Search

During the air war over Germany, the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress tries to achieve some competence as a unit before their most catastrophic mission yet They call their plane “Paper Doll,” the joke being its suggestion of flimsiness, inconsequence, and perishability, and none of them, from the veterans to the newcomers, feel the bravery they'd like to project. But now, despite their myriad limitations, they've been tasked with living through the tension and boredom of base life, saving one another's lives, and rejoicing at those missions they've survived—until they're confronted by the shock of a mission directed against the ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt, a mission that will outfly the capacities of their fighter escorts and take them hundreds of miles through the most heavily defended sectors of the German Air Defense. National Book Award finalist and author of The Book of Aron Jim Shepard brilliantly illustrates both the lunacy and intimacy of these young men's lives on the ground as well as their growing disillusionment and terror at what lies ahead. Unsentimental and unsparing in its honesty, Paper Doll portrays with stirring clarity the realities of war and the bonds forged in the face of death.

Three touching contemporary British novels of love, loss, and humor from the international bestselling “virtuoso” (The Times, London). Jumping the Queue: This masterpiece of wit, humor, and psychological suspense tells the story of a middle-aged widow who has had it with life. She puts her papers in order, gives away her pet goose, packs a picnic lunch, and heads to the beach to drown herself—only to meet a criminal on the run who has the same idea. Together they set out on adventure in this novel about the hidden costs of love and death. The Camomile Lawn: In this international bestseller, several cousins reunite after forty years to lay one of their own to rest. Together they recall their last carefree summer—and one hot August night in 1939 before the war began. They also reflect on the chaos that followed... and how it changed their lives forever. Harnessing Peacocks: Single mother Hebe juggles numerous lovers while working as a manor house chef to pay for her son's schooling. When her two worlds collide, a secret from the past leads to a final showdown with a man who's in search for his lost love in this captivating and sensual novel.

Four loosely linked realistic novels from “one of Britain's most accomplished and versatile writers” (The Guardian). A Hugo and Nebula Award–winning science fiction writer, British novelist Brian W. Aldiss also regularly “returned to earth with distinction,” penning realistic works, including the Squire Quartet (The New York Times). Comprised of “loosely interconnected novels following many characters through a twenty-first century landscape of insidious new technology and international political turmoil” (Booklist), here is the complete series from this “ambitious and gifted writer” (The Guardian). Life in the West: Thomas C. Squire, creator of the hit documentary series Frankenstein Among the Arts, one-time secret agent, and founder of the Society for Popular Aesthetics, is attending an international media symposium in Sicily. It is here that he becomes involved with the lovely but calculating Selina Ajdina. Alongside the drama of the conference is the story of Squire's private life—the tale of his infidelity, the horrifying circumstances surrounding his father's death, and the threatened future of his ancestral home in England. “[A] novel of ideas that is also eminently readable... a virtuoso performance.” —Publishers Weekly Forgotten Life: Analyst Clement Winters is trying to write a biography of his recently deceased older brother, Joseph. Through the writings Joseph left behind—letters, diaries, notes, and confessions—Clement realizes how vastly his perception of his sibling differs from reality. As Clement tries to make sense of Joseph's life, he uncovers dark corners of his family history and even his own existence. “A realistic novel... imaginative richness... [a] many-layered venture into the extraordinariness of ordinary lives.” —The New York Times Remembrance Day: When four people are killed by a terrorist bombing in a small British seaside hotel, an American academic examines the details of the victims'lives and histories to find the relationship between them and their fate. “Aldiss discovers fresh and arresting nuances in the dichotomy between blind chance and predestination in human affairs... original, disturbing, and memorable.” —Kirkus Reviews Somewhere East of Life: Architectural historian Roy Burnell has been tasked with traveling the globe and listing architectural gems in danger of being destroyed. But when Burnell is in Budapest, ten years of his memory, including his sexual experiences, are stolen. In this near future, where thieves sell memories on the black market, Burnell tries to resume his life, while also searching for the “bullet” that will restore his memory. “Intelligent, funny, and hopeful in spite of itself.” —Kirkus Reviews

