that at least some of them would be able to survive.This is the fascinating story of the Kotowski family, who was thrown deep into the flames that lit the fire that exterminated six million Jews, and yet, over half of the ten-member family managed to flee the blazing inferno against all odds.
The Cyclist: A World War 2 Novel: World War 2 Romance (World War II Adventure Series Book 1)
Fred Nath - 2010
Nath’s biggest success is the sustained atmospheric tension that he creates somewhat effortlessly."- Little Interpretations "A haunting and bittersweet novel that stays with you long after the final chapter – always the sign of a really well-written and praiseworthy story. It would also make an excellent screenplay."- Historical Novels Review - Editor's Choice, Feb 2011Nazi occupied Aquitaine, 1943: A young woman is found murdered in the shadow of the Bergerac Prefecture. Auguste Ran, Assistant Chief of Police, suspects Brunner, a German Security Police Major, of the crime. The more Auguste investigates, the more obsessed he becomes with bringing down the seemingly untouchable Brunner.Auguste begins to realise he has been conveniently ignoring the Nazi atrocities going on around him, and understands too late the human cost of his own participation in the internment of the local Jewish population.Driven by conscience and struggling with his Catholic religious beliefs, his actions start to put his own family at risk. Harbouring the daughter of his lifelong Jewish friend Pierre, they are forced into a desperate trek towards neighbouring Switzerland, pursued all the way by the German Sicherheitspolizei.The Cyclist is the first in Fredrik Nath's series of World War 2 novels. The adventures continue in Farewell Bergerac, Francesca Pascal. Find out more about The Cyclist and Fredrik Nath's other holocaust novels in his 3D author room at http://inkflash.com/FredrikNath
Anna's Bear: 5 Days of Moral Conflict And Pursuit, Nazi Germany, 1939
O.W. Shumaker - 2014
1939. Young Inga Salzer hardens her heart and prostitutes herself to the Nazi Lebensborn program which drives toward the expansion of the Aryan race. Now pregnant by an SS officer, she proudly anticipates offering her "sacred child of good blood" to the Third Reich.Fifteen year old Max Drexel immerses himself in the brutal sports of the Hitler Youth and absorbs its worship of the Fuehrer and of Nature. To further his career ambitions, Steffin Lindeman drifts toward an embrace of Positive Christianity which mingles the traditional Gospel with an ardor for the ancient gods of Nordic mythology. There is nothing that can bring such wildly different people together...or it there? Two-year-old Anna Drexel comes down with meningitis and is taken by the family doctor to his special clinic. It is there that the agonizing battle for Anna's life expands into a raging war for the hearts and souls of Inga, Max and Steffin. And threatening them all is Karl Zorn, Gestapo Chief in Max's hometown of Heidelberg, who describes himself as "a simple man with simple pleasures." The chilling fact is that foremost of his pleasures is hunting down and killing his favorite game--human beings. So what would happen if a series of frightening events were to drive each of these people, each for his or her own particular purposes, on a five day mad journey into the depths of the Black Forest? Based on years of research into the more bizarre aspects of Nazi Germany, Anna's Bear tells a story of moral conflict and fierce pursuit, with moments of surprising tenderness, high tension, and even hints of laughter in the midst of such darkness, finally leading to a totally unforeseeable ending.
The Traitor
V.S. Alexander - 2020
In the summer of 1942, as war rages across Europe, a series of anonymous leaflets appears around the University of Munich, speaking out against escalating Nazi atrocities. The leaflets are hidden in public places, or mailed to addresses selected at random from the phone book. Natalya Petrovich, a student, knows who is behind the leaflets—a secret group called the White Rose, led by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends. As a volunteer nurse on the Russian front, Natalya witnessed the horrors of war first-hand. She willingly enters the White Rose’s circle, where every hushed conversation, every small act of dissent could mean imprisonment or death at the hands of an infuriated Gestapo. Natalya risks everything alongside her friends, hoping the power of words will encourage others to resist. But even among those she trusts most, there is no guarantee of safety—and when danger strikes, she must take an extraordinary gamble in her own personal struggle to survive.
The Second Midnight
Andrew Taylor - 1987
As Europe teeters on the brink of war, Alfred Kendall is tasked with carrying out a minor mission for the British Intelligence Service. Travelling to Prague, he takes his troubled young son, Hugh, as cover.A terrible choice…When Hitler invades Czechoslovakia, Alfred is given an ultimatum by the Czech Resistance. They will arrange for him to return to England, but only if he leaves his son Hugh behind as collateral.A young boy stranded in Nazi terrain…Hugh is soon taken under the wing of a Nazi colonel – Helmuth Scholl. But even though Scholl treats Hugh well, his son, Heinz, is suspicious of this foreigner. And as the war across the continent intensifies, they are set on a path that will ultimately lead towards destruction…
In the Warsaw Ghetto
Glenn Haybittle - 2019
Together with almost half a million other Jews, Ala and her family are forced into the ghetto, where she struggles with feelings of guilt at her comparative privileged circumstances. Then Ala's enigmatic teacher forms a dance company with the intention of putting on a performance for the ghetto's residents.Max Silberman, Ala's uncle, is a bachelor, who still carries the flame for the girl he knew at university. She married someone else and he hasn't seen her for over a decade. When he meets her in the ghetto and discovers she and her two children have been abandoned by her Catholic husband all his dormant hopes are incongruously revived amidst the squalor and destitution surrounding him.In the Warsaw Ghetto tells the deeply moving story of Ala and Max's struggle to preserve their aspirations in the midst of the inhumane conditions of the Warsaw ghetto, until the deportations to the death camps begin and the Jews organise themselves into a fighting force determined to oppose the Nazis.
Room Nine: Cloud 9: Club Sin
Ines Johnson - 2021
But when I got the chance to join the popular clique and date the star quarterback, I dumbed myself down, ran with the cool kids, and my once brilliant life stalled on a road to nowhere.Now divorced, broke, with no clear direction or prospects, I run into my old Geek Squad. The three smartest guys of our class are all grown up, drop dead gorgeous billionaires. They not only know how to fill out a pocket protector, they fill out their designer suits as well.They offer me a night on the town that begins at the velvet rope of an exclusive club that caters to sensual desires. Their room at Club Sin is complete with arousing rope, stimulating toys, and new pathways to pleasure that sneak up from behind. Before the end of the night, I'm on Cloud 9. I see exactly who I want to be, and who I want to be with.Two of the guys have forgiven me for leaving all those years ago. But one still smarts from the wounds of my defection back in high school. If I want to regain the superlative of Most Likely to Succeed, I'll need to convince him that I'm all in this time. Otherwise, I won't only lose all three of them again, I'll lose sight of the woman I'm meant to be.Fantasies are meant to come true and the men of Club Sin will see to your every kinky desire. This November, 22 of your favorite steamy romance authors take you inside Club Sin, a forbidden place where you’ll find love and pleasure with multiple hot men in these Reverse Harem novellas. Can you handle the heat?22 rooms, 22 fantasies…Which door will you step through?