It is the summer of 1940 and in Europe the time of Blitzkrieg. John Howard, a 70-year-old Englishman vacationing in France, cuts short his tour and heads for home. He agrees to take two children with him.

But war closes in. Trains fail, roads clog with refugees. And if things were not difficult enough, other children join in Howard's little band. At last, they reach the coast and find not deliverance but desperation. The old Englishman's greatest test lies ahead of him.

Pied Piper is set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The story follows John Howard, an elderly Englishman who is on holiday in France when the war breaks out. He decides to help evacuate several children to safety in England, but as he journeys through the countryside with the children, he faces many dangers and challenges. Along the way, he meets various people who are also trying to escape the war, and he forms deep bonds with the children in his care. Ultimately, John's determination and kindness help him and the children to reach safety, but not without facing difficult decisions and heart-wrenching losses. The novel is a moving portrayal of the human cost of war and the resilience of the human spirit.

Heartwood takes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team races against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.

Heartwood is a gem that tells the story of a lost hiker’s odyssey and provides a moving rendering of each character’s interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found. At its core, Heartwood is a redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love.

Vidas Secas, lançado originalmente em 1938, é o romance em que mestre Graciliano — tão meticuloso que chegava a comparecer à gráfica no momento em que o livro entrava no prelo, para checar se a revisão não haveria interferido em seu texto — alcança o máximo da expressão que vinha buscando em sua prosa.

O que impulsiona os personagens é a seca, áspera e cruel, e paradoxalmente a ligação telúrica, afetiva, que expõe naqueles seres em retirada, à procura de meios de sobrevivência e um futuro. Apesar desse sentimento de transbordante solidariedade e compaixão, com que a narrativa acompanha a miúda saga do vaqueiro Fabiano e sua gente, o autor contou: "Procurei auscultar a alma do ser rude e quase primitivo que mora na zona mais recuada do sertão... os meus personagens são quase selvagens... pesquisa que os escritores regionalistas não fazem e nem mesmo podem fazer ...porque comumente não são familiares com o ambiente que descrevem..."

Fiz o livrinho sem paisagens, sem diálogos. E sem amor. A minha gente, quase muda, vive numa casa velha de fazenda. As pessoas adultas, preocupadas com o estômago, não têm tempo de abraçar-se. Até a cachorra [Baleia] é uma criatura decente, porque na vizinhança não existem galãs caninos.

Vidas Secas é o livro em que Graciliano, visto como antipoético e anti-sonhador por excelência, consegue atingir, com o rigor do texto que tanto prezava, um estado maior de poesia.

How the Steel Was Tempered is a classic novel that offers a fictionalized account of author Nikolai Ostrovsky's experiences during the Civil War and his journey of overcoming crippling injuries after the war ended. The story centers on a young man, Pavel Korchagin, and follows his transformation from an ill-mannered malcontent to a disciplined soldier of the revolution.

In a time when the achievements of humanity are being threatened by capitalist barbarism, this novel serves as an inspiration, reminding us of the power of the human spirit and the potential for self-realization. More than just a tale of socialism, it heralds the arrival of a new type of human being, free from material and economic chains.

This literary work is one of the great revolutionary novels that brings the dry analysis of socialism to life, presenting it as a vibrant, historical experience. It is a testament to the enduring importance of revisiting revolutionary literature, as these stories play a crucial role in understanding the evolution of human ideals.

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly's orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what's happening, Molly's unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it's too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.

Gone to Soldiers is a sweeping New York Times bestseller that captures the most captivating and engrossing stories from World War II. This epic novel by Marge Piercy encompasses a wide range of people and places marked by the Second World War. Each of her ten narrators has a unique and compelling story that powerfully depicts their personality, desires, and fears.

Special attention is given to the women of the war effort, like Bernice, who rebels against her domineering father to become a fighter pilot, and Naomi, a Parisian Jew sent to live with relatives in Detroit, whose twin sister, Jacqueline—still in France—joins the resistance against Nazi rule.

The horrors of the concentration camps; the heroism of soldiers on the beaches of Okinawa, the skies above London, and the seas of the Mediterranean; the brilliance of code breakers; and the resilience of families waiting for the return of sons, brothers, and fathers are all conveyed through powerful, poignant prose that resonates beyond the page.

Gone to Soldiers is a testament to the ordinary people, with their flaws and inner strife, who rose to defend liberty during the most extraordinary times.

The Farming of Bones begins in 1937 in a village on the Dominican side of the river that separates the country from Haiti. Amabelle Desir, Haitian-born and a faithful maidservant to the Dominican family that took her in when she was orphaned, and her lover Sebastien, an itinerant sugarcane cutter, decide they will marry and return to Haiti at the end of the cane season. However, hostilities toward Haitian laborers find a vitriolic spokesman in the ultra-nationalist Generalissimo Trujillo, who calls for an ethnic cleansing of his Spanish-speaking country.

As rumors of Haitian persecution become fact, and as anxiety turns to terror, Amabelle and Sebastien's dreams are leveled to the most basic human desire: to endure. Based on a little-known historical event, this extraordinarily moving novel memorializes the forgotten victims of nationalist madness and the deeply felt passion and grief of its survivors.

He counts her smiles every day and night at the train station. Morning and evening, the beautiful commuter acknowledges him—just like she does everyone else on the platform. But Blake Hartt is not like the others... he’s homeless.