Three novels of life at sea during World War II from the bestselling author of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and A Summer Place. Drawing on his own experiences as a US Coast Guard officer, Sloan Wilson sheds a unique light on World War II in these three unforgettable novels. Voyage to Somewhere: Hoping to draw a nice, lengthy shore duty after two years at sea, Lieutenant Barton is instead told that he's being sent right back out, this time as captain of a supply ship sailing from California to New Guinea and stopping at every small island in between. Despite being homesick for his wife, he has no choice but to accept the assignment and a cargo of pineapples destined for Hawaii. When Barton isn't battling gale-force winds and monstrous waves, he's coping with seasick sailors and budding rivalries that threaten to turn mutinous. Hanging over the ship like a storm cloud is the knowledge that the world is at war and the enemy is never far away. “One of the few honest and straightforward sea books that have come out of the war” (New York Herald Tribune).Pacific Interlude: Twenty-five-year-old Coast Guard lieutenant Sylvester Grant, a veteran of the Greenland Patrol, has just been given command of a small gas tanker carrying extremely flammable cargo across dangerous stretches of the Pacific Ocean. As the Allies prepare to retake the Philippines, Grant and his crew must bring two hundred thousand gallons of high-octane aviation fuel to shore. From below-deck personality clashes to the terrifying possibility of an enemy attack, from combating illness and boredom to the constant stress of preventing a deadly explosion, the crew of Y-18 must learn to work together and trust their captain—otherwise, they might never make it home. “Powerful, passionate and authentic... Unforgettable” (James Dickey, author of Deliverance). Ice Brothers: After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Paul Schuman, a college senior and summer sailor, enlists in the Coast Guard and is assigned to be the executive officer aboard the Arluk, a converted fishing trawler patrolling the coast of Greenland for secret German weather bases. Led by Lt. Cdr. “Mad” Mowry, the finest ice pilot and meanest drunk in the Coast Guard, Schuman and communications officer Nathan Greenberg battle deadly icebergs, dangerous blizzards, and menacing Nazi gunboats. Surviving the war will require every ounce of courage and intelligence they possess—and that's before Mowry breaks, forcing the young officers to take command at the worst possible moment. “The best since The Caine Mutiny” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Set behind enemy lines in Burma, this New York Times bestseller is “easily one of the best novels to come out of World War II” (Los Angeles Times). American soldiers and native Kachin troops battle Japanese forces behind enemy lines in the Burmese jungles. But during the brutal campaign to gain territory in the unforgiving tropical landscape, Captain Reynolds and his band of special operations soldiers and guerrilla fighters struggle to find self-awareness, and even love, in the midst of the trials of combat. One of the youngest officers to serve in Merrill's Marauders and OSS Detachment 101—precursors to the Green Berets and Central Intelligence Agency—author Tom T. Chamales brings an unparalleled level of authentic detail and raw intensity to this work of fiction based on his real-life experience in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Never So Few is “an extraordinary and powerful book,” unflinching in its portrayal of wartime sacrifice and violence (Kirkus Reviews, starred). The basis for the movie starring Frank Sinatra and Steve McQueen, it offers “dramatic, exciting, and concretely detailed accounts of battle action,” and joins the ranks of other classic war novels such as From Here to Eternity and The Naked and the Dead in bringing later generations to the frontlines and into the inner lives of the brave men who served (The New York Times).

Three acclaimed novels plus collected short fiction by the New York Times–bestselling author of Rich Man, Poor Man.The Young Lions: Irwin Shaw's New York Times–bestselling debut is widely considered one of the four great World War II novels, along with From Here to Eternity, The Naked and the Dead, and The Caine Mutiny. Ambitious in its scope and robust in its prose, this “masterpiece” is also deeply humanistic, presenting the reality of war as seen through the eyes of three ordinary soldiers: a Nazi sergeant, a Jewish American infantryman, and an idealistic urbanite from New York City (TheBoston Globe). Bread Upon the Waters: No good deed goes unpunished? The Strands are a happy family, though not without their financial struggles. When their daughter helps a mugging victim by bringing him home, he turns out to be a Wall Street lawyer whose gratitude is as boundless as his bank account. But with each successive “reward,” the Strand family moves farther away from the wealth of happiness they already possessed. Short Stories: Five Decades: Shaw's prolific output of short stories appeared regularly in the pages of the New Yorker and Esquire for over half a century. These sixty-three stories include such iconic works as “The Eighty-Yard Run” and “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses.” The Troubled Air: Five employees of Clement Archer's popular radio show are accused Communists. He will have to fire them to keep his show on the air. But it's not a simple choice—whatever Archer decides, he won't be able to keep his hands clean, in Shaw's provocative classic about courage and morality at the height of McCarthyism.

