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 ...

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, the masterwork by Erich Maria Remarque, is a beautiful statement on a generation of men shattered by war. It is widely regarded as the greatest war novel of all time and was publicly burned by the Nazis for being "degenerate." Paul Bäumer and his classmates join the battle in the Western Front trenches of World War I, prodded to enroll by authoritative figures who would not risk their lives to do the same, and driven by a romantic sense of patriotism. The ...

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...

Set in a chillingly realistic far-future world, and featuring a gritty antihero even more frightening than the evil empire he serves as soldier and assassin, Death’s Head is sure to be one of the most talked-about novels of the year. David Gunn is loaded—and he shoots to kill.At the top of the galactic pecking order is the United Free, a civilization of awe-inspiring technological prowess so far in advance of other space-faring powers as to seem untouchabl...

From foul food to coping with legions of lice, discover all the dire details of life in the blood and mud of the First World War in Horrible Histories: Terrible Trenches (World Book Day Edition) ... from both sides of the barbed wire. Discover how your own wee could save your life, which animals wore gas masks and why Big Bertha terrified the Brits. With a bright new cover this bestselling title is sure to be a huge hit with yet another generation of Terry Deary and Martin Brown fans.

An extraordinary wartime memoir, combining the best kind of adventure story with a coming of age testimony of unforgettable resonance and poignancy. September 2011, Halkidiki, Northern Greece. A solitary 86 year-old man gazes across an Aegean headland, knowing that he must finally confront his past. He begins to write... September 1939, Nieppe, Northern France. 14 year-old Stephen is living with his family, 25 kilometres from Ypres. His French mother battles with her encr...

A WWII-era Welsh barmaid begins a secret relationship with a German POW in this "beautiful" novel by the author of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself (Ann Patchett).Longlisted for the Man Booker PrizeSet in the stunning landscape of North Wales just after D-Day, this critically acclaimed debut novel traces the intersection of disparate lives in wartime. When a prisoner-of-war camp is established near her village, seventeen-year-old barm...