Night is a terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that transforms a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family, the death of his innocence, and the death of his God. It is as penetrating and powerful as The Diary Of Anne Frank, awakening the shocking memory of evil at its absolute. This unforgettable narrative carries with it a poignant message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.

The heartbreaking, iconic true story of an abandoned little boy’s horrific journey through the American foster care system. On a misty evening in Brooklyn, Jennings Michael Burch’s mother, too sick to care for him, left her eight-year-old son at an orphanage with the words, “I’ll be right back.” She wasn’t. Shuttled through a bleak series of foster homes, orphanages, and institutions, Jennings never remained in any of them long enough to make a friend. Instead, he clung to a tattered stuffed animal named Doggie, his sole source of comfort in a frightening world.

Here, in his own words, Jennings Michael Burch reveals the abuse and neglect he experienced during his lost childhood. But while his experiences are both shocking and devastating, his story is ultimately one of hope—the triumphant tale of a forgotten child who somehow found the courage to reach out for love, and found it waiting for him.

The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity's repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.

But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them – and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a dark, savagely ironic, and riveting story of three down-and-out Americans hunting for gold in Sonora, Mexico. First published in 1935, this novel by the elusive author B. Traven has become a cult masterpiece, inspiring John Huston's classic film.

Little is known for certain about B. Traven. Evidence suggests that he was born Otto Feige in Schlewsig-Holstein and escaped a death sentence for his involvement with the anarchist underground in Bavaria. Traven spent most of his adult life in Mexico, where he wrote several bestsellers under various names and was an outspoken defender of the rights of Mexico's indigenous people.

This literary masterpiece explores the themes of greed and paranoia as the three Americans, who start off as friends, find themselves caught in a morality tale of betrayal. As they discover the gold lode, their camaraderie is tested, revealing the darker sides of human nature.

The White Plague is a marvelous and terrifyingly plausible blend of fiction and visionary themes. It tells the story of one man pushed over the edge of sanity by the senseless murder of his family. Reappearing several months later as the so-called Madman, he unleashes a terrible plague upon the human race—one that zeros in, unerringly and fatally, on women.

From Science fiction grandmaster Frank Herbert, creator of the Dune universe, comes this novel of bioterrorism and gendercide. What if women were an endangered species? It begins in Ireland, but soon spreads throughout the entire world: a virulent new disease expressly designed to target only women.

As fully half of the human race dies off at a frightening pace and life on Earth faces extinction, panicked people and governments struggle to cope with the global crisis. Infected areas are quarantined or burned to the ground. The few surviving women are locked away in hidden reserves, while frantic doctors and scientists race to find a cure. Anarchy and violence consume the planet.

The plague is the work of a solitary individual who calls himself the Madman. As government security forces feverishly hunt for the renegade scientist, he wanders incognito through a world that will never be the same. Society, religion, and morality are all irrevocably transformed by the White Plague.

I am Johannes Verne, and I am not afraid. This was the boy’s mantra as he plodded through the desert alone, left to die by his vengeful grandfather. Johannes Verne was soon to be rescued by outlaws, but no one could save him from the lasting memory of his grandfather’s eyes, full of impenetrable hatred.

Raised in part by Indians, then befriended by a mysterious woman, Johannes grew up to become a rugged adventurer and an educated man. But even now, strengthened by the love of a golden-haired girl and well on his way to making a fortune in bustling early-day Los Angeles, the past may rise up to threaten his future once more. And this time only the ancient gods of the desert can save him.

Malevil is a gripping tale of survival and resilience. After a devastating nuclear holocaust ravages the Earth, a group of survivors find refuge in the depths of a castle in the south of France. This is not just a story of survival, but of the reconstruction of civilization itself. The survivors, led by Emmanuel Comte, transform the castle of Malevil into a beacon of hope and a new beginning.

The novel delves into various themes such as religion, politics, and the role of leadership in rebuilding society. It also explores the dynamics of a mini-community, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of starting anew in a world that has been reduced to ruins.

