First World War Fiction

München, 1923: Deutschland versinkt in den düsteren Tiefen der Wirtschaftskrise, und zwei Paare stehen an der Schwelle ihres Schicksals. Helga und Heinrich Goldmann kämpfen buchstäblich um ihr nacktes Überleben, während Edith und Julius Falkenstein zur Elite Deutschlands gehören. Als die schüchterne Edith Julius zum ersten Mal traf, war es Liebe auf den ersten Blick. Die Einheirat in die mächtige Falkenstein-Familie hat sie in die glitzernde Gesellschaft der oberen Zehntausend katapultiert. Doch ihre heile Welt gerät ins Wanken, als die Nazi-Partei immer mehr Macht und Einfluss gewinnt.

A born storyteller, Charlie May's vivid eye for detail and warm good humour brings his experience in the trenches to life for a 21st-century audience. A journalist before the war and a born storyteller, May's diaries give a vivid picture of battalion life in and behind the trenches during the build-up to the greatest battle fought by a British army and are filled with the friendships and tensions, the home-sickness, frustrations, the fog of ignorance, the combination of boredom and terror to which every man that has ever fought could testify.

Thousands of short stories were published during the First World War, which coincided with the heyday of the fiction magazine in Britain. Much of this material has never been republished since the end of the war and is virtually lost to the modern audience. This new collection is an important work of recovery, introducing little-known magazine short fiction - which was primarily written for a civilian readership - by major writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle as well as more neglected authors.

Frontline is the story of an aristocrat's daughter who joins the war effort as a nurse. In a field hospital in rural France, she meets Will, a dockworker's son serving as a stretcher-bearer. As rumours of an armistice begin to circulate, so, too, does a mysterious respiratory illness that soldiers are referring to as the 'Spanish flu'.

In 1944, two United States Army Air Corps Officers are recruited for a mission—a "TOP SECRET" mission to coincide with another. Between departing England and arriving in Australia, their shuttle airplane is attacked by Japanese fighters. However, the planes are reduced to dust by blasts fired from an untraceable source. Awaiting the pilots, Colonel Jeremy McCloud and Colonel Kevin Stillwell, are new orders to sail to Albany, a small whaling town in Western Australia, on board the United States submarine, USS Javelin.

1918: Freddie was destined for a different life, determined to make his fortune in the plantations of Ceylon. But just as the great war comes to an end, the eldest brother and heir to Coombe Hall, Edward, doesn’t return. Torn between duty and freedom, Freddie must now sacrifice his own dreams to keep the estate – and the future of Coombe – alive. And now he must now marry for an heir, not for love. But the turmoil of war didn’t end on the battlefield; the country faces upheavals like never before.

June 1914. Edie Moore is a Governess for Lord and Lady Moreland, living comfortably at the grand Downland House in Sussex. But, wanting more from life, she flees to Littlehampton, where she spent many idyllic childhood holidays. Desperate for work, Edie begins working as a chambermaid at the prestigious Beach Hotel, despite the menial tasks being a far cry from her previous job. But as she navigates her new life, friendships, and rivalries, she also grows closer to charming, cheerful porter, Charlie Cobbett, and finally finds the happiness she has been searching for.

Single mother Sarah is guilt-ridden when an accident leaves her young daughter Melody seriously injured and their once music-filled lives silent. When she discovers her grandmother Rosalie's old war correspondence, she thinks she might have found a way to save her family, but it will require a leap of faith she isn't sure they are ready to take.

March, 1914. When talented artist Isobel embarks on a journey to Egypt, it's to reunite her best friend, Alice, with her husband, Wilfred—and to use the stunning sights of Cairo as inspiration for her own paintings. A whirlwind romance was the last thing she expected, but when Isobel meets Wilfred's handsome brother, Edward, neither can deny the strong connection between them—especially when unexpected tragedy strikes, leaving them all reeling. Just as they get to grips with their grief, WW1 erupts, and the lovers are forced to separate.

It is the summer of 1934 when MI6 receives intelligence that two German scientists have made a breakthrough in germ warfare. British agent Elena Standish must return to Berlin to prevent unimaginable horror and, with the help of her trusted friend, Jacob Ritter, embark upon a mission fraught with fear and uncertainty.

Solomon knew that he had one advantage. A pawn ticket belonging to a dead man tucked into his top pocket - the only clue to the truth.... An old soldier dies alone in his Edinburgh nursing home. No known relatives, and no will to enact. Just a pawn ticket found amongst his belongings, and 50,000 pounds in used notes sewn into the lining of his burial suit....

A love story set against the backdrop of the First World War, the events in Lethbridge unfold in disparate locales, from London to Boston, from Maine to Niagara Falls, from the trenches of wartime France to the military hospitals of England. Yet the lives of its three protagonists come together in one place: the frontier western Canadian city of Lethbridge, Alberta. Inspired by a true story, Lethbridge author Terry McConnell tells the tale of an English lad abandoned by his family, and a young American escaping the tyranny of his own father.

Lincolnshire, 1910. Shunned by her own family, desperate for work and a place to stay, Esther Everatt walks through the night to Sam Brumby's farm, seeking the chance to earn her keep. Reluctantly, the old man takes her on. But her peace and security are cruelly shattered when old Sam dies. As a woman she has no right to inherit the lease on the farm.

A sweet romance by Romain Rolland in an un-sweet world... Pierre and Luce find each other in Paris in 1918, while WWI still rages. Will these two sensitive young people, Pierre, a pacifist, and Luce, an artist in training stay together and find happiness or will the weight of the world in flames destroy their future together? Romain Rolland (1866-1944) was a French novelist, playwright, art historian, essayist and mystic. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.