Lanny Budd infiltrates the Nazi high command in the riveting sixth chapter of Upton Sinclair's Pulitzer Prize–winning series of historical novels Dashing and well-connected, Lanny Budd has earned the trust of the Nazi high command. To Adolf Hitler and his inner circle, the American art dealer is a “true believer” committed to their Fascist cause. But Lanny is actually a secret agent serving as President Franklin Roosevelt's eyes and ears in Germany. When he learns of the Führer's plans for conquest, Lanny's dire warnings to Neville Chamberlain and other reluctant European leaders fall on deaf ears. The bitter seeds sown decades earlier with the Treaty of Versailles are now bearing fruit, and there will be no stopping the Nazi war machine as it rolls relentlessly on toward Paris. Dragon Harvest captures the dramatic moment when world leaders realized that in trying to appease Hitler, they made a grave mistake. An astonishing mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of Upton Sinclair's vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.

From the acclaimed author of The Jungle: The first in a Pulitzer Prize–winning historical saga about the son of an American arms dealer during WWI. Lanning “Lanny” Budd spends his first thirteen years in Europe, living at the center of his mother's glamourous circle of friends on the French Riviera. In 1913, he enters a prestigious Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious—but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end. When the gathering storm clouds of war finally burst, raining chaos and death over the continent, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him; his language skills and talent for decoding messages are in high demand. At his father's side, he meets many important political and military figures, learns about the myriad causes of the conflict, and closely follows the First World War's progress. When the bloody hostilities eventually conclude, Lanny joins the Paris Peace Conference as the assistant to a geographer asked by President Woodrow Wilson to redraw the map of Europe. Perfect for fans of The Winds of War, World's End is the magnificent opening chapter of a monumental series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to vivid life. A thrilling mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of Upton Sinclair's vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.

Presidential Agent 103 is targeted by allies and enemies alike as the Nazis roll across Europe in this novel in the Pulitzer Prize–winning series. Europe, 1940. As war rages across the continent, America watches anxiously from the sidelines. And President Franklin Roosevelt has been keeping an even closer eye on developments in the Third Reich. At the president's personal request, Lanny Budd gained the confidence of the Nazi high command and began transmitting valuable information back to the White House. Espionage is a dangerous game, however, and Presidential Agent 103 soon finds himself a target of the French Resistance fighters he is attempting to assist. On a trip to London, Lanny avoids death during a Luftwaffe bombing raid and takes part in the capture of Rudolf Hess. He gets stranded in Asia and is forced to make his way across war-torn China after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor finally brings the United States into the global melee. But Lanny's most important mission still lies before him: He must enter the lion's den alone and unprotected once more to unearth the Nazi Party's most deeply buried secret—the progress of Hitler's scientists in the race to build the atom bomb. A World to Win is the electrifying seventh chapter of the Pulitzer Prize–winning series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to vivid life. An astonishing mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of Upton Sinclair's vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.

As D-Day approaches, an American spy is unmasked by Himmler's Gestapo and must flee the Nazis, in this novel in the Pulitzer Prize–winning historical saga. In 1943, the once-unstoppable Nazi war machine is starting to falter. For a decade and a half, Lanny Budd's cover as a fine-art dealer and Fascist sympathizer has held firm, earning him the confidence of Hermann Göring and other top officials, including Adolf Hitler himself. With the Allies preparing to retake Europe, Lanny must make certain that the location of the invasion remains hidden from the Nazi high command. But his mission is compromised and his life endangered when Heinrich Himmler, Hitler's feared Gestapo chief, uncovers Lanny's true loyalties. Now FDR's most trusted spy must run for his life, escaping into the European countryside with Hitler's executioners on his trail. His survival will require great courage, endurance, and ingenuity, but Lanny Budd is determined to live long enough to witness what he has waited so many years to see: the final collapse of the Third Reich. One Clear Call is the thrilling ninth installment of Upton Sinclair's Pulitzer Prize–winning dramatization of twentieth-century world history. An astonishing mix of adventure, romance, and political intrigue, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of the author's vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.

