Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in 20th Century

Berlin, 27 February 1933. A month after Hitler's inauguration as Chancellor of Germany, the Reichstag parliament building is set ablaze. The Nazis use the torching to justify a campaign of terror against their political opponents. John Russell's recent separation from his wife threatens his right to reside in Germany and any meaningful relationship with his six-year-old son Paul. He has just secured work as a crime reporter for a Berlin newspaper, and the crimes which he has to report are increasingly entangled in the wider nightmare engulfing Germany.

In the midst of WWII, Jane Linder pours all her energy and dreams for a family into her career at the Toronto Children's Aid Society. As acting directress, Jane hopes for a permanent appointment so she can continue making a difference in the lives of troubled children. But if anyone were to find out she is divorced, everything would change. Garrett Wilder has been hired to overhaul operations at the Children's Aid Society. He hopes to impress the board members with his findings and earn the vacant director's position. Despite their competing interests, feelings begin to blossom.

Seemingly overnight, the German blitzkrieg of Warsaw in 1939 turns its streets to a war zone and shatters the life of each citizen - Polish, Jewish, or otherwise. Sophie Kumiega, a British bride working in the city's library, awaits news of her husband, Janek, recently deployed with the Polish Air Force. Though Sophie is determined that she and the baby in her womb will stay safe, the days ahead will draw her into the plight of those around her, compelling her to help, whatever the danger.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapses when her fiancé, Fritz, vanishes after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1933, Hedda is stunned to see Fritz's name in a photograph of an American monument to German POWs in Asheville, North Carolina. Determined to reclaim his body and bring closure to his ailing mother, Hedda embarks on a journey from Germany to the US. However, her quest takes a dark turn when Fritz's casket contains the remains of a woman who died under mysterious circumstances.

Summer 1944: Yugoslavia is locked in a war within a war. In addition to fighting the German occupation, warring factions battle each other. Hundreds of Allied airmen have been shot down over this volatile region, among them American lieutenant Bill Bogdonavich. Though grateful to the locals who are risking their lives to shelter and protect him from German troops, Bogdonavich dreams of the impossible: escape.   

Surviving Dresden beautifully portrays the poignant and inspiring human struggle between good and evil in the search for peace during the last bloody days of World War II. On the ground, on that horrific night, is a courageous young Jewish woman, Gisela Kauffmann. Having just received orders to be herded off to a concentration camp, Gisela will do anything to save herself and her family. In the air, RAF bomber Captain Wallace Campbell is torn between his sworn military duty to bomb an unarmed city crowded with refugees, and his growing conviction that total war is immoral. 

She'll light the fire of resistance—but she may get burned … 1942. Though she survived the bomb that destroyed her home, Yvonne Rudellat’s life is over. She’s estranged from her husband, her daughter is busy with war work, and Yvonne—older, diminutive, overlooked—has lost all purpose. Until she’s offered a chance to remake herself entirely …

Hannah longs for the days when she used to be free, but now, she is a Jewish prisoner at Theresienstadt, a model ghetto where the Nazis plan to make a propaganda film to convince the world that the Jewish people are living well in the camps. But Hannah will do anything to show the world the truth. Along with other young resistance members, they vow to disrupt the filming and derail the increasingly frequent deportations to death camps in the east.

As teenagers, Delia Byrne and Finn Delaney fell in love while flying kites and dreaming of a future together—until betrayal tore them apart. Now, as America enters World War I, Delia works for peace as a paralegal and pacifist. Her values forbid her from supporting the war effort, but she volunteers for a relief organization trying to save millions of lives in famine-stricken Belgium.

Annie Fox will stop at nothing to serve her country. But what happens when her country fails her? In November 1941, Annie Fox, an Army nurse, is transferred to Hickam Field, an air force base in Honolulu. The others on her transport plane are thrilled to work in paradise, but Annie sees her new duty station as the Army's way of holding the door open to her retirement. But serving her country is her calling and she will go wherever she is told.

