Historical genre books (726)


241.

How The Soldier Repairs The Gramophone by Saša Stanišić EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Description:
“A brilliant debut novel” about a young Bosnian War refugee who finds the secret to survival in language and stories (Los Angeles Times). For Aleksandar Krsmanović, Grandpa Slavko’s stories endow life in Višegrad with a kaleidoscopic brilliance. Neighbors, friends, and family past and present take on a mythic quality; the River Drina courses through town like the pulse of life itself. So when his grandfather dies suddenly, Aleksandar promises to carry on the tradition. But then soldiers invade Višegrad—a town previously unconscious of racial and religious divides—and it’s no longer important t... continue

242.

How the Word Is Passed : A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith, III EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Description:
Poet and contributor to The Atlantic Clint Smith's revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a slave owning nation Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks-those that are honest about the past and those that are not-that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves. It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving... continue

243.
How to Feed a Dictator

How to Feed a Dictator : Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot Through the Eyes of Their Cooks by Witold Szablowski EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Poland flag Poland
Description:
“Amazing stories . . . Intimate portraits of how [these five ruthless leaders] were at home and at the table.” —Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday Anthony Bourdain meets Kapuściński in this chilling look from within the kitchen at the appetites of five of the twentieth century's most infamous dictators, by the acclaimed author of Dancing Bears and What’s Cooking in the Kremlin What was Pol Pot eating while two million Cambodians were dying of hunger? Did Idi Amin really eat human flesh? And why was Fidel Castro obsessed with one particular cow? Traveling across four continents, ... continue

244.

How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Croatia flag Croatia
Description:
Hailed by feminists as one of the most important contributions to women's studies in the last decade, this gripping, beautifully written account describes the daily struggles of women under the Marxist regime in the former republic of Yugoslavia.

245.

Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Description:
_____________________________ * A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK FOR 2023 * 'A shimmering slice of Trinidadian gothic . . . Sumptuous, brilliantly written' THE TIMES 'An astonishing novel – linguistically gorgeous, narratively propulsive and psychologically profound' BERNARDINE EVARISTO 'Deeply impressive . . . Energy and inventiveness distinguish every page' HILARY MANTEL 'The biggest, most frightening, beautiful and alive novel I've read in as long as I can remember' EVIE WYLD _____________________________ A 2023 highlight for: Financial Times * Guardian * Evening Standard * Daily... continue

246.
I Am Not a Number

I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis EN

0 Ratings
Description:
When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-autho... continue

247.

I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Slovakia flag Slovakia
Description:
What is death all about? What is life all about? So wonders thirteen-year-old Elli Friedmann as she fights for her life in a Nazi concentration camp. A remarkable memoir, I Have Lived a Thousand Years is a story of cruelty and suffering, but at the same time a story of hope, faith, perseverance, and love. It wasn’t long ago that Elli led a normal life that included family, friends, school, and thoughts about boys. A life in which Elli could lie and daydream for hours that she was a beautiful and elegant celebrated poet. But these adolescent daydreams quickly darken in March 1944, when the Nazi... continue

248.

I must betray you by Ruta Sepetys EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Description:
Trapped by an evil dictatorship, will Cristian be forced to betray his family or will he risk everything he loves to resist? A powerful, heart-breaking thriller based on real events. *Winner of the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers' Choice Medal for Writing 2023* Cristian has lived his entire life in the grip of a repressive dictatorship. The country is governed by fear. When the secret police blackmail him, Cristian has an impossible choice. Save the life of his sick grandfather by informing on his family, or risk his life - and all of theirs - by resisting? At 17, Cristian dreams of being free but doe... continue

249.

I Saw Her That Night by Drago Jančar EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / Slovenia flag Slovenia
Description:
"I Saw Her That Night is a tragic love story set amid the atrocities of World War II in Slovenia" --

250.

I the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos EN

Rating: 3 (2 votes)
Description:
I the Supreme imagines a dialogue between the nineteenth-century Paraguayan dictator known as Dr. Francia and Policarpo Patiño, his secretary and only companion. The opening pages present a sign that they had found nailed to the wall of a cathedral, purportedly written by Dr. Francia himself and ordering the execution of all of his servants upon his death. This sign is quickly revealed to be a forgery, which takes leader and secretary into a larger discussion about the nature of truth: “In the light of what Your Eminence says, even the truth appears to be a lie.” Their conversation broadens in... continue