The narrative is a fascinating blend of post-apocalyptic fiction and robinsonade, where the characters must navigate the complexities of human nature and societal structures in their quest to rebuild what was lost. This is a story of hope, courage, and the indomitable spirit of humanity.

The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization.

But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival—a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known.

On the first day of May, 100 teenage boys meet for a race known as The Long Walk. If you break the rules, you get three warnings. If you exceed your limit, what happens is absolutely terrifying.

A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul is a captivating narrative set in post-colonial Africa during the time of Independence. This novel offers a vivid exploration of a continent in transition.

The story follows Salim, a young Indian man, who embarks on a journey to establish a small business in Central Africa. As he navigates the complexities of a newly-dependent state, he becomes intricately involved with the fluid and dangerous political landscape.

Set against a backdrop of chaos, violent change, and social breakdown, Salim's journey is one of personal growth and survival amidst historical upheaval. This novel serves as a microcosm of a changing world, characterized by warring tribes, ignorance, isolation, and poverty.

Naipaul's work emerges as a truly moving story that reflects on the cultural and political transformations of the time.

They were the mri - tall, secretive, bound by honor and the rigid dictates of their society. For aeons, this golden-skinned, golden-eyed race had provided the universe with mercenary soldiers of almost unimaginable ability. But now, the mri have faced an enemy unlike any other - an enemy whose only way of war is widespread destruction. These humans are mass fighters, creatures of the herd, and the mri have been slaughtered like animals.

Now, in the aftermath of war, the mri face extinction. It will be up to three individuals to save whatever remains of this devastated race: a warrior - one of the last survivors of his kind; a priestess of this honorable people; and a lone human - a man sworn to aid the enemy of his own kind. Can they retrace the galaxy-wide path of this nomadic race back through millennia to reclaim the ancient world which first gave them life?

Volume 1 of the gripping epic masterpiece, Solzhenitsyn's chilling report of his arrest and interrogation. This work exposed to the world the vast bureaucracy of secret police that haunted Soviet society.

Drawing on his own experiences, Solzhenitsyn reveals with torrential narrative and dramatic power the entire apparatus of Soviet repression. Through truly Shakespearean portraits of its victims, we encounter the secret police operations, the labor camps, and the prisons. The uprooting or extermination of whole populations is also depicted.

Yet we also witness astounding moral courage and the incorruptibility with which individuals or scattered groups, all defenseless, endured brutality and degradation. Solzhenitsyn's genius has transmuted this grisly indictment into a literary miracle.

Henri Charrière, called Papillon, for the butterfly tattoo on his chest, was convicted in Paris in 1931 of a murder he did not commit. Sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, he became obsessed with one goal: escape. After planning and executing a series of treacherous yet failed attempts over many years, he was eventually sent to the notorious prison, Devil's Island, a place from which no one had ever escaped... until Papillon. His flight to freedom remains one of the most incredible feats of human cunning, will, and endurance ever undertaken.

Charrière's astonishing autobiography, Papillon, was published in France to instant acclaim in 1968, more than twenty years after his final escape. Since then, it has become a treasured classic -- the gripping, shocking, ultimately uplifting odyssey of an innocent man who simply would not be defeated.

Watership Down is a compelling tale of adventure, courage, and survival that follows a band of very special creatures. This classic novel, set in England's idyllic rural landscape, begins with a group of rabbits fleeing the intrusion of man and the destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, the rabbits embark on a journey from their native Sandleford Warren, facing harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries.

As they navigate these challenges, they seek a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society. The story of their flight towards hope and the bonds they form along the way has captivated readers for decades, making Watership Down not only a beloved novel but also a timeless classic that continues to inspire.

One Man Who Dared to Stand Up

Months of solitary confinement, years of periodic physical torture, constant suffering from hunger and cold, and the anguish of brainwashing and mental cruelty—these are the experiences of a Romanian pastor during his 14 years in Communist prisons.

His crime, like that of thousands of others, was his fervent belief in Jesus Christ and his public witness concerning that faith.

