Showing results by publisher "Hachette UK - Bookouture" in World War II

Hamburg, 1942. Seventeen-year-old Anna knows she can never tell her proud parents the truth about where she is going. She must hide the fact that she is pregnant, that the father of her unborn child is dead, and that she is on her way to a special maternity home, where her baby will be given to a perfect family. She tells herself that this is the best solution. She doesn’t expect to feel the rush of love for her beautiful baby boy in the white blanket or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again.

Four years ago, when France fell to the Nazis, Juliette made the ultimate sacrifice, leaving behind her two precious children to join the Resistance and defend her country. Now a spy in Paris, she must work with Captain Daniel Diaz–an American agent she’s taken an instant dislike to–on a dangerous mission to uncover a deadly Nazi plot.

Vienna, 1937. When beautiful American Kitty becomes engaged to Austrian diplomat Edgar, she finds herself thrown into a very different world in Europe, and soon longs for home. But when the woman designing her wedding dress, Judith, takes Kitty under her wing, she sees the city of Vienna in a new light–a city of culture and music that she can explore with her new friend.

When Nazis break down the front door of 18-year-old Trudi’s home and seize the Jewish couple hiding in her attic, she’s devastated, and is suddenly solely responsible for their two innocent children. The whispered rumours about the resistance are her only hope. A man called Frans and his cousin Piet risk their lives every day helping scared and abandoned Jewish children escape into the countryside. Under the cover of night, she races to beg for their help.

Everything changes when Lilou is given her most important task: to keep a frightened little boy, Eliot, hidden safe in her farmhouse. All alone in the world, Eliot refuses to speak as he clutches his treasured children’s book close to his chest. Inside is a beautiful story of stars, planets and the night sky. But why is this innocent child the one, among thousands, who Lilou must save?

England, 1940. When Rose sees a parachute crash into the woods behind her house she rushes to help. Finding an injured young soldier, Rose’s first instinct is to care for him. As she pushes the hair back from his handsome face, Rose feels an instant connection. But when he speaks, her blood turns to ice. His name is Walter, he’s German and he’s an involuntary spy. He wants to turn himself in, even if it means he’ll be executed.

England, 1941. Trainee reporter Edie York is doing her best to keep calm and carry on despite London’s Blitz dominating the news. But, at the theatre one night, she is thrust into a shocking mystery when the lead actor drops dead on stage… The Victory Gang Parade theatre group are in town, entertaining the troops and the determinedly cheerful people of Manchester with their spectacular all-singing all-dancing show. But We’ll Meet Again becomes impossible for two cast members, when Leonard Lessiter dies suddenly mid-song, and leading lady Ginny Sutton goes missing the very same night.

At the imposing iron gates of Auschwitz, twenty-one-year-old Hodaya clings to her mama and papa, her little sister Bayla’s arms around her waist. But when Hodaya is sent one way and her parents the other, a plea to keep her sister safe is the last thing in her mother’s eyes. Hodaya makes a silent promise in return. But Auschwitz is no place for a little girl, and keeping Bayla safe takes every ounce of Hodaya’s strength.

1944, Germany: After years of hiding from the Nazis, Rachel Epstein and her little sister Mindel are captured by the Gestapo and sent to the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. The only ray of light for either girl is that they are together. But on arrival, they are separated. As she’s 17 and deemed an adult, Rachel is sent to work in a brutal factory, whilst four-year-old Mindel is sent into the so-called “star” camp for Jewish prisoners. All on her own, Rachel knows her sister will have no chance of survival - unless she can find someone to take care of her.

1938: Magda has led a sheltered life in her small village until the day she is forced from her home by the invading Nazi army. Torn away from her family and the only place she has ever known, she is offered refuge in an alpine villa owned by brilliant Dr, Tauber and his talented, beautiful wife. But despite having friends in high places, the Jewish Taubers are living on borrowed time. When the Gestapo come to arrest them, Magda is asked to protect something more precious than the silver and jewels they leave behind. Their newborn son Samuel.

Berlin, 1944. ‘No! Not my child!’ Annaliese screams, her voice breaking as she pounds the window uselessly. But no-one looks up as the man in the SS uniform cradles her precious baby and strides away. She lies unmoving on the threadbare cot, her throat hoarse from long hours of screaming but her tears keep falling. Her heart has been cleaved in two, now the Nazis have taken the only thing she has left–her child. She is utterly powerless against them. But as Annaliese cries herself to sleep, she makes a vow—she will find her precious baby again. Whatever it takes.