Memories of a broken childhood have robbed him of peace and twisted delusions into his soul. He stays secluded from the sun, sure the world would run from him in the harsh light of day.

Each day, Livia McHugh smiles politely and acknowledges her fellow commuters as she waits for the train to the city. She dismisses this kindness as nothing special, just like her. She’s the same as a million other girls—certainly no one to be cherished. But special or not, she smiles every day, never imagining that someone would rely on the simple gesture as if it were air to breathe.

When the moment comes that Livia must do more than smile, without hesitation she steps into the fray to defend the homeless man. And she's surprised to discover an inexplicable connection with her new friend. After danger subsides, their smiles become conversation. Their words usher in a friendship, which awakens something in each of them.

But it’s not long before their bond must prove its strength. Entanglements from the past challenge both their love and their lives. Blake’s heart beats for Livia’s, even if her hands have to keep its rhythm.

In an interwoven tale of unlikely loves and relationships forged by fire, Debra Anastasia takes readers into the darkest corners of human existence, only to show them the radiant power of pure adoration and true sacrifice. Complicated families and confused souls find their way to light in this novel, which manages to be racy, profane, funny, and reverent all at once.

On June 10, 1991, eleven-year-old Jaycee Dugard was abducted from a school bus stop within sight of her home in Tahoe, California. It was the last her family and friends saw of her for over eighteen years.

On August 26, 2009, Dugard, her daughters, and Phillip Craig Garrido appeared in the office of her kidnapper's parole officer in California. Their unusual behavior sparked an investigation that led to the positive identification of Jaycee Lee Dugard, living in a tent behind Garrido's home.

During her time in captivity, at the age of fourteen and seventeen, she gave birth to two daughters, both fathered by Garrido. Dugard's memoir is written by the 30-year-old herself and covers the period from the time of her abduction in 1991 up until the present.

In her stark, utterly honest, and unflinching narrative, Jaycee opens up about what she experienced, including how she feels now, a year after being found. Garrido and his wife Nancy have since pleaded guilty to their crimes.

Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately.

The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord.

In the second of his stories, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda. The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents. They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children.

This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa. Akpan's voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent.

This brilliant novel with universal resonance is set during the 1990s Siege of Sarajevo. It tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in their midst.

One day, a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope.

Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesn’t know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city.

Then there is “Arrow,” the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims.

In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.

You must understand that I did not become a resistance fighter, a smuggler of Jews, a defier of the SS and the Nazis all at once. One's first steps are always small: I had begun by hiding food under a fence.

Through this intimate and compelling memoir, we are witness to the growth of a hero. Irene Gut was just a girl when the war began: seventeen, a Polish patriot, a student nurse, a good Catholic girl. As the war progressed, the soldiers of two countries stripped her of all she loved — her family, her home, her innocence — but the degradations only strengthened her will.

She began to fight back. Irene was forced to work for the German Army, but her blond hair, her blue eyes, and her youth bought her the relatively safe job of waitress in an officers' dining room. She would use this Aryan mask as both a shield and a sword: She picked up snatches of conversation along with the Nazis' dirty dishes and passed the information to Jews in the ghetto. She raided the German Warenhaus for food and blankets. She smuggled people from the work camp into the forest. And, when she was made the housekeeper of a Nazi major, she successfully hid twelve Jews in the basement of his home until the Germans' defeat.

This young woman was determined to deliver her friends from evil. It was as simple and as impossible as that.

Obsessive Genius offers an intimate look into the life of Marie Curie, peeling away the layers of myth to reveal the woman behind the legend. Through family interviews, diaries, letters, and workbooks that had been sealed for over sixty years, Barbara Goldsmith unveils an all-too-human woman struggling to balance a spectacular scientific career with a demanding family, societal prejudice, and her own passionate nature.

This dazzling portrait captures Curie's amazing scientific success and the price she paid for fame, providing a deeper understanding of what she went through as a woman and a scientist. Marie Curie remains a mystery, but her journey shines as strong as her radium, offering inspiration to all.

On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the remote, snow-peaked Andes. Out of the forty-five original passengers and crew, only sixteen made it off the mountain alive.

For ten excruciating weeks, they suffered deprivations beyond imagining, confronting nature head-on at its most furious and inhospitable. And to survive, they were forced to do what would have once been unthinkable...

This is their story—one of the most astonishing true adventures of the twentieth century.

In this sweeping epic of the northernmost American frontier, James A. Michener guides us through Alaska’s fierce terrain and history, from the long-forgotten past to the bustling present. As his characters struggle for survival, Michener weaves together the exciting high points of Alaska’s story: its brutal origins, the American acquisition, the gold rush, the tremendous growth and exploitation of the salmon industry, and the arduous construction of the Alcan Highway, undertaken to defend the territory during World War II.

A spellbinding portrait of a human community fighting to establish its place in the world, Alaska traces a bold and majestic saga of the enduring spirit of a land and its people.

The City of Joy is an inspiring tale of transformation and hope. Set in the impoverished sector of Calcutta, this story follows an American doctor who undergoes a spiritual rebirth amidst the challenging yet vibrant surroundings.

Amidst the harrowing conditions, you will meet living saints and heroes who have dedicated their lives to helping the poor. Their stories are filled with tragedy, yet their faith, generosity, and boundless love provide a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. This book will not only move you but may also bless you and possibly change your life.

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985.

The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home. She makes two trips to the pond every day.

The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay.

Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.