A US soldier confronts the horrors of the Holocaust in this New York Times–bestselling novel from acclaimed WWII correspondent Martha Gellhorn. Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Jacob Levy is a typical American boy. He never gives much thought to world affairs—or to his Jewish heritage. But when the United States joins the Allied effort to stop Hitler, Jacob's life and sense of identity are on course to change forever. As a soldier in the last months of World War II, Jacob lives through the Battle of the Bulge and the discovery of Nazi concentration camps. Witnessing the liberation of Dachau, he confronts a level of cruelty beyond his own imaginings, and the shock transforms him in ways he never thought possible. One of the first female war correspondents of the twentieth century, Martha Gellhorn visited Dachau a week after its discovery by American soldiers. A New York Times bestseller when it was first published, this powerful novel grapples with the horrors of war and dilemmas of moral responsibility that are just as relevant today. This ebook features an afterword by the author.

The raucous and randy adventures of a stateside soldier during World War II Sergeant Dan Miller wanted to be a flying ace, but the air force grounded him for poor vision. To make matters worse, when the myopic Miller travels home to Minneapolis on furlough, he finds the local “feather merchants”—aka civilians—breaking all the wartime rules. They're guzzling black-market gas, hoarding rationed food, and listening to suspiciously expensive radios. But the most troubling news of all arrives when Sergeant Dan's main squeeze, the voluptuous Estherlee McCracken, declares that she wants nothing to do with a pencil-pushing GI. The night after he gets dumped, Sergeant Dan seeks solace in watered-down whiskeys and a chorus line of ladies dancing in red, white, and blue G-strings. A friend introduces the sad-sack noncom as Robert Jordan, dynamiter of bridges, and before Sergeant Dan can stop that bell from tolling, he's the most celebrated man in town. What follows is a hysterical comedy of errors as our hero tries to outrun his patriotic admirers, win back Estherlee's love, and avoid a court martial.

This sweeping New York Times bestseller is “the most thorough and most captivating, most engrossing novel ever written about World War II” (Los Angeles Times). Epic in scope, Marge Piercy's sweeping novel encompasses the 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 his or her 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.

Vance Bourjaily's classic novel of World War II dramatizes an entire generation's loss of innocence When Thomas “Skinner” Galt leaves Greenwich Village to volunteer as an ambulance driver with the British Army, he anticipates the adventure of a lifetime. What he fails to understand is that no matter where he comes from or how many books he has read, once he dons a military uniform, his life will cease to be his own. Stationed first in the Middle East and then in Italy, Skinner and his fellow American volunteers, Rod, Freak, and Benny, endure boredom, fear, and the exquisite frustration of following orders. They seek solace in their friendship with one another and in the debauched diversions available to men during wartime. But as the days and nights drag on, Skinner begins to drift away from his comrades—and from himself. Too late, he discovers that the path he has chosen leads only to tragedy. Inspired by Vance Bourjaily's experiences as an ambulance driver in the American Field Service and commissioned by legendary editor Maxwell Perkins, The End of My Life marked the arrival of a writer heralded by the New York Times as “a Dostoevsky of the generation that came of age in World War II.” Elegant, spare, and fiercely honest, this is a timeless portrait of the devastating effects of war on the human spirit.

The real history of World War II's most daring fighter squadron is the inspiration for this riveting novel of adventure and romance in the Far East Three years after the liberation of Singapore, transport pilot Lee Crane is finally ready to leave. The Berlin airlift is on, and there's decent money to be made if you possess both your own plane and a practiced disregard for safety. One last drink with his Indo-Air fly buddies at the Long Bar in Raffles hotel and Crane is gone. Then he sees her: the tall, beautiful redhead he had every reason to believe was dead. If Elsa is alive—and still angry, judging by the sock to the jaw she greets him with—what else might Crane have gotten wrong about the past? In 1941, Lee Crane was a Flying Tiger, one of dozens of American pilots recruited to join the Chinese Air Force in the fight against the Japanese. Wild in the air and on the ground, the Tigers broke hearts all over Burma, and Crane was no different—until he fell in love with a stunning Anglo-Indian widow. But in the chaos of war, Crane lost track of the woman of his dreams, and spent the next seven years convincing himself it wasn't meant to be. Now a chance encounter with another long-lost beauty has him ready to plunge back into the past, praying he will come up with a different answer this time. The Last Sunrise is the 2nd book in the Post-War Trilogy, which also includes After Midnight and Dying Day.