Meeting in homes, in basements, and in woods—sometimes daring to preach in public on street corners—these faithful souls persisted in their Christian witness knowing full well the ultimate cost of their actions.

This is their story—a classic account of courage, tenacious faith, and unbelievable endurance. This history of the Underground Church reflects the continuing struggle in many parts of the world today.

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished.

Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is heading their way and bringing certain death to everyone in its path. Among them is an American submarine captain struggling to resist the knowledge that his wife and children in the United States must be dead. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from somewhere near Seattle, and Captain Towers must lead his submarine crew on a bleak tour of the ruined world in a desperate search for signs of life.

On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare.

While on holiday, Scott Carey is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray shortly after he accidentally ingests insecticide. The radioactivity acts as a catalyst for the bug spray, causing his body to shrink at a rate of approximately 1/7 of an inch per day.

A few weeks later, Carey can no longer deny the truth: not only is he losing weight, he is also shorter than he was and deduces, to his dismay, that his body will continue to shrink.

Richard Matheson's novel follows through its premise with remorseless logic, with Carey first attempting to continue some kind of normal life and later having left human contact behind, having to survive in a world where insects and spiders are giant adversaries. And even that is only a stage on his journey into the unknown.

The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor is Gabriel García Márquez's remarkable account of a real-life event. In 1955, eight crew members of the destroyer Caldas were swept into the Caribbean Sea. The tale unfolds with Luis Alejandro Velasco, the sole survivor, who bravely endured ten days adrift on a life raft without food or water. His harrowing ordeal of survival is vividly captured in this narrative, which also explores the aftermath of his rescue, including the unexpected consequences of fame and the fickle nature of public adoration.

Originally published as a series of newspaper articles, this work caused a sensation and a scandal upon its release. Márquez's retelling of Velasco's extraordinary tale of endurance, from his intense loneliness and thirst to his unwavering determination to survive, reads like an epic, drawing readers into the depths of human resilience and the will to live. This story not only highlights the physical challenges of Velasco's journey but also delves into the psychological effects of isolation and the struggle to maintain hope in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The book focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves. Themes include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality.

The novel has been generally well received. It was named in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, and is popular reading in schools, especially in the English-speaking world.

For eight weeks in 1945, when Berlin fell into the hands of the Russian army, a young woman recorded her diary in the building of her apartment and its surroundings. The "unknown" writer portrayed Berliners in all their human natures, in their cowardice and corruption, firstly due to hunger and secondly due to the Russian soldiers.

"A Woman in Berlin" speaks about the complex relationships between the civilians and the occupying army, and the humiliating treatment of women in an occupied city, which is always a subject of mass rape that all women suffered from, regardless of age and infirmity.

"A Woman in Berlin" is one of the essential books for understanding war and life.

On the empty winter prairie, gray clouds to the northwest meant only one thing: a blizzard was seconds away. The first blizzard came in October. It snowed almost without stopping until April. The temperature dropped to forty below. Snow reached the roof-tops. And no trains could get through with food and coal. The townspeople began to starve. The Ingalls family barely lived through that winter. And Almanzo Wilder knew he would have to risk his life to save the town.

With the moral stamina and intellectual poise of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid, unpretentious prose.

He was profoundly in touch with the minutest workings of the most endearing human events and with the most contemptible. What has survived in Levi's writing isn't just his memory of the unbearable, but also, in The Periodic Table and The Wrench, his delight in what made the world exquisite to him.

He was himself a magically endearing man, the most delicately forceful enchanter I've ever known.

The Pianist is the extraordinary memoir of Władysław Szpilman, a young Jewish pianist who survived the horrors of World War II in Warsaw. On September 23, 1939, Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on Polish Radio, only to be interrupted by the outbreak of war as German shells exploded around him.

His account details the devastating impact of the Nazi occupation on the Jews of Warsaw, including the tragic loss of his entire family who were deported to Treblinka. Szpilman's survival is a testament to his resilience and the unexpected kindness of strangers, including a German officer, Wilm Hosenfeld, who provided him with food and shelter.

