Historical genre books (726)


251.

I, Rigoberta Menchu : An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Rigoberta Menchu EN

Rating: 3 (4 votes)
Description:
A Nobel Peace Prize winner reflects on poverty, injustice, and the struggles of Mayan communities in Guatemala, offering “a fascinating and moving description of the culture of an entire people” (The Times) Now a global bestseller, the remarkable life of Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan peasant woman, reflects on the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America. Menchú suffered gross injustice and hardship in her early life: her brother, father and mother were murdered by the Guatemalan military. She learned Spanish and turned to catechistic work as an expression of political r... continue

252.

If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
Primo Levi was among the greatest witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In this gripping novel, based on a true story, he reveals the extraordinary lives of the Russian, Polish and Jewish partisans trapped behind enemy lines during the Second World War. Wracked by fear, hunger and fierce rivalries, they link up, fall apart, struggle to stay alive and to sabotage the efforts of the all-powerful German army. A compelling tale of action, resistance and epic adventure, it also reveals Levi's characteristic compassion and deep insight into the moral dilemmas of total war. It ranks alongside THE ... continue

253.

If This Is a Woman : Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women by Sarah Helm EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Germany flag Germany
Description:
On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 800 women - housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes - were marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards. Their destination was Ravensbruck, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Nazi genocide. For decades the story of Ravensbruck was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and today is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of ... continue

254.

Igifu by Scholastique Mukasonga EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Rwanda flag Rwanda
Description:
The stories in Igifu summon phantom memories of Rwanda and radiate with the fierce ache of a survivor. From the National Book Award finalist who Zadie Smith says, "rescues a million souls from the collective noun genocide." Scholastique Mukasonga's autobiographical stories rend a glorious Rwanda from the obliterating force of recent history, conjuring the noble cows of her home or the dew-swollen grass they graze on. In the title story, five-year-old Colomba tells of a merciless overlord, hunger or igifu, gnawing away at her belly. She searches for sap at the bud of a flower, scraps of sweet p... continue

255.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote EN

Rating: 4 (9 votes)
Description:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The most famous true crime novel of all time "chills the blood and exercises the intelligence" (The New York Review of Books)—and haunted its author long after he finished writing it. On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. In one of the first non-fiction novels ever written, Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, t... continue

256.

In Defense of Witches : The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Switzerland flag Switzerland
Description:
Witches continue to hold a unique fascination for many: as fairy tale villains, practitioners of pagan religion, as well as feminist icons. Witches are both the ultimate victim and the stubborn, elusive rebel. With arguments that range from the scholarly to the cultural, this book seeks to unite the mythic image of the witch with modern women who seek to live their lives on their own terms

257.

In Morocco by Wharton, Edith EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
First published in 1919, this detailed account of the author's journey through Morocco following World War I shares Wharton's observations on local customs and lifestyles, Moroccan history, cities, and more. Reprint.

258.

In Search of a Name : A Novel by Marjolijn van Heemstra EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Netherlands flag Netherlands
Description:
This spellbinding and intimate novel explores the burden of legacy as a young woman wrestles with discoveries that contradict her great-uncle’s supposed heroism during World War II. D says that a name always fits in the end, that a name is like a leather shoe that forms itself to the foot. But in my mind, it’s the other way around: a person grows into his name. Marjolijn van Heemstra has heard about her great-uncle’s heroism for as long as she can remember. As a resistance fighter, he was the mastermind of a bombing operation that killed a Dutch man who collaborated with the Nazis, and later b... continue

259.

In Search of Amrit Kaur : A Lost Princess and Her Vanished World by Livia Manera Sambuy EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
As she builds her own life anew, an Italian writer embarks on an all-consuming search for the true story of the mysterious princess H. H. Amrit Kaur of Mandi. On a sweltering day in 2007, having just lost her brother to illness, Livia Manera Sambuy finds herself standing before a 1924 photograph of a stunningly elegant Indian princess at a museum in Mumbai. What’s written in the caption will change her life forever. This gorgeous Punjabi princess, it’s said, sold her jewels in occupied Paris to save Jewish lives, only to be arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp, where she di... continue

260.

In the Company of Men by Veronique Tadjo EN

Rating: 4 (5 votes)
Country: Europe / France flag France
Description:
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE Harper’s Bazaar: Best Book of the Year Boston Globe: Best Book of the Year Ms. Magazine: Best Feminist Book of the Year Words Without Borders: Best Translated Book of the Year Drawing on real accounts of the Ebola outbreak that devastated West Africa, this poignant, timely fable reflects on both the strength and the fragility of life and humanity’s place in the world. Two boys venture from their village to hunt in a nearby forest, where they shoot down bats with glee, and cook their prey over an open fire. Within a month, they are dead, bodies ravaged... continue