Showing titles in 20th Century

Brought to you by Penguin. THE GUNS ARE SILENT. THE DEAD ARE NOT. 1919. On the desolate battlefields of northern France, the guns of the Great War are silent. Special battalions now face the dangerous task of gathering up the dead for mass burial. Captain Mackenzie, a survivor of the war, cannot...

Sicily, 1943. Three American women, all nurses in the Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron, are determined to do all they can for their country. Vita is fun-loving, Dot shy and sweet-natured, and Evelyn practical and determined, but for all their differences, a life of military service pulls the three together as firm friends. When they’re selected for a daring mission, the women are proud to play their part. But disaster strikes when their plane crash-lands behind enemy lines in occupied Albania. finally find their way home?

A story of sacrifice and betrayal during the Blitz, A Thread of Light is the stunning second novel by Neema Shah, author of Kololo Hill. 'Not just a story of two very different women trying to survive the Second World War, A Thread of Light brings to life a part of British history that is less...

Brought to you by Penguin. They won't let the war stop them from finding happiness... Naomi is upset to find a nasty, anonymous letter land on her doorstep. Who could’ve sent something like this? Naomi, Bert and the Churchwood bookshop organising team are determined to figure out who it is...

The Woolworth Girl’s Promise is the heart warming eighth novel in Elaine Everest’s bestselling Woolworths series that follows the turbulent life of a much-loved Woolworth girl. After losing her beloved fiancé at Ypres in 1917, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Billington faces a lonely future...

A new series from bestselling author Kate Thompson. 'Kate Thompson's wartime novels always strike a chord and Secrets of the Homefront Girls is no exception. You can almost smell the Yardley violets drifting over the factory as the girls live lives complicated by the trials and tribulations of...

Winner of The Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year 2021 Shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2021 and the CWA Historical Dagger 2022 'A mesmerizing debut. Early gangland Glasgow with the gloss razored off' – Peter James 'Peaky Blinders meets William...

1939. After the sudden and tragic loss of her husband, Helen is returning home to her mother’s house in Biggin Hill, Kent – the one place she vowed she’d never go back to again. Alone and not knowing where to turn, Helen finds herself joining the local women’s sewing circle despite being...

The first in a gripping new series of detective novels set at the birth of Stalin’s Russia. It is the time of the Great Terror. Inspector Pekkala – known as the Emerald Eye – was the most famous detective in all Russia. He was the favourite of the Tsar. Now he is the prisoner of the men he once hunted. Like millions of others, he has been sent to the gulags in Siberia and, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, he is as good as dead....

Bloomsbury presents The Girls Who Dared to Love by Diney Costeloe, read by Florence Howard. Three girls seem to have the world at their feet in the summer of 1914. But World War 1 is coming and things will change forever - especially for women. Lucinda McFarlane is engaged to be married to...

1915. Margaret and Philip Tallis are happily married, have a thriving business and three children, Daisy, John and Lily. At 20, Daisy is an impassioned, headstrong girl, determined to follow her parents’ footsteps in Birmingham’s jewellery trade. While studying at the college for...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2026 A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2025 A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 A Telegraph Book of the Year 2025 A Guardian Book of the Year 2025 An Observer Book of the year 2025 'Supple, horrifying and mordantly droll' New York Times...

The golden skies, the translucent twilight, the white nights, all hold the promise of youth, of love, of eternal renewal. The war has not yet touched this city of fallen grandeur, or the lives of two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanova, who share a single room in a cramped apartment with their...

It is 1940 and bombs are falling on London. Watching from her attic window, Charlotte sees enemy planes coming in over the city, and her neighbours' homes destroyed. Still grieving her beloved brother who never returned from France, Charlotte has moved away from her overbearing family and built a new life for herself. She works as a typist for the Ministry of Information, rents a room on the top floor of Mrs Callaghan's ramshackle house, and shares gin and confidences with her best friend, Elena.

As the Nazi regime crumbles, Hanni hides from her father on the fringes of Berlin. She develops the photographs she took to record the brutality of the camp - the empty food bowls and hungry eyes - and vows to get justice for the innocent people she couldn’t help. But, on the day she plans to deliver these damning photographs to the Allies, Hanni comes face to face with her father again. Reiner Foss is now working with the British forces, his past safely hidden behind a new identity. He will go to deadly lengths to protect his secrets, but Hanni knows she can’t give up her fight.

Conrad de Lancey has seen enough of evil: the shadow of fear on the faces of innocents; the sudden lull before the slaughter begins. Franco's bloody insurrection taught this Englishman all about hell. Arriving in his mother's country, the now Nazi Germany, Conrad is sick at heart. Even Berlin—infamous haven of decadence—salutes fascism. Himmler's black-shirted troops rule the city, and every German arm bears a Swastika. But does every German heart belong to Hitler?

The war is almost over - and it's up to the East End Angels to keep the home fires burning! Frankie's fiance, a doctor, is away looking after the troops in Europe - will he return safely home? Winnie has a happy secret - but can she carry on at Station 75 when she's going to have a baby? Bella is intrigued by her new friend, a Polish airman. As the war ends and victory is in sight, what's next for the girls of Station 75?  

On the day of the historic 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast - in which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II - three men, flush with jubilation, made a pact. After their deaths, each year on the anniversary of the broadcast, their souls would return to the Chinese village of their younger days. Now, seventy years later, the pledge is being fulfilled by American missionary Pastor Billy, brash gunner’s mate Ian Ferguson, and local soldier Liu Zhaohu. All that’s missing is Ah Yan - also known as Swallow.

The legendary Emma Harte, heroine of A Woman of Substance, returns… The legendary Emma Harte, heroine of A Woman of Substance, returns… At the centre of this sweeping saga stands Paula O'Neill, beloved granddaughter of Emma and the guardian of her vast business empire. Paula believes that...

WINNER OF 2026 AUSTRALIAN INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 'A heart-breaking, moving, and soaring novel' NGUYỄN PHAN QUẾ MAI 'Gorgeous and expansive' STYLIST Hong Kong, 1941. Following the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the wealthy Tang family flee to Hong Kong. As the First Wife of the...