Showing titles in 20th Century

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Promise from the bestselling author Lesley Pearse. War threatens to take all she has loved and lived for. When Belle Reilly's husband Jimmy enlists and heads for the trenches of Northern France, she knows she cannot stand idly by awaiting his return. Volunteering to help the wounded, Belle is posted to France as a Red Cross ambulance driver.

Cousins Masha and Rachel Morgenstern board the luxury liner the SS Manhattan bound for New York, desperate to escape the concentration camps that claimed the rest of their family. America offers a safe haven, but to reach it they must survive a hazardous Atlantic crossing. Among their fellow passengers fleeing the war, each with their own conflicts, secrets, and surprises, are the composer Igor Stravinsky, making a new start after a decade of tragedy, and Rose Kennedy, determined to keep her four children from harm.

Kate has always found life on Brimbles Farm difficult, but she is struggling more than ever to find time for the bookshop, for her friends - and especially for handsome pilot Leo Kinsella. Naomi has found new friends and purpose through the bookshop and is happier than she's been in a long time - until she finds evidence that her husband is being unfaithful. Alice worries for her fiancé Daniel away fighting in the war and frets over the loss of her financial independence following an injury to her hand.

25th August 1957. The island of Spinalonga closes its leper colony. And a moment of violence has devastating consequences. When time stops dead for Maria Petrakis and her sister, Anna, two families splinter apart and, for the people of Plaka, the closure of Spinalonga is forever coloured with tragedy. In the aftermath, the question of how to resume life looms large. Stigma and scandal need to be confronted and somehow, for those impacted, a future built from the ruins of the past.

London, present day. When Claudia discovers that her grandmother was born at Hope’s House, a home for unmarried mothers, everything she thought she knew about her family is shattered in an instant. Looking down at a faded family crest, she is determined to discover how it can possibly relate to her grandmother. Soon Claudia learns that the crest belongs to the Diaz family, once one of the wealthiest dynasties in Cuba. Impulsively Claudia books a ticket to Havana, feeling sure in her heart that she will be able to uncover her family’s true story.

Sunderland, 1941. As the world war continues the shipyard girls face hardships at home, but work and friendship give them strength to carry on. Gloria is smitten with her newly arrived bundle of joy, but baby Hope’s first weeks are bittersweet. Hope's father is missing at sea, and with their future as a family so uncertain, Gloria must lean on her girls for support. Meanwhile, head welder Rosie has turned her back on love to keep her double life secret. But her persistent beau is determined to find out the truth, and if he does, it could ruin her.

I've known Death a long time but now Death knows me. When their idyllic childhood is shattered by the sudden death of their parents, siblings Marty, Liz and Jules are sent to a bleak state boarding school. Once there, the orphans' lives change tracks: Marty throws himself into academic life; Liz is drawn to dark forms of escapism; and Jules transforms from a vivacious child to a withdrawn teenager.

Autumn 1941, and as female conscription looms, three women arrive at the Bell Works Factory in Hucknall to work on the Spitfire production line. Lily soon realises her real dream is to pilot the planes; Edna longs to be reunited with her evacuee daughter, but soon discovers she has a much bigger problem; and Jeannie fears the worst after weeks of no news from her fiancé. Despite all the heartache, with a bit of festive cheer and 'can do' attitude, The Engine Girls will pull together and do all they can to ensure Britain's safe for the New Year.

In 1942, Charlotte Gray, a young Scottish woman, goes to occupied France on a dual mission: to run an apparently simple errand for a British special operations group and to search for her lover, an English airman called Peter Gregory, who has gone missing in action.

May 1945 – VE Day. After battling against the odds, the three friends are uncertain of their futures. With a new dawn, there are high hopes and boundless dreams. Can the Tobacco Girls unite once more to overcome life’s troubles and find the happiness they so deserve?

For fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, this a witty, elegant fairytale of New York, set in 1938. In a New York City jazz bar on the last night of 1937, watching a quartet because she couldn't afford to see the whole ensemble, there were certain things Katey Kontent knew and things she will have learnt by the end of the year.

At the age of 19, Kitty McCarthy has decided she is going to live a life less ordinary. What she does know is that she doesn't want to get married and raise children in Liverpool like her sisters.

Bristol - 1953. It’s Coronation Year. A new beginning in the aftermath of war, but there are still battles to be fought and secrets to be kept. Charlotte Hennessey-White copes with the shortcomings of her marriage and throws herself into helping refugees unwelcome by some and exploited by others. Edna Burbage has three beautiful children and considers herself lucky until the advent of a deadly twentieth century disease makes her think otherwise. Polly Chandler still hopes for a better life, but there are too many obstacles standing in her way.

If you're a fan of Jodie Picoult, you'll love Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain, best-selling author of The Midwife's Confession.... North Carolina, 1960. Newlywed Jane Forrester, fresh out of university, is seeking what most other women have shunned: a career. But life as a social worker is far from what she expected. Out amongst the rural tobacco fields of Grace County, Jane encounters a world of extreme poverty that is far removed from the middle-class life she has grown up with.

London, October 1940. As German bombers increase their nightly raids on the capital, the Blitz Girls must be braver than ever to protect innocent lives and keep the fight against Hitler alive. As each night becomes more dangerous for the Blitz Girls, will they have the strength to help each other through and keep the light alive in the darkness?

A beautifully controlled and powerful story of love and conscience, will and desire which begins when a mysterious young girl arrives to take up a post at the seedy H-tel du Lion d'Or in a small French town in the mid-1930s. The Girl at the Lion d'Or is the first book in Sebastian Faulks' French trilogy of novel. Birdsong and Charlotte Gray are also available from Random House Audio Books, read by Samuel West.

1838: when a terrible storm blows up off the Northumberland coast, Grace Darling, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter, knows there is little chance of survival for the passengers on the small ship battling the waves. But her actions set in motion an incredible feat of bravery that echoes down the century. 1938: when 19-year-old Matilda Emmerson sails from across the Atlantic to New England, she faces an uncertain future. Sent away in disgrace, she must stay with her reclusive relative, Harriet Flaherty, a lighthouse keeper on Rhode Island.

The third installment in the Wild Isles series from Sunday Times bestselling author Karen Swan. Flora MacQueen has always dreamt of more than life on the small Scottish island of St Kilda. So, when she catches the eye of visiting adventurer and wealthy businessman James Callaghan, her future seems brighter. Winter seas separate the lovers, but the island’s evacuation the following summer promises to reunite them – until tragedy strikes.

Liverpool, 1855. Ada Houston is alone. Her grandfather has recently passed away, and her brother is missing, last seen working on the Liverpool docks. Everyone assumes him to be dead. But she will not give up hope. Ada's determined search takes her to the Crimea, where she joins the team of Florence Nightingale's nurses. She may have set off looking for her brother, but along the way Ada finds friends, romance and a new purpose in her own life in the most troubling and difficult of places.

In 1944, American naval officer Lt. Wyatt Paxton arrives in London to prepare for the Allied invasion of France. He works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a "Wren" in the Women's Royal Naval Service. Dorothy pieces together reconnaissance photographs with thousands of holiday snapshots of France - including those of her own family's summer home - in order to create accurate maps of Normandy. Maps that Wyatt will turn into naval bombardment plans. As the two spend concentrated time together in the pressure cooker of war, their deepening friendship threatens to turn to love.