From the bestselling author of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, a World War II novel that is as thrilling as it is true to life Hoping to draw a nice, lengthy shore duty after two years at sea, Lieutenant Barton is instead told that he is being sent right back out, this time as captain of a supply ship sailing from California to New Guinea and stopping at every small island in between. Homesick for his wife, he has no choice but to accept the assignment and a crew of twenty-six landlubbers whose last names all begin with W. Their first load of cargo? Pineapples destined for Hawaii. Life aboard the one-hundred-eighty-foot SV-126 is never dull. When Barton isn't battling gale-force winds and monstrous waves, he is coping with seasick sailors and budding rivalries that threaten to turn mutinous. Hanging over the ship like a storm cloud is the knowledge that the world is at war and the enemy is never far away. Whether Lieutenant Barton and his crew are fighting torpedoes and typhoons or writing letters to loved ones, Voyage to Somewhere offers a unique and page-turning perspective on what the Second World War was really like.

During the last days of World War II, a young officer braves enemy fire and a maverick crew on the open waters and in the steamy ports of the South Pacific Twenty-five-year-old Coast Guard lieutenant Sylvester Grant, a veteran of the Greenland Patrol, has just been given command of a small gas tanker, running shuttle and convoy duties for the US Army. Sally, his wife of three years, is eager for him to get back to Massachusetts and live a conventional suburban life selling insurance—but Syl longs for adventure and is bound to find it as the captain of a beat-up, unseaworthy vessel carrying extremely flammable cargo across dangerous stretches of the Pacific Ocean. As the Allies prepare to retake the Philippines, the only thing the sailors aboard the Y-18 want is for the war to be over. First, however, they must survive their mission to bring two hundred thousand gallons of high-octane aviation fuel to shore. From below-deck personality clashes to the terrifying possibility of an enemy attack, from combating illness and boredom to the constant stress of preventing an explosion that could blow their ship sky high, the crew of the Y-18 must learn to work together and trust their captain—otherwise, they might never make it home. Based on Sloan Wilson's own experiences, Pacific Interlude is a thrilling and realistic story of World War II and a moving portrait of a man looking toward the future while trying to survive a precarious present.

The bestselling World War II adventure story based on Sloan Wilson's experiences as a Coast Guard officer on the Greenland patrol After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Paul Schuman, a college senior and summer sailor, enlists in the Coast Guard. His beautiful, mercurial wife, Sylvia, wants him to stay at home in Massachusetts, but Paul is ready for adventure and eager to serve his country. His active duty begins when, without a day of training, he is assigned to be the executive officer aboard the Arluk, a converted fishing trawler patrolling the coast of Greenland for secret German weather bases. At the helm of the Arluk is Lt. Cdr. “Mad” Mowry, the finest ice pilot and meanest drunk in the Coast Guard. Paul has a lot to learn from his captain, but not as much as communications officer Nathan Greenberg does. A Brooklyn engineer, Nathan does not know the difference between a ship's bow and its stern. No matter how nasty Mowry might be, Schuman and Greenberg have to pay close attention, because deadly icebergs, dangerous blizzards, and menacing Nazi gunboats lurk along the frigid Arctic coastline. Surviving the war, Schuman soon realizes, will require every ounce of courage and intelligence he possesses—and that is before Mowry breaks down and the young officer is forced to take command of the Arluk and its crew at the worst possible moment. A masterful blend of high drama and convincing realism, Ice Brothers is a true classic of World War II and one of Sloan Wilson's finest novels.

