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We must be brave / by Liardet, Frances,author.;
"December, 1940. As German bombs fall on Southampton, England, the city's residents flee to the surrounding villages. In Upton village, amid the chaos, newly-married Ellen Parr finds a girl asleep, unclaimed at the back of an empty bus. Little Pamela, it seems, is entirely alone. Ellen has always believed she does not want children, but when she takes Pamela into her home, the child cracks open the past Ellen thought she had escaped and the future she and her husband, Selwyn, had dreamed for themselves. As the war rages on, love grows where it was least expected, surprising them all. But with the end of the fighting comes the realization that Pamela was never theirs to keep ..." -- Dust jacket flap.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; Abandoned children; Foster mothers; Mothers and daughters; Families;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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We must be brave [sound recording] / by Liardet, Frances,author.; Entwhistle, Jayne,narrator.; Mills, Juliet,narrator.; Penguin Audio (Firm),publisher.; Books on Tape, Inc.,publisher.;
Read by Jayne Entwhistle and Juliet Mills."December, 1940. As German bombs fall on Southampton, England, the city's residents flee to the surrounding villages. In Upton village, amid the chaos, newly-married Ellen Parr finds a girl asleep, unclaimed at the back of an empty bus. Little Pamela, it seems, is entirely alone. Ellen has always believed she does not want children, but when she takes Pamela into her home, the child cracks open the past Ellen thought she had escaped and the future she and her husband, Selwyn, had dreamed for themselves. As the war rages on, love grows where it was least expected, surprising them all. But with the end of the fighting comes the realization that Pamela was never theirs to keep ..." -- Container.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Historical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; Abandoned children; Foster mothers; Mothers and daughters; Families;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The lost English girl / by Kelly, Julia,1986-author.;
"Liverpool, 1935: Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne knows what's expected of her: marry a Catholic man from her working-class neighborhood and have his children. However, when she finds herself pregnant after a fling with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish man with dreams of becoming a famous Jazz musician, Viv knows that a swift wedding is the only answer. Her only solace is that marrying Joshua will mean escaping her strict mother's scrutiny. But when Joshua makes a life-changing choice on their wedding day, Viv is forced once again into the arms of her disapproving family. Five years later and on the eve of World War II, Viv is faced with the impossible choice to evacuate her young daughter, Maggie, to the countryside estate of the affluent Thompson family. In New York City, Joshua gives up his failing musical career to serve in the Royal Air Force, fight for his country, and try to piece together his feelings about the family, wife, and daughter he left behind at eighteen. However, tragedy strikes when Viv learns that the countryside safe haven she sent her daughter to wasn't immune from the horrors of war. It is only years later, with Joshua's help, that Viv learns the secrets of their shared past and what it will take to put a family back together again. Telling the harrowing story of England's many evacuated children, bestselling author Julia Kelly's The Lost English Girl explores how one simple choice can change the course of a life, and what we are willing to forgive to find a way back to the ones we love and thought lost"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Families; Man-woman relationships; Mothers; Secrecy; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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A complicated matter / by Youngson, Anne,author.;
1939, London: Rose is evacuated from her home and to a city of falling bombs, perplexing class rules, and bad weather. Despite being foreign to the locals, Rose becomes an efficient go-between for the upper-class ladies helping out with the war effort. It is only when she is shifted to the countryside to become secretary to Major Inchbold that Rose's journey to womanhood will become more surreal than ever. But Rose's greatest dilemma is yet to come, as she must decide where her home - and her heart - really lies.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Belonging (Social psychology); Interpersonal relations; Social classes; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The fifth act : America's end in Afghanistan / by Ackerman, Elliot,author.;
"A powerful and revelatory eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan, its desperate endgame, and the war's echoing legacy. Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and, later, as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August of 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had, for years, worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families. The official US government evacuation process was a bureaucratic failure that led to a humanitarian catastrophe. With his former colleagues, and friends, protecting the airport in Kabul, Ackerman was drawn into an impromptu effort alongside a group of journalists, and other veterans, to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. These were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America's longest war, but the success they achieved afforded a degree of redemption. And, for Ackerman, a chance to reconcile his past with his present. The Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week at its bitter end. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves in a personal history of the war's long progress, beginning with the initial invasion in the months after 9/11. It is a play in five acts, the fifth act being the story's tragic denouement, a prelude to Afghanistan's dark future. Any reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war's trajectory will find a trenchant accounting here. And yet The Fifth Act is not an exercise in finger-pointing: it brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters, American and Afghan, who fought the war with courage and dedication, in good faith and at great personal cost. Understanding combatants' experiences and sacrifices while reckoning with the complex bottom line of the post-9/11 wars is not an easy balance; it demands reservoirs of wisdom and the gifts of an extraordinary storyteller. It asks for an author willing to grapple with certain hard-earned truths. In Elliot Ackerman, this story has found that author. The Fifth Act is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic"--
Subjects: Ackerman, Elliot.; United States. Central Intelligence Agency.; United States. Marine Corps. Marine Regiment, 8th. Battalion, 1st.; Afghan War, 2001-2021; Afghan War, 2001-2021; Afghan War, 2001-2021; Disengagement (Military science); Paramilitary forces;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The island of extraordinary captives : a painter, a poet, an heiress, and a spy in a World War II British internment camp / by Parkin, Simon,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Following the events of Kristallnacht in 1938, Peter Fleischmann evaded the Gestapo's midnight roundups in Berlin by way of a perilous journey to England via the Kindertransport train. But he could not escape the British police, who came for him in the early hours and shipped him off to Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man, under suspicion of being a spy for the very regime he had fled. Peter's story was no isolated incident. During Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s, tens of thousands of German and Austrian Jews escaped and found refuge in Britain. Once war broke out in 1939, the nation turned against them, fearing that Nazis had planted spies posing as refugees. Innocent asylum seekers thus were labeled "enemy aliens" and ultimately sentenced to an indefinite period of internment. When Peter arrived at Hutchinson Camp, he found one of history's most astounding prison populations: renowned professors, composers, journalists, and artists. Together, they created a thriving cultural community, complete with art exhibitions, lectures, musical performances, and poetry readings. The artists welcomed Peter as their pupil and forever changed the course of his life. Meanwhile, suspicions grew that a real spy was hiding among them--one connected to a vivacious heiress from Peter's past. Drawing from unpublished first-person accounts and newly declassified documents from the British government, award-winning journalist Simon Parkin tells the story of this unlikely group of internees. The Island of Extraordinary Captives brings history to life in vivid detail, revealing the hidden truth of Britain's grave wartime mistake and showcasing how hope and creativity can flourish in even the darkest of circumstances"--
Subjects: Midgley, Peter, 1921-1991.; Hutchinson Internment Camp (Douglas, Isle of Man); Germans; Jewish refugees; Noncitizens; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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