Showing titles in 20th Century

Undercover in occupied Europe, risking her life daily, Elena never planned to fall in love. But everything changes when she meets Santiago in a crowded bar. His warm, dark eyes and kind smile draw her in...but he can never know her real identity, and opening her heart to him could put both of them in jeopardy. Elena cannot help but fall for Santiago, but can she truly trust him? Then Elena is tasked with a dangerous assignment: delivering coded maps for the Resistance. 

Italy, 1937. In a tiny village in rural Lombardy, Graziella Ponti is born into a loving family. Though they are not rich and life is full of challenges, Graziella and her family are content and safe, surrounded by the tightly-knit community of Pieve Santa Clara. But when the shadow of World War...

Bloomsbury presents The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows, read by Charlie Norfolk. The beloved, life-affirming international bestseller which has sold over 5 million copies worldwide – now a major film starring Lily James, Matthew Goode, Jessica...

***shortlisted for the RNA's Romantic Thriller of the Year 2026*** Can one house hold a lifetime of secrets? Corfu, 1930 The moment Thirza Caruthers sets foot on Corfu, memories flood back: the scent of jasmine, the green shutters of her family’s home — and her brother Billy’s tragic...

Based on the true story of a brave German nurse tasked with caring for Auschwitz’s youngest prisoners, Auschwitz Lullaby brings to life the story of Helene Hannemann—a woman who sacrificed everything for family and fought furiously for the children she hoped to save. On an otherwise ordinary...

Jack and Charlie Davis, along with a new companion, Jimmy Ardana, are part of the Allied effort to stop the Japanese at Port Moresby in May 1942. But the Allies have received little in the way of reinforcements, and the only fighter available to face the Japanese Zero is the difficult to handle Bell P-39. Charlie flies dangerous reconnaissance missions to determine the location of the Japanese Navy. Jack, supposedly on his way home to the States, is diverted to be a flight commander in the 8th Fighter Group at Port Moresby.

When a charming American actor arrives to direct a Christmas production of A Christmas Carol for evacuee children at a grand country manor, it seems like the perfect holiday treat. But on the very day Pearl Harbor is attacked, the actor is found murdered—and he's been carrying mysterious coded messages that suggest this "Christmas spirit" hides something far more dangerous.

Brought to you by Penguin. Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, 2015 When Noel Bostock - aged ten, no family - is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he winds up in St Albans with Vera Sedge - thiry-six, drowning in debts. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous...

From the pen of bestselling author and historian James Holland comes this action-packed page-turner of a wartime thriller. Jam-packed with sharp dialogue, dynamic and authentic scenes and unforgettable characterisation, this is perfect for fans of Robert Harris, Bernard Cornwell and Ken Follett...

From decadent Cairo in the 1930s to bohemian Beirut in the 1970s, an epic yet intimate story of great love and lasting friendship . . . ‘Exquisite’ Ruth Hogan ‘Evocative’ Good Housekeeping 'Epic, sweeping and gloriously romantic’ Veronica Henry ‘Sumptuous and immersive’ Platinum As...

1945, Auschwitz: I stumble out of the gates, tightly grasping the hands of two smaller children. Hunger swirls in my stomach and the barren landscape swims before my eyes. I can barely believe it. We’re free. We survived. But what happens now… Sixteen-year-old Tasha Ancel turns to take one last look at the imposing place that stole her freedom and her childhood. She has no idea how she continued to live when so many others did not. For the first time in months, her heart beats with hope for her future and that of the smaller children who cling to her now.

London, 1942. Charlotte Fenimore is back home on a week's leave from the Women's Auxiliary Airforce. She had planned for a week of rest and recuperation. She hadn't planned to fall deeply in love with an irascible detective called Dan Chalmers, a wounded hero of Dunkirk who believed no woman would ever look at him again.

May 1942. Thousands of American GIs are stationed across eastern England building airfields to bomb Germany. Cambridge is a 'liberty town' - a hot spot for 'Yanks' on leave. DI Eden Brooke is called to the aerodrome five miles east of the city when the remains of an airman, identified by his dog...

Brought to you by Penguin. The Booker Prize-winning final novel in Pat Barker's classic 'Regeneration' trilogy - from the acclaimed author of The Silence of the Girls 1918, the closing months of the war. Army psychiatrist William Rivers is increasingly concerned for the men who have been in his...

'Compelling, intriguing, romantic… deeply satisfying and emotional' Santa Montefiore 'A sweeping story of love, loss and finding the courage to be your true self' Phillipa Ashley ***** When Kerensa is sent by her father’s auction house to catalogue a neglected house overlooking the sea in...

1946, Liverpool. Bella Harrison cannot believe the devastating war that stole the lives of her father and sister is truly over at last. She wonders how they will ever rebuild Victory Street with the city in ruins, and half their neighbors gone. But for now, she and her childhood sweetheart, Bobby, are happy newlyweds, doting on Bella’s little son, her child with Black American pilot Earl Franklin Junior.

An unknown location, occupied France, 1944. Dropping silently behind enemy lines, Sylvia Crichton, codename Monique, is determined to fight for the country of her birth and tear it from its Nazi stranglehold. As one of the dancers at the nightclub Mirabelle, Sylvie’s mission is to entertain the club’s German clientele and learn their secrets. In a world of deception and lies, she can trust no one. 

Ninety-one year old Ira Levinson is in trouble. Struggling to stay conscious after a car crash, with his mind fading, an image of his beloved, and long-dead, wife Ruth appears. Urging him to hang on, she lovingly recounts the joys and sorrows of their life together - how they met, the dark days...

As Europe buckles under Nazi occupation, Maisie Dobbs investigates a possible murder that threatens devastating repercussions for Britain's war efforts in this latest installment in the New York Times bestselling mystery series. September 1941. While on a delivery, young Freddie Hackett, a...

In April 1943 a young woman washes ashore on a deserted beach in Cornwall, England. With shorn hair and a number stitched on her tattered chemise, Alice is the survivor of a ship torpedoed by a German U-boat. She's found by the mysterious Viscount Jack Trewella, who suspects that she's a prisoner of war or a spy. But the secret Alice asks Jack to keep is one he could never have guessed, and it creates an intimate bond he never expected.