This fifth volume of Robert Vaughan's AMERICAN CHRONICLES follows America's tumultuous and surprising journey through the 1940's, as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor thrusts the nation into the Second World War. Hitler's army ravages Europe, and an explosion of the first nuclear warhead in Los Alamos plunges the world into the danger of the nuclear age. Beautiful journalist Shaylin McKay risks her life reporting from the battle front, only to find she has fallen in love with a soldier in combat. Veteran pilot Jimmy Blake performs daring air raids deep into German-occupied territory, repeatedly fighting the odds for the sake of his country. African-American fighter pilot Travis Jackson's skills disturb the color division of the military, his outstanding bravery proving that good pilots come in every color.

Rodney and Nathan Higgins are of the same blood, but they are destined to lead two very different lives. Rodney loves the life his father had worked for, living on New York's Fifth Avenue in all the luxury that comes with it. Nathan is a Marxist radical, opposed to all that is his brother. Rodney, following in his father's footsteps and defending his country on the sea, sails the Pacific for revenge on the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. Nathan, pushed into the war at the last minute, finds himself in North Africa, an able killer. Both brothers must fight for their lives, their beliefs, and for glory in Tides of Valor.

One of the great World War II novels, this New York Times–bestselling “masterpiece” captures the experiences of three very different soldiers (The Boston Globe). Standing alongside Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's From Here to Eternity, The Young Lions is one of the most powerful American novels to tackle the Second World War. Ambitious in its scope and robust in its prose, Irwin Shaw's work is also deeply humanistic, presenting the reality of war as seen through the eyes of ordinary soldiers on both sides. The story follows the individual dramas—and ultimately intertwined destinies—of Christian Diestl, a Nazi sergeant; Noah Ackerman, a Jewish American infantryman; and Michael Whitacre, an idealistic urbanite from the New York theatrical world. Diestl first appears as a dashing ski instructor in Austria, mouthing his loyalty to Nazi ideals. As the war progresses, Diestl's character continues to erode as he descends into savagery. Ackerman must endure domestic anti-Semitism and beatings in boot camp before proving himself in the European theater. Eventually, as part of the liberating army, he comes face-to-face with the unimaginable horrors of the death camps. Whitacre, trading cocktail parties for Molotov cocktails, confronts the barbarism of war, and in fighting simply to survive, finds his own capacity for heroism. Shaw's sweeping narrative is at once vivid, exciting, and brutally realistic as well as poignant in its portrayal of the moral devastation and institutional insanity of war. Penned by a master storyteller at the height of his craft, The Young Lions stands the test of time as a classic novel of war and the human experience. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Irwin Shaw including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate.

During World War II, a gay navy sailor works undercover to catch Nazi spies, in this “fast-moving” novel from the author of Gods and Monsters (Publishers Weekly). During shore leave in New York, Seaman Second Class Hank Fayette, a Texas country boy in the big city, finds himself visiting a gay brothel, where he is swiftly arrested during a raid. Facing the prospect of a dishonorable discharge—or worse—he is given another option: Return to the brothel, near Manhattan's West Side piers, and work undercover as a prostitute. Nazi agents are rumored to haunt the area, and Hank is a perfect lure to trap them. This military man is about to risk his life for his country in a way he never expected in “a spy thriller that breaks new ground” from the author of Eminent Outlaws and The Notorious Dr. August (Kirkus Reviews).

Three classic World War II novels in one collection, including the National Book Award winner From Here to Eternity. An army base at Pearl Harbor. The jungles of Guadalcanal. A veterans hospital on the home front. Inspired by his own experiences in the US Army, author James Jones's World War II Trilogy stands as one of the most significant achievements in war literature. This compilation includes:From Here to Eternity Pearl Harbor, 1941. A challenging young private is transferred to a unit where the commander is determined to make his life hell. This edition includes scenes and dialogue censored for the novel's original publication. A true classic, From Here to Eternity was made into an Academy Award–winning film and a television mini-series, as well as adapted for the stage.The Thin Red Line The invasion of Guadalcanal ignites a six-month battle for two thousand square miles of jungle and sand. But the soldiers of Charlie Company are not of the heroic mold. The unit's captain is too intelligent and sensitive for the job, his first sergeant is half mad, and the enlisted men begin the campaign gripped by cowardice. This searing portrait of jungle combat has been adapted twice for feature films.Whistle After a long journey across the Pacific, a ship finally lands on American soil. For the soldiers'loved ones, it's a celebration. But on board, hundreds of men are broken and haunted, survivors of the battle to wrest the South Seas from the Japanese Empire. Though on their way to heal in a Tennessee hospital, their road to recovery will take far more than mending physical wounds. This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author's estate.

