Historical Family Saga

Lovisa Lindegren lever sit drømmeliv i London. Men da hun pludselig mister sit job og bliver forladt af sin forlovede, beslutter hun sig for at vende tilbage til den lille svenske kystby Halleholm. Hun har arvet sine bedsteforældres bageri – og hele den tilhørende ejendom ved torvet – hvor farfar John engang bagte sine berømte kanelboller, og farmor Amelia syede haute couture på førstesalen. Testamentet indeholder dog en særlig betingelse: Hvis Lovisa vil sælge ejendommen, før hun fylder 30, skal hun sælge til familiens arvefjender – Halleholm-slægten.

‘I can take him away from you any time I want.’ Her mistress’s cruel taunt is deeply disturbing to Jenny Dickens—why would Claudia be interested in a servant’s sweetheart? All the same, Jenny reckons without Claudia’s vicious nature. Using a wily trick, Claudia seduces Frank who, overcome with shame, leaves the household for a new life in Blackburn. Losing Frank is just the first of many disasters that leave Jenny struggling to cope alone.

Robert Sullivan has been left to raise three-year-old Nancy and her seven-year-old brother Jack by himself.Unable to cope, Robert is driven to abandon his children to those he believes can provide them with a better life. However, he quickly has a change of heart and decides to go back for them. But on the way there, he is involved in a horrific accident.

The Llewelyn family's livelihood largely depends on the ferry, run by Siona Llewelyn, the kindly yet rugged head of the family. The family is large but close knit, held together by their mother Emily—a hard-working woman made old before her time having borne seven sons, and now with child once again. As the boys grow into young men, tensions flare in the family unit, made worse by a web of rivalries and ambitions. When a death shocks the family to its core, it will take the intervention of a special person to remind them of what they have lost.

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.

Maisie Lowell and Rayne St. Laurent, each as beautiful as a wild Texas prairie rose, were born to privilege, reared in the fanciest hotel west of the Mississippi, and spoiled almost rotten—used to having their ways. In 1875 Dallas, Texas, the best friends determine to choose their own life paths to peace, joy, and love, regardless of what their parents consider right or wrong. Do their choices and what their parents believe have to be so different?

Three generations of Roths live together in a crowded tenement flat. Long-widowed Manya is the family's head and its heart. But Manya is no soft touch, except, perhaps, where her granddaughter Elka is concerned. Precocious Elka is her closest companion and confidante. Through Elka's eyes we come to know the fascinating characters who move in and out of the Roths' lives.

Blackpool, 1922. Martha and Trisha may have escaped poverty, but their fortunes have yet to turn. Happy on her wedding day, Trisha's new fairy-tale romance soon darkens as her husband, Walter, keeps her at arms length. Between his secrecy, and her mother-in-law's coldness, Trisha feels a stranger in her own home, and lonelier than ever. Meanwhile a spectre from Martha's past threatens the happiness she has found with Joshua and Bonnie. When she is called to help in her past love's hour of need, she must decide whether to risk exposing a secret that could cost her the trust of her daughter.

1916. East London. When sixteen-year-old Clover Cooper's mother, Iris, calls her home from work one day, the last thing Clover expects is to find that her mother has given birth to another baby. After all, Clover's unpleasant father, Sidney, has been in France for longer than nine months. Banned from questions, and bound to secrecy by her beloved mother, Clover leaves her infant brother at a nunnery for safekeeping, despite her heartbreak at parting with him. But when Sidney unexpectedly returns from the Western Front, life at home suddenly feels more dangerous than a battlefield.

In 1946, a young Ruth begins building a new life in Palestine, haunted by the death of her family in Europe and driven by youthful ideals in a land hostile to her presence. Her sister, Shoshana, survives in the Displaced Persons camps of Germany and joins her in Palestine, but dreams of escaping to distant America. Her lovers, Dov and Israel, die in war, and her children try to serve the land Ruth bled for, only to find their own tragic ends or means of escape.

Elegant, opulent, authentisch: Der erste Teil von Katja Maybachs großer historischer Familiengeschichte spielt in einem mondänen Kurort am Vorabend des 1. Weltkriegs. Leicht und sommerlich-träge ziehen 1914 die Tage in einem eleganten Kurort nahe der deutsch-französischen Grenze vorüber: Selbst am Vorabend des 1. Weltkriegs will niemand so recht wahrhaben, was sich in Europa zusammenbraut - auch nicht die Geschwister Franz, Luise und Victoria Laverne, die einmal das mondäne Grandhotel Deutscher Kaiser erben werden.