US Army Lieutenant Billy Boyle, an ex-cop who serves as detective for General Ike, is sent to Caserta, Italy, to investigate the murders of two American officers stationed there. The MOs are completely different, and it seems like the officers had no connection to each other, but one frightening fact links the murders. Each body was discovered with a single playing card: the lieutenant’s with the ten of hearts; the captain’s, the jack of hearts. The message seems clear—if the murderer isn’t apprehended, the higher ranks will be next. 

Against the simmering backdrop of the impending WWII, blind virtuoso pianist Chaisley Frappier embarks on a concert tour through a rapidly changing Europe despite the dangers. When she learns that Hitler's escalating regime of injustice is targeting other disabled people, Chaisley realizes she is in a prime position to help those who are threatened reach safety. But the Führer's growing fascination with the celebrated musician endangers her undercover mission and forces her to walk a tightrope between her fame and her calling.

New York City, 1968: The customers at Café Marie don’t come just for the excellent coffee and pastries. They come for the sophisticated ambiance, and the illusion of being somewhere other than a bustling, exhausting city. Headwaiter Charles Ward helps create that illusion through impeccable service—unobtrusive, nearly invisible, yet always watchful.

Rachel, the mother of the aging professor Thomas Vanderlinden, shared her life with two men. Both went by the name of Rowland Vanderlinden. The first husband went abroad and never returned. The second, whom Rachel also unquestioningly accepted as her husband, was a mystery. In an attempt to understand his mother's adventurous decisions regarding love and marriage, Thomas sets out on a journey to the far reaches of the Pacific to find the first Rowland, and his real father. As the mystery of the two Rowlands unfolds throughout the novel, so too does a fascinating portrait.

An electrifying new novel for readers of Joe Hill and Stephen King Beneath a hopeful new suburb carved from the echoes of war, an old hunger stirs, awakened by an itinerant stranger whose gifts reveal what the town has tried to bury: The past is not done feeding It’s 1952, and a dark force...

When widowed Washington, D.C., socialite Edith Bolling meets President Woodrow Wilson, the attraction is immediate. A whirlwind romance results in a proposal of marriage, which Edith happily accepts—along with the important role of First Lady. By the end of the Great War, Edith is accompanying her husband to Europe for peace talks, meeting heads of state and dealing with foreign affairs. But something is wrong with Woodrow. During several meetings, he seems to lose concentration and looks confused, leaving her to manage on her own. 

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Imperial Japan devours the southern portion of Burma, intent on taking over mainland Asia. Unaware of the coming darkness, Kailyn Moran drifts in her role as the only daughter of a widowed missionary. As whispers of war snake through the Kachin mountains, Kai’s father is convinced God will protect the mission. He entrusts the village to her and the kind yet inexperienced new missionary, Ryan McDonough, while he makes routine visits to neighboring villages.

Haunted by an unfathomable tragedy in a Michigan copper-mining town, Fenna Vos has learned to focus on her own survival, even as World War II rages on. Now, she performs with an escape artist. Her honed ability to control her surroundings and elude entrapments, physical or otherwise, helps her run from the trauma of her youth. Then, Fenna is recruited by British intelligence. 

Winter 1944: Months after the Liberation of France, ex-Boston cop Billy Boyle finds himself in a Paris reeling from the carnage it has endured but hopeful that an end to war is in sight. When Billy finds a rare piece of artwork after a tense shoot-out in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, he thinks it could be connected to the Syndicat du Renard, a shadowy network of Nazi sympathizers known to be smuggling stolen artwork out of France. Trailing the Syndicat, Billy discovers that someone with a high level of communications clearance may be using his position to aid the thieves.

Featured on BBC Radio 4's Take Four Books Six friends. One city. The time of their lives. It’s 1988, and on the verge of a reunion with friends she hasn’t seen since graduation, Julie recalls her halcyon student days of 1984 and the strange tumultuous time they lived through. The...