2. Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan- Pino Lella, a seventeen year old Italian boy is living a carefree life, untouched by the Great War until Allied bombings start in Milan. When their family home is damaged by a bomb, in order to keep him safe, his father sends him to Casa Alpina, a boarding school in the Alps where under the guidance of Father Re, he helps many Jews to escape the Nazis and cross the border to Switzerland. However things take a different turn when he is called back to Milan by his father and is made to enrol in the German Army. One day, by the stroke of luck he is recruited by a high ranking German officer, General Leyers, as his driver which gives him the opportunity to start working as a spy for the Allied Forces and serve his motherland.
3. The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel- It is May 2005 when eighty-six year old Eva lays eyes on a photograph in the New York Times and is surprised to see the book which she had lost sixty years ago. She is then transported to war-torn Paris in the year 1942 when after her father's arrest, Eva and her mother had miraculously escaped to a small town called Aurignon where she along with Remy had helped many Jews in escaping to Switzerland by forging their documents. The book in the photograph is no ordinary one, as in it is hidden a code which only Eva knows how to crack. However is she ready to unleash those chapters of her life which she had buried a long time ago? This book will let you know how something as illegal as forgery has the capacity to save thousands of lives.
4. The Baker's Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan- Emmanuelle is a twenty-two year old woman living in the small coastal village of Vergers in occupied France during the Great War. She is an excellent baker having worked as an apprentice with the village baker Ezra Kuchen since she was twelve. Emma has seen how her mentor was harassed and killed for being a Jew. She is also a witness to the sufferings of the people of her village under German occupation. Under the order of the Kommandant she is given some extra ration everyday to make twelve baguettes for the Germans. Emma cleverly mixes ground straw with the ration of flour she gets for making baguettes to make two extra loaves so that she can feed her hungry neighbors. If anyone in the village is in dire need of something during this time of crisis, he/she always turn to her and she helps them by creating a chain of barter under the watchful eyes of the Nazis. This goes on until the Allies come to rescue them. Emma's deeds once again proves that you don't always need weapons to fight.
5. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys- In 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed a pact of non-aggression and the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia went to Stalin. These countries were annexed by USSR and they disappeared from the map of the world. Stalin drafted lists of people he considered anti-Soviet like teachers, doctors, military personnel, lawyers and even children. They were arrested and the men were separated from women. All of them were stuffed into cattle cars and the men were sent to prison whereas the women were sent to labour camps in Siberia. In this book, one day a fifteen year old Lithuanian girl called Lina is arrested along with her mother and younger brother by the Soviet police and sent to a labour camp in Siberia. Her father had already been arrested before. They are forced to work under harsh conditions with meagre food. Lina is an artist with immense will-power who uses her art as message in the hope that one day they will reach her father's prison and he will know that they are still alive. This is an incredible story about love, hope and survival.
0 Comments