At the dawn of World War II, Livia and her sister Constance commit themselves to separate sides of a historic struggle in the second volume of the Avignon Quintet. The second book of Durrell's inventive and inspiring Avignon Quintet, Livia follows the currents of longing and regret, and the shifting illusions of memory, that began in Monsieur. Two sisters, Livia and Constance, have already led remarkable lives as scholars, lovers of artists, and seekers of the forbidden wisdom of Gnostic sages. As Europe is shaken by the rise of fascism, the two sisters find themselves driven apart by shifting alliances. Livia is rich with Durrell's unmistakable, gorgeous prose and breathtaking insights into love and the idiosyncrasies of the human heart.

With the Second World War in full fury, Constance must explore the psyche of a mad world in order to save herself and those closest to her in the third volume of the Avignon Quintet. Durrell's beautiful Avignon Quintet continues with this harrowing, tumultuous installment. Here the protagonist is Constance, a psychoanalyst and mystic struggling for clarity in a world on fire with war, hatred, and inexplicable brutality. Her quest for sanity takes her through the deserts of Egypt (and into the arms of the leader of a suicide cult), through war-ravaged Poland, and finally into ancient Avignon. In the fields of southern France, Constance sees a religious historical drama come to a close—a mysterious narrative that began with the Knights Templar and ends with Hitler's mad grab for power.

With Europe reduced to rubble after the Second World War, Constance must seek knowledge beyond the modern in order to heal her patients—and herself. In Durrell's fourth installment of the Avignon Quintet, Constance returns to Europe after the end of World War II. A Freudian analyst, she treats the shell-shocked, the battle-fatigued, and other despairing survivors in Geneva. She also treats the traumatized, autistic son of her former lover, Sebastian—a situation that draws her back into the mysterious cult that the sensitive and charismatic Sebastian led in the deserts of Egypt. In Sebastian, Constance's pursuit of wisdom in the midst of Europe's blackest night is rendered as a gorgeous and heartbreaking quest for truth in a world full of illusion.

In the final volume of a quintet, a hunt for ancient treasure in southern France lays bare the flawed philosophies that animated the Second World War. Just after World War II, a motley assortment of treasure hunters, mystics, psychoanalysts, and former Nazis race to uncover a treasure buried centuries before by the Knights Templar. Durrell displays his diabolical playfulness and immense imagination as his characters meet and become entangled, long-buried plots reemerge, and the past and future are funneled into the present action. Here the music of the Alexandria Quintetresolves as a symphony, and the series as a whole emerges as a worthy and enduring entry to Durrell's distinguished career.

From the visionary author of the Alexandria Quartet comes a landmark five-part series hailed by the Sunday Times as “one of the great novels of our time.” One of the most celebrated English writers ever, Lawrence Durrell was a bestselling author whose vivid metafictions pushed the boundaries of modern literature. The cosmopolitan provocateur transcended borders, ideologies, and time in his work, and he's at the height of his powers in the Avignon Quintet. More formally daring than the Alexandria Quartet, these sweeping and stylish novels set before, during, and after World War II loosely center on the race to uncover a treasure buried by the Knights Templar. Each reveals a seemingly disparate piece of the puzzle. In Monsieur, it's the bittersweet return to southern France by a British doctor; in Livia, it's two sisters driven apart by the rise of Nazism in Europe. In Constance, a Freudian analyst struggles for clarity in a world on fire; in Sebastian, she reconnects with the charismatic cult leader she knew in the deserts of Egypt. And in Quinx, long-buried plots reemerge as the past and future are funneled into the present. Durrell himself described the Avignon Quintet as a “quincunx,” a series of novels “roped together like climbers on a rockface, but all independent.” Together they form a powerful meditation on the search for meaning in a world of chaos and brutality.

