Biography genre books (521)
441.
The Nine : The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany by Gwen Strauss EN
Country: North America / 
Haiti
Haiti
Description:
"[A] narrative of unfathomable courage" —Wall Street Journal The Nine follows the true story of the author’s great aunt Hélène Podliasky, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labor camp and made a ten-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany back to Paris. The nine women were all under thirty when they joined the resistance. They smuggled arms through Europe, harbored parachuting agents, coordinated communications between regional sectors, trekked escape routes to Spain and hid Jewish children in scattered apartments. They were arrest... continue
442.
The Only Story by Julian Barnes EN
EnglandDescription:
**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question. First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn't know anything about that at nineteen. At nineteen, he's proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention. As he grows older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater than he could possibly have foreseen. Tender and wise, The Only Story is a deeply moving novel by one of fiction's greatest mappers of the human heart.
443.
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi, Raymond Rosenthal EN
ItalyDescription:
In these haunting reflections, Primo Levi, a chemist by training, takes the elements of the periodic table as his inspiration. He ranges from young love to political savagery; from the inert gas argon - and 'inert' relatives like the uncle who stayed in bed for twenty-two years - to life-giving car bon. 'Iron' honours the mountain-climbing resistance hero who put iron in Levi's student soul, 'Cerium' recalls the improvised cigarette lighters which saved his life in Auschwitz, while 'Vanadium' describes an eerie post-war correspondence with the man who had been his 'boss' there.
444.
The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman PL
PolandDescription:
The powerful and bestselling memoir that inspired the Oscar and BAFTA-winning film. 'A book so fresh and vivid, so heartbreaking, and so simply and beautifully written, that it manages to tell us the story of horrendous events as if for the first time' Daily Telegraph First published in 1946, The Pianist is the unforgettable memoir of a young Polish-Jewish pianist who survived the Second World War against all odds. This is a book that 'takes us as close as we are ever likely to travel to the day-to-day reality of living through terror' (Sunday Times), an indelible reminder of the horrors of wa... continue
445.
The Pianist of Yarmouk by Aeham Ahmad EN
SyriaDescription:
'Ahmad has created a moving and visceral account of conflict, hope and the power of music' Hannah Beckerman, Observer The incredible and inspirational true story of one young man's struggle to find peace during war, and the power of music to bring hope to a desperate nation. ____________ One morning in war-torn Damascus, a starving man drags a piano into a rubbled street. Everything he once knew has been destroyed by war. Amidst ruin and despair, he begins to play. He plays of love and hope, he plays for his family and his fellow Syrians. He plays even though he could be killed for doing so. A... continue
446.
The Pillar of Salt by Albert Memmi EN
TunisiaDescription:
Originally published in 1955, The Pillar of Salt the semi-autobiographical novel about a young boy growing up in French colonized Tunisia. To gain access to privileged French society, he must reject his many identities – Jew, Arab, and African. But, on the eve of World War II, he is forced to come to terms with his loyalties and his past
447.
The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle EN
Country: North America / 
United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A portrait in poems of Juan Francisco Manzano, the poet who was born a slave in Cuba in 1797.
448.
The Power of Women : A Doctor's Journey of Hope and Healing by Dr Dr Denis Mukwege EN
Country: Africa / 
Congo, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Democratic Republic of
Description:
Nobel laureate, world-renowned doctor and human rights activist, Dr Mukwege has dedicated his life to caring for victims of sexual violence. Over the past two decades living and working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he has stood up to soldiers and warlords and survived multiple assassination attempts, never swaying from his mission. In this book, Dr Mukwege interweaves his own story with the experiences of the women he has treated, the people he has worked with, and survivors of sexual violence whom he has met during his years of advocating for women's rights on the international st... continue
449.
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
This last book from beloved Hollywood icon Carrie Fisher is the crown jewel of ideal Star Wars gifts. The Princess Diarist is an intimate, hilarious, and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time. When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved—plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Before her passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was ... continue
450.
The Prisoner : A Memoir by Hwang Sok-yong EN
ChinaDescription:
A sweeping account of imprisonment--in time, in language, and in a divided country--from Korea's most acclaimed novelist In 1993, writer and democracy activist Hwang Sok-yong was sentenced to five years in the Seoul Detention Center upon his return to South Korea from North Korea, the country he had fled with his family as a child at the start of the Korean War. Already a dissident writer well-known for his part in the democracy movement of the 1980s, Hwang's imprisonment forced him to consider the many prisons to which he was subject--of thought, of writing, of Cold War nations, of the heart.... continue