The lunacy of the final months of World War II, as experienced by a young German soldierDistant, silent, often drunk, Walter Urban is a difficult man to have as a father. But his son—the narrator of this slim, harrowing novel—is curious about Walter's experiences during World War II, and so makes him a present of a blank notebook in which to write down his memories. Walter dies, however, leaving nothing but the barest skeleton of a story on those pages, leading his ...

*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti*Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World ...

A deeply moving and unflinching portrayal of war through the eyes of a young soldier. The novel follows Paul Bäumer, a German soldier who enters World War I with idealism, only to face the brutal realities of trench warfare. As the conflict unfolds, he and his companions struggle with fear, loss, and the emotional toll of survival. Through vivid and honest storytelling, the narrative captures the physical and psychological impact of war, showing how it strips away innocence and reshapes id...

In 1948, when he is fifteen, Trond spends a summer in the country with his father. The events - the accidental death of a child, his best friend's feelings of guilt and eventual disappearance, his father's decision to leave the family for another woman - will change his life forever. An early morning adventure out stealing horses leaves Trond bruised and puzzled by his friend Jon's sudden breakdown. The tragedy which lies behind this scene becomes the catalyst for the two boys' families gr...

An epic adventure-the most brilliant escape and evasion from the Nazis ever written.Eric Williams, a Royal Air Force bomber captain, was shot down over Germany in 1942 and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, the infamous German POW camp. Digging an underground tunnel hidden beneath a wooden vaulting horse, he managed to escape after ten months and, accompanied by a fellow officer, made his way back to England. In this thinly fictionalized retelling, Williams relates his...

A German soldier recounts his experience serving along the deathly cold Eastern Front, fighting the Russian army in World War II.Gnter Koschorrek wrote his illicit diary on any scraps of paper he could lay his hands on, storing them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing, and it was not until he was reunited with his daughter in America some forty years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow.The autho...

Accomplished, resonant and surprising ( Guardian) -- a debut for fans of Summer of My German Soldier.In July 1940, eleven-year-old Lydia escapes life as a child evacuee in Wales. She arrives home to her English village, gas mask in tow, only to find it abandoned. Her family's house is shuttered and empty. Lydia settles in though, determined to wait out the war.Later that night he arrives: a wounded soldier, gun-wielding, heralding a full-blown German...

THE BLOODY ROAD TO DEATH depicts all the savagery of war punctuated with black humour, as Tiny, Porta and the rest of the men advance across Europe.The Russian Officer falls forward and I sink my teeth into his throat. Blood runs down over my face but I don't notice it. I am fighting for my life.The 27th Penal Regiment are veterans of the frontline.But when Hitler's war takes them through Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania, they are entirely un...

A shocking insight into the brutalities faced by ordinary soldiers and the atrocities committed in the name of survival.Dispassionately we stared at the bloody scene. It had become an everyday sight.The 27th Penal Regiment care nothing for Hitler's war. They fight only to stay alive. But then they uncover the Soviet Army's biggest secret. A Russian commissar has hidden 30 million dollars of gold somewhere behind enemy lines.In a madcap sche...

'They beat me,' whispers the artillery officer, 'Smashed my teeth in, sent an electric current through me. They want me to confess to something I never did.'Sven Hassel and his comrades are fighting on the Finnish front, facing an arctic winter more ferocious than anything they've ever known.But if they survive, they face shipment to Torgau Prison - the centre of Hitler's penal system - where deserters, convicts and anyone showing anti-Nazi sentiments are imprisone...

Stephen Nasser somehow dug deep within his soul to survive the brutal and inhumane treatment his captors inflicted on the Jews. He was the only one of his family to survive--but the memory of his brother's dying words compelled him to live. Stephen's account of the Holocaust, told in the refreshingly direct and optimistic language of a young boy, appeals to both younger audiences and his contemporaries. Written in a straightforward, narrative style, Nasser avoids the cloying or maudlin lan...

Samuel Beckett is a young writer living in Paris--intoxicated by new friendships with James Joyce and the other writers and artists making the vibrant city their creative home--when war breaks out in 1939. He determines to stay and is swiftly drawn into the maelstrom, joining the Resistance. With him we experience the terrifying excitement yet stubborn vibrancy and camaraderie as the Parisians flee the Nazis and the Resistance goes underground; his friendships with the astonishing group of...