As Japanese planes attack Pearl Harbor, an army private commits a simple crime that will change his life foreverRichard Mast is a misfit in the infantry unit at Pearl Harbor. A bright mind in a sea of grunts, his only joy on the morning of December 7, 1941, is that today he has guard duty, which means he gets to carry a pistol. Usually reserved only for officers, the close-quarters weapon is coveted by every man in the infantry for its beauty and the sense of strength it gives the wearer. Mast intends to return the gun at the end of his shift—until the Japanese Navy intervenes. Turmoil erupts when the first bombs fall, and as the Army scrambles to organize its response to the swarm of enemy aircraft, Mast decides to hang on to the weapon, becoming a criminal on the day his country most needs heroes. This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author's estate.

Never-before-published fiction by one of the finest war authors of the twentieth century In 1943, a young soldier named James Jones returned from the Pacific, lightly wounded and psychologically tormented by the horrors of Guadalcanal. When he was well enough to leave the hospital, he went AWOL rather than return to service, and began work on a novel of the World War II experience. Jones's AWOL period was brief, but he returned to the novel at war's end, bringing him to the attention of Maxwell Perkins, the legendary editor of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. Jones would then go on to write From Here to Eternity, the National Book Award–winning novel that catapulted him into the ranks of the literary elite. Now, for the first time, Jones's earliest writings are presented here, as a collection of stories about man and war, a testament to the great artist he was about to become. This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author's estate.

Four World War II infantrymen recover at an army hospital, and struggle to readjust to the home front, in this New York Times–bestselling novel. At the end of a long journey across the Pacific, a ship catches sight of California. On board are hundreds of injured soldiers, survivors of the American infantry's battle to wrest the South Seas from the Japanese Empire. As the men on deck cheer their imminent return to their families, wives, and favorite girls, four stay below, unable to join in the celebration. These men are broken by war and haunted by what they learned there of the savagery of mankind. As they convalesce in a hospital in Memphis, the pain of that knowledge will torment them far worse than any wound. The third of James Jones's epics based on his life in the army, this posthumously published novel draws on his own experiences to depict the horrors of war and their persistence even after the jungle is left behind. This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author's estate.

A novel of army life in the calm before Pearl Harbor: A New York Times bestseller, a National Book Award winner, and “one of the great books of our time” (Newsday). At the Pearl Harbor army base in 1941, Robert E. Lee Prewitt is Uncle Sam's finest bugler. A career soldier with no patience for army politics, Prewitt becomes incensed when a commander's favorite wins the title of First Bugler. His indignation results in a transfer to an infantry unit whose commander is less interested in preparing for war than he is in boxing. But when Prewitt refuses to join the company team, the commander and his sergeant decide to make the bugler's life hell. An American classic now available with scenes and dialogue considered unfit for publication in the 1950s, From Here to Eternity is a stirring picture of army life in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author's estate.

A writer moves to Greece just as the Nazis invade, and he soon becomes a pawn in a dangerous game of espionage After the death of his wife, Mike Morrison arrives in Greece simply to receive an inheritance and come to grips with his grief. But it's a bad time to nurse his sorrow—it's the beginning of World War II, and the German army storms the country before Morrison can leave. He's soon caught in a complicated cat-and-mouse game with Gestapo officers, British spies, and the Greek resistance movement. At the mercy of strangers, Morrison has to learn who to trust—and who to love. Leon Uris's fast-paced second novel draws from the diaries of an uncle who served in Greece during World War II. It was made into a film in 1959 starring Robert Mitchum. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Leon Uris including rare photos from the author's estate.

With “shattering prose,” the New York Times–bestselling author of From Here to Eternity captures the intense combat in the battle of Guadalcanal (San Francisco Chronicle). In August of 1942 the first American marines charged Guadalcanal, igniting a six-month battle for two thousand square miles of jungle and sand. In that gruesome stretch sixty thousand Americans made the jump from boat to beach, and one in nine did not return. James Jones fought in that battle, and The Thin Red Line is his haunting portrait of men and war. The soldiers of C-for-Charlie Company are not cast from the heroic mold. The unit's captain is too intelligent and sensitive for the job, his first sergeant is half mad, and the enlisted men begin the campaign gripped by cowardice. Jones's moving portrayal of the Pacific combat experience stands among the great literature of World War II. This ebook features an illustrated biography of James Jones including rare photos from the author's estate.