Historical Fiction Europe

"Paris est désormais au peuple. Tout chaviré. Aiguisé. Se baignant aux fontaines. La nuit est tombée. De petits groupes marchent sur les barrières. Ce sont des bandes d'ouvriers, de menuisiers, de tailleurs, gens ordinaires, mais aussi des porte-faix, des sans-emplois, des argotiers, sortis tout droit de leur échoppe ou du port au Bled. Et dans la nuit de la grande ville, il y eut alors une étincelle, cri de mica. L'octroi fut incendié. Puis un autre. Encore un autre. Les barrières brûlaient."

April, 1947. In a run-down farmhouse on a remote Scottish island, George Orwell begins his last and greatest work: Nineteen Eighty-Four. Forty-three years old and suffering from the tuberculosis that within three winters will take his life, Orwell comes to see the book as his legacy - the culmination of a career spent fighting to preserve freedoms. Completing the book is an urgent challenge, a race against death. This “highly compelling, deeply researched" (The National Review) novel was shortlisted for the 2018 Indie Book Award for Best Debut Fiction.

Max, Gerta, and their parents have abandoned their home and relocated to a safehouse in a different Berlin neighborhood. The Hoffmanns share the tight quarters with the daughter of a captured Becker Circle conspirator - Kat Vogel, who is Gerta's age. Though they have strict orders to stay inside unless absolutely necessary, the three kids sneak out regularly, all while concocting a plan to keep the spirit of their resistance alive. They're going to burn down the headquarters of the Hitler Youth.

Based on the true story of the French villagers in WWII who saved thousands of Jews, this novel tells how a group of young teenagers stood up for what is right. Among them is a young Jewish boy who learns to forge documents to save his mother and later goes on to save hundreds of lives with his skills. There is also a girl who overcomes her fear to carry messages for the Resistance. And a boy who smuggles people into Switzerland. But there is always the threat that they will be caught. As the knot tightens, the young people must race against time to bring their friends to safety.

On August 4, 1940, an unassuming American journalist named Varian Fry made his way to Marseilles, France, carrying in his pockets the names of approximately 200 artists and intellectuals - all enemies of the new Nazi regime. As a volunteer for the Emergency Rescue Committee, Fry’s mission was to help these refugees flee to safety, then return home two weeks later. As more and more people came to him for assistance, however, he realized the situation was far worse than anyone in America had suspected.

It is 1965 and Cora, a deaf young woman, buys a one-way ticket to the island of St Thomas, where she discovers four dolphins held in captivity, part of an experiment led by an obsessive Dr Bloom. Drawn by a strong connection to the dolphins, untrained Cora falls in with the scientists to protect the animals. Recognising Cora's knack for communication, Bloom uses her for what will turn into one of the most fascinating experiments in modern science: an attempt to teach the dolphins human language.

Bert Trautmann is famed as the goalkeeper who broke his neck in an FA Cup final and played on. But his early life is no less extraordinary: he grew up in Nazi Germany and fought for the Germans in World War Two. In 1945 he was captured and sent to a British POW camp where, for the first time, he saw a better way of life. He embraced England as his new home and before long became an England football hero. This is his extraordinary story.

Whetshire Fortress, Wessex, A.D. 1171: Since birth Lady Ginevra has been betrothed to Lord Wolfram, second son to the Count of Whetshire. There was never any question as to whom she would marry or who she would be. Life has been mapped out for her and she's going to live happily ever after as a Countess. However, there is one complication to her plans. Her rogue of a future husband isn't taking to their life together with open arms. In fact, he seems to enjoy finding reasons to put the nuptials off.

Best-selling author Charlie Connelly returns with a First World War memoir of his great uncle, Edward Connelly, who was an ordinary boy sent to fight in a war the likes of which the world had never seen. But this is not just his story; it is the story of all the young forgotten soldiers who fought and bravely died for their country. The Forgotten Soldier tells the story of Private Edward Connelly, aged 19, killed in the First World War a week before the Armistice and immediately forgotten, even, it seems, by his own family.