Hamburg, 1909: Die Adelige Theresa von Eiben muss schon in jungen Jahren einen schweren Verlust ertragen. Ihr Verlobter ist in Berlin tödlich verunglückt. Es war ihr gemeinsamer Traum, ein Musikhaus zu errichten, aber nun ist alles anders. Um die Ländereien der Familie zu retten, soll sie einen Geschäftsmann heiraten, obwohl sich alles in ihr dagegen sträubt. Kurz vor der Hochzeit erhält sie jedoch ein merkwürdiges Paket ohne Absender: Eine wertvolle Geige aus einer Berliner Manufaktur. Theresa erkennt darin ihre Chance, vor der ungewollten Ehe zu fliehen.

Kaffee wärmt die Seele! Es ist lange her, doch die tiefe Schuld, die ihre Familie einst auf sich genommen hat, nagt noch immer an Corinne: Als regimetreuer Nazi hat ihr Urgroßvater eine jüdische Familie verraten und in eine grausame Zukunft geschickt. Im Tagebuch ihres Großvaters hat Corinne von Sarahs Geschichte erfahren und weiß inzwischen: Sarah lebt. Erst zögerlich hat sie Kontakt zu ihr aufgenommen, um diese Schuld endlich zu tilgen und kann nun selbst kaum glauben, dass Sarah ihr zu einer guten Freundin geworden ist. Die Gespräche mit der älteren Frau geben ihr Halt und Kraft.

Eine Erfindung erobert die Welt – und bestimmt das Schicksal zweier Familien, die bereit sind, alles zu riskieren. Wetzlar, Optische Werke, Konstruktionsabteilung, 1914: Dem Tüftler Oskar Barnack gelingt der Durchbruch. Anstatt weiterhin mit einer kiloschweren Glasplattenkamera auf Foto-Safari zu gehen, hat der Feinmechaniker einen handlichen Apparat entwickelt, der in eine Jackentasche passt. Ernst Leitz, der Sohn des Werkgründers, erkennt das Potenzial – und treibt die Produktion der Leica gegen alle Widerstände voran.

Manchester, 1943. Emily is enjoying her new job as a station porter until she learns that a trusted friend at work may be involved in something underhand. Persephone's romance with Matt is blossoming - but can two people from such different walks of life really make a go of it? All is going well with wedding planning for Mabel until someone divulges a secret about Harry, which could threaten their future. As war rages around them, the railway girls must face their own battles. With the support of one another, will they make the right decisions when it comes to matters of the heart?

In 1910, Agnes Carter makes the wrong choice in marriage. After years as an independent woman of fortune, influential with the board of a prominent university because of her financial donations, she is now subject to the whims of an abusive, spendthrift husband. But when Bohemian naturalist and glassblower Ignace Novak reignites Agnes’s passion for science, she begins to imagine a different life, and she sets her mind to getting it.

Eine Geschichte von Liebe und Mut in unruhigen Zeiten. 1919: Körperlich und psychisch schwer versehrt kehrt der junge Bauer Albert Lintermann in sein Heimatdorf Wollseifen zurück. Eine Handgranate hat ihm das halbe Gesicht weggerissen, und seine Frau Berta und der fünfjährige Sohn Karl begegnen ihm zunächst mit Abscheu und Kälte. Doch es gelingt ihm, seinen Platz in der Familie und der Dorfgemeinschaft wiederzufinden und auch Berta kann sich ihm wieder annähern.

Alicia Woodman was born into a home that should have been filled with comfort and joy. Her mother Elizabeth was bright and vivacious, Humphrey Woodman was a prosperous businessman. But Alicia was not Humphrey’s child and he would have nothing to do with her, and before long Elizabeth, too, turned her back on her daughter. It was left to Polly Ford, widow of a dock labourer, to bring Alicia up, to teach her to say ‘Yes, Mama’ and to give the child the love she so desperately needed.

Liverpool, 1928. Fifteen-year-old Annie Anderson was adopted by Sylvia and Hugh after the death of their own daughter. Annie is told that her own mother died in childbirth and her father died before she was born. A chance encounter introduces Annie to local lad Andrew Fraser. Their friendship blossoms, but once Annie's adoptive parents learn of it they forbid her from seeing him. When Annie asks why, it sets her on a path to discover more about her origins - but will what she learns bring heartache or joy?

From Liverpool’s best-loved author comes a superb novel of loss and grief, love and hope, set on Merseyside in 1920.