When the Nazis march onto the cobbled streets of Colmar on November 1st 1940, Josef, a Jewish violin maker, gathers his wife and daughters closely to him and tells them everything will be alright. But one year later, three sharp knocks on the door at midnight turn his 17-year-old daughter Sarah’s world upside down. As the oldest child, Sarah must be the first to leave her family, to make her escape in a perilous journey across France via Paris to Poitiers. In the mountains she finds herself in terrible danger and meets Ralf, a German deserter, who risks his own life to save her.

Paris, 1941. As we drive down the cobbled street, I take in the red banners with swastikas covering every building. Suddenly, a group of guards appears. I duck beneath the window of the car, and my heart thumps as my hand jumps to my chest. But I’m not wearing my yellow star now, I left it with my sister. Tears well in my eyes. Will I ever see her again?

After a bombing led to her identity being mistaken, Margarete Rosenbaum has been living disguised as one of the Nazis themselves, for almost the entire war. But secretly—aided by Stefan, a resistance fighter she’s becoming impossibly drawn to—she is trying to liberate the Jewish workers sent to work on the land she’s inherited and to sabotage the work of the factory she’s meant to be in charge of. She knows that every day she is risking her life. But she also knows what she has to do. Because it could be her on the other side of the barbed wire fence.

1945. The tiny bundle in her arms barely stirs as she hurries out into the dark street. Remembering Villa Teresa, a thousand miles away in sun-soaked Italy, Betty thinks of the letter she had to write to stop the bombing and save Gianni. Instead, it cost her everything, and she will never see her beloved again. Letting her little baby go will tear her apart, but she knows it is the only way to keep her child safe.

Florence, 1943. As the bells toll in the solemn dark streets and enemy soldiers loiter by the city’s beautiful bridges, schoolgirl Gabriella is racked with guilt. She is ashamed of the crush she had on the soldier with raven-black hair, a crush that allowed a secret notebook to fall into the hands of the enemy. Faced with her brother’s haunted eyes and the prospect of never seeing her father again, Gabriella is determined to make things right. She seeks out her old schoolfriend Stefanina, an unlikely member of the Italian resistance with her beautiful curls and scarlet ribbon.

When beautiful, shy Edith married her elegant banker husband, Julius, she believed that their union would be forever. In spite of her humble background, they have loved each other since the minute they met at a dance. As she learns how to behave in the high-society world Julius has opened to her, she is determined to enjoy every moment. But the Nazi party is growing in power, and her marriage comes under increasing strain. Julius is of Jewish origin—and even some of Edith’s closest family believe their relationship is an abomination, demanding she divorce him.

Sophie was born to be a rebel, raised by parents who challenged the brutal Nazi regime. Determined to follow in their footsteps, she leaves for university, defying Hitler’s command for women to stay at home. She knows instantly that she isn’t alone, that there are more courageous souls like her who will fight against evil. But it is only a matter of time before the Gestapo closes in.... And when Sophie is imprisoned in an interrogation room, staring a Nazi officer in the eye, will she take their secrets to her grave?

As the Nazi regime crumbles, Hanni hides from her father on the fringes of Berlin. She develops the photographs she took to record the brutality of the camp - the empty food bowls and hungry eyes - and vows to get justice for the innocent people she couldn’t help. But, on the day she plans to deliver these damning photographs to the Allies, Hanni comes face to face with her father again. Reiner Foss is now working with the British forces, his past safely hidden behind a new identity. He will go to deadly lengths to protect his secrets, but Hanni knows she can’t give up her fight.

As Nazi troops occupy the City of Lights, American journalist Florence is determined to do everything she can to save her adopted home and the man she loves. Florence had arrived in Paris in 1937 and on a beautiful summer’s day met and fell in love with Otto, a Jewish artist from Austria, who had fled persecution in his homeland. But as swastikas are draped along the city’s wide boulevards, everything Otto was running from seems to have caught up with him. Both Florence and Otto begin lending their talents to the Resistance, working to sabotage the Germans right under their noses.