At the center of this fiercely compelling story is Devlin Judge, an American lawyer in Europe as part of the International Military Tribunal to try Nazi war criminals. Haunted by his own demons, Judge has a secret agenda: to find Erich Seyss, the Nazi responsible for his brother's death. An elite member of Hilter's SS and former Olympic sprinter known as "The White Lion", Seyss has just escaped from an American P.O.W. camp.

The Templars, Two Kings and a Pope is the novelized reconstruction of a crucial 25-year period in Templar history, before the Order of the Temple was disbanded. At one level, this is the story of a covert war, of the secret organization known as The Brotherhood, and of the one man who stood at the center; a Swiss named Lord Otto de Grandson who became England's King Edward I's right-hand man. At another level, this is a spiritual story about Jesus' secret teachings that he reserved for the select few.

It is 1965, and Cora, a young, hearing impaired woman, buys a one-way ticket to the island of St. Thomas, where she discovers four dolphins held in captivity as part of an experiment led by the obsessive Dr. Blum. Drawn by a strong connection to the dolphins, Cora falls in with the scientists and discovers her need to protect the animals.

The Search for the Man in the Iron Mask triumphantly solves an enduring puzzle that has stumped historians for centuries and seduced novelists and filmmakers to this day. Who was the man who was rumored to have been kept in prison and treated royally during much of the reign of Louis XIV while being forced to wear an iron mask? Could he possibly have been the twin brother of the Sun King?

Begiloc, a young freedman from Wimborne, is a man of action. But his world turns upside down when the young Briton and his best friend Meryn are ordered away to protect English missionaries in Germany. For a man accustomed to brutality, Begiloc has a soft spot for the purple-tinged mountains, waterfalls, lakes, animals, trees and flowers - beginning to muse whether they, rather than man, do not better embody the essence of God.

Con febril precisión, Antonio Scurati continúa su «novela total» reconstruyendo el delirio de un Mussolini ilusionado con poder influir en las decisiones del Führer, más solo que nunca y por fin consciente de la debilidad italiana cuando declara que ha llegado «la hora de las decisiones irrevocables».

State Security Officer Brano Sev is the secretive member of the Ministry for State Security. No one else quite trusts him, but it is part of his job to do what the authorities ask, no matter what. So when he gets an order to travel to the village of his birth in order to interrogate a potential defector, he goes. When a man turns up dead shortly after he arrives and Brano is framed for the murder, he assumes this is part of the plan and allows it to run its course.

In the volatile and shifting political atmosphere of Eastern Europe after World War II, an inexperienced homicide detective fresh out of the academy is assigned a crime that no one wants to solve. Set in a bombed-out city in an unnamed country formerly occupied by the Germans and now by the Russians, the story follows Emil Brod as he unravels the threads of the cover-up of a brutal murder, while supporting his grandparents, his only family, in the equally brutal city.

Three Brides, all alike in tragedy, from death's embrace make bold return. One driven quite mad, One sorrowfully sad, and One set aside and spurned. Imbued with weird powers, these transplanted flowers into a new world bloom. With virtue and charm they come fully armed to bring evil unmerciful doom! If you thirst for adventure, this book is a quencher. Let doubtful hearts abide, suspend disbelief for the heroic mischief of the beautiful Broken Brides. If you crave mystery in a fanciful history, then turn to the very first minute!

This young listeners’ edition tells the remarkable story, largely forgotten until now, of the young Jewish women who became resistance fighters against the Nazis during World War II. It has already been optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture....

Carolyn Meyer's historical fiction, such as Marie, Dancing, is popular for its unique perspectives. Loving Will Shakespeare is the tale of Agnes Anne Hathaway. There are few details known about the girl who - though eight years his senior - would eventually become wife to the Bard. Meyer's imagining of her story will inspire listeners to learn more.