The memoir captures the haunting reality of life in the Warsaw Ghetto, where Szpilman hid among the ruins, enduring hunger and despair. His story is interwoven with excerpts from Hosenfeld's diary, offering a poignant counterpoint that highlights the madness and humanity found amidst the war's chaos.

Originally published in 1946, this powerful narrative was suppressed for decades and now stands as a profound testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of music.

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.

She was at the wrong place, at the wrong time. It was supposed to be just another night of partying for Hayley Larson... that is, until things go horribly wrong. She witnesses her father’s brutal murder and barely escapes with her life.

Now orphaned, Hayley's life quickly goes on a downward spiral. She is passed from one guardian to another and eventually ends up in the infamous Downright High, a place meant to discipline even the nastiest, most despicable delinquent. She is abruptly thrown into a life where indoor brawls, school lockdowns, and torturous hours of disciplinary isolation are all expected to happen before dinner.

Amidst the madness, Hayley meets Colin—an arrogant yet irresistibly captivating delinquent with his own set of issues. The attraction between them is unmistakable. And just when they begin to open up to each other, Hayley's dark past catches up with her.

Will Colin look beyond his own problems and reach out to help Hayley? Or will he serve as the final straw that will finally push her to the brink of self-destruction?

Corrado Moretti. The world knows the notorious Kevlar Killer, but few have ever seen what lies beneath his armor.

The abused child. The neglected teenager. The broken man. He always did whatever he had to do in order to survive. It's kill or be killed.

Throughout his life, he has been there in the shadows, a witness to everything from beginning to end. Bound by loyalty and honor, there's only one thing he would sacrifice it all for: family.

Never get close. Never get attached. It's a lesson that has been brutally pounded into him since childhood, but they're words the DeMarcos make it difficult for him to follow. Through them he finds love and grieves loss, realizing the world isn't quite as black and white as it's made out to be.

Made.

Furnace Prison... Where death is the least of your worries. Escape is just the beginning...

We thought we’d made it, we thought we were free. But we should have known there was no way out of Furnace. All we did was slip deeper into the guts of the prison: into solitary confinement, where the real nightmares live - the warden, the Wheezers, and something much, much worse.

The clock’s ticking. Because if we don’t escape soon they will turn us into freaks - like them. For ever.

In the darkness of the hole, your worst nightmares come to life.

Some Ether is one of the most remarkable debut collections of poetry to appear in America in recent memory. In this collection, Nick Flynn presents poems of ringing clarity and strange precision that conjure a will to survive and a buoyant motion toward love, which is sometimes all that saves us.

These poems resonate in the imagination long after the final poem, offering a startling and moving debut that speaks to the heart and soul. Some Ether is not just a testimony; it is an exploration of survival and emotion, crafted with care and deep insight.

When it was published in 1995, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level. Karr's comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger's—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all.

This unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as funny, lively, and un-put-downable today as it ever was. Dive into a world where humor meets hardship, and resilience triumphs over adversity.

Lonely and out of place in the 21st century, Olivia Keller finds her escape in books, especially romances set in the distant past. When a series of unexpected happenings places her in the very time she's always dreamed of, she is struck with the old wisdom to be careful what you wish for.

Cast into a world she could not have understood if she'd read a thousand books, fantasies are abandoned and survival remains the only goal. It soon becomes apparent, however, that survival is just one of the many challenges she'll face as she experiences the ancient world through the members of the Deer Clan.

She is reviled by the sardonic clansman, Trabor, who has convinced members of the clan that the solution to their misfortune is the conquer and pillaging of neighboring clans. Befriended by Jalen, hunter of the Deer Clan, and its eldest member, Yani, her arrival is seen as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy to unite the Clan with its deer brothers.

To others, she is an outsider, cursing the clan and dividing its members between those who choose Trabor's path of war and those who cling to reunification and a return of prosperity.

As the hailed Caller of the Deer, Olivia bears witness to Earth's mystical past, as the realization of her true mission is revealed, and she is granted the extraordinary power to change the course of Earth's history.