This novel is based on a true story and written by a German
who lived through the Nazi period. This authentic perspective had me enthralled
from start to finish.
A factory worker, Otto Quangel, writes on postcards
urging Berliners to rise up against the regime. A cat and mouse game ensues
where a Gestapo policeman, Inspector Escherich, hunts for the perpetrator of
these repeated acts of defiance.
The story is fast paced, riveting, and heart-breaking.
It conveys the atmosphere of fear and dread that many Germans experienced under
the Nazis, and it stayed with me a long time after I closed its pages.
A gripping portrait of life in wartime Berlin and a vividly theatrical study of how paranoia can warp a society gripped by the fear of the night-time knock on the door.
Based on true events, Hans Fallada's Alone In Berlin follows a quietly courageous couple, Otto and Anna Quangel who, in dealing with their own heartbreak, stand up to the brutal reality of the Nazi regime. With the smallest of acts, they defy Hitler's rule with extraordinary bravery, facing the gravest of consequences.
Translated and Adapted by Alistair Beaton (Feelgood, The Trial Of Tony Blair), this timely story of the…
In post-war London, two orphaned Australian girls,
Caro and Grace, seek their fortune.
An astronomer, Ted, falls in love with
Caro, a love that will long be unrequited. Grace makes a safe marriage to a
smug Englishman and the story follows the sisters’ respective trajectories,
along with Ted’s. Spanning decades and continents it is beautifully written,
evoking a claustrophobic and frustrating time for women.
It is grand in scope,
examining colonialism and contrasting love and beauty with power and betrayal.
I loved the ambiguity in the story, the sense that nothing can ever be pinned
down and that disaster can strike at any time. That we must live with this
uncertainty, with opposite truths existing at the same time. The twist at the
end was heart stopping.
"The Transit of Venus is one of the great English-language novels of the twentieth century." - The Paris Review
Finalist for the National Book Award Winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award
The award-winning, New York Times bestselling literary masterpiece of Shirley Hazzard-the story of two beautiful orphan sisters whose fates are as moving and wonderful, and yet as predestined, as the transits of the planets themselves
The Transit of Venus is considered Shirley Hazzard's most brilliant novel. It tells the story of two orphan sisters, Caroline and Grace Bell, as they leave Australia to start a new life…
Sunbirds is set in wartime West Java and is a
sweeping and atmospheric tale about love and being torn between two worlds.
Anna is the daughter of a wealthy Dutchman and a mother of Indonesian-Chinese
descent. The family lives on an idyllic tea plantation and Anna is engaged to a
pilot, Mattijs. Her life seems poised for comfort and security, but the family watches in trepidation as the Japanese capture other Asian territories and their
campaign creeps closer to Java.
I loved the vivid and sensory prose, the sense
of unease as the war arrives on their doorstep, and the hidden hostilities in
the household. Anna uncovers secrets about her father and realizes that the
beauty and perfection of her world is not as it seems, that everything she
takes for granted has come from colonialism and oppression. Her character arc
is subtly drawn, and I kept turning the pages, wondering what might happen to
her.
The other characters in the story – Mattijs, Diah, Hermine, and Sigit are
all well written. I also really enjoyed reading a wartime story that had multiple
cultural perspectives and insights.
1941, West Java. Love and revolution are in the air. And war is on its way. Shortly before the Japanese invade, the van Hoorn family throws their famous Sinterklaas party at their tea plantation. One of their guests, Mattijs, a Dutch pilot, hopes to forge a future in the Dutch East Indies, possibly with the family's daughter, Anna, but she is torn between her dreams of Holland and her desire to belong. Meanwhile the housekeeper, Diah, keenly observes the goings-on around the plantation, wondering how much to tell her freedom-fighter brother. When the Japanese forces finally arrive on Java's doorstep,…
Blois, 1705. The château of Duc Hugo d’Amboise simmers with rivalry and intrigue. Henriette d’Augustin, one of five mistresses of the duc, lives at the chateau with her daughter. When the duc’s wife, Duchesse Charlotte, maliciously undermines a new mistress, Letitia, Henriette is forced to choose between position and morality. She fights to maintain her status whilst targeted by the duchesse who will do anything to harm her enemies. The arrival of charismatic tarot reader, Romain de Villiers, further escalates tensions as rivals in love and domestic politics strive for supremacy. In a society where status is a matter of life and death, Henriette must stay true to herself, her daughter, and her heart, all the while hiding a painful secret of her own.
