Bøger af Alan Hlad

Driving an ambulance in France after the fall of Dunkirk, an American nightclub singer races to evacuate a British pilot and a Jewish orphan across more than 4,000 miles towards a precarious freedom in this emotional, action-packed story of sacrifice, hope, and devotion inspired by real wartime events.France, 1939: A talented singer, Ruth Lacroix has left Maine to live with her aunt and uncle, dreaming of performing at the Casino de Paris. But with the outbreak of war, and the heartbreaking news that her cousin has been killed by German forces, that goal is supplanted by another—to support France in any way she can.Though Ruth has never driven a vehicle larger than the tractor on her parents’ farm, she joins a friend in enlisting as a driver for the French ambulance corps. On their way to transfer injured soldiers to Dunkirk for evacuation, they encounter Jimmie, a British Royal Air Force pilot with No. 73 Squadron RAF, who has bailed out of his burning plane. As Dunkirk falls, blocking off the route to the northern coast, word spreads of a daring Allied plan to rescue the remaining troops and civilians from ports in western France: code name Operation Aerial.Over two hazardous weeks, Ruth and Jimmie will journey hundreds of miles together, helping other refugees as they rush to reach the sea before they are overtaken by the Germany army. But all their courage and resilience offer no certainty in wartime, when a single stroke of luck, or a split-second decision, can mean the difference between life and death . . .

"President Roosevelt sends an unlikely new taskforce on a unique mission: librarians and microfilm specialists, trained in espionage, are deployed to neutral cities throughout Europe to work with a special branch of the Office of Strategic Services. By acquiring and scouring Axis publications, these librarians can gather information about troop location, weaponry, and military plans. Maria Alves, a microfilm expert working at the New York Public Library, is dispatched to Lisbon. Working in tandem with Tiago Soares, a Portuguese bookstore owner on a precarious mission of his own -- providing Jewish refugees with forged passports and visas -- Maria acquires vital information, including a directory of arms factories in Germany. Then Maria's superiors ask her to pose as a double agent, feeding misinformation to Lars Steiger, a wealthy Swiss banker and Nazi sympathizer who launders Hitler's gold. Gaining Lars's trust will bring Maria into the very heart of the Fuhrer's inner circle. And it will provide her with a chance to help steer the course of war, if she is willing to take risks as great as the possible rewards . . ."--

La luz de la esperanza es una inolvidable historia de amor y superación, un emocionante testimonio del poder del amor en las horas más oscuras.Alemania, Primera Guerra Mundial. Anna trabaja como enfermera en un hospital de campaña con soldados que vuelven de la guerra, rotos de cuerpo y espíritu. Bruno, su prometido, lucha en el frente occidental junto al célebre doctor Fritz Haber, a quien los altos mandos del ejército alemán han encargado desarrollar armas químicas que hacen destrozos en la vista delos soldados de ambos bandos. Un día, el director de la Asociación de Perros de Ambulancia de la Cruz Roja le propone a la joven enfermera formar parte de un nuevo y fascinante proyecto: la creación de una escuela de entrenamiento de perros para servir a los veteranos invidentes. Anna empezará a trabajar con Nia, una valiente hembra de pastor alemán que haquedado herida, y cuando conozca a Max, un joven con raíces judías que acaba de volver ciego del campo de batalla, tendrá la oportunidad de devolverle las ganas de vivir. Entre ellos comenzará a fraguarse una preciosa amistad, pero la guerra y sus consecuencias les tienen preparados otros planes.

American librarian Maria Alves, a microfilm specialist trained in espionage, is dispatched to Lisbon to gather vital information from Axis publications, and works in tandem with Tiago Soares, a bookstore owner secretly providing forged passports and visas to Jewish refugees.

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Long Flight Home, a WWI novel both tender and exciting, as a German Red Cross nurse joins the world's first guide dog training school for the blind and begins a quest to show a Jewish pianist who was blinded on the battlefield that life is worth living.A fascinating, poignant, and life-affirming tale of heroism and resilience in World War I based on the true story of the first school to train guide dogs for the blind… By April 1916, the fervor that accompanied war's outbreak has faded. In its place is a grim reality. Throughout Germany, essentials are rationed. Hope, too, is in short supply. Anna Zeller, whose fiancé, Bruno, is fighting on the western front, works as a nurse at an overcrowded hospital in Oldenburg, trying to comfort men broken in body and spirit. But during a visit from Dr. Stalling, the director of the Red Cross Ambulance Dogs Association, she witnesses a rare spark of optimism: as a German shepherd guides a battle-blinded soldier over a garden path, Dr. Stalling is inspired with an idea-to train dogs as companions for sightless veterans. Anna convinces Dr. Stalling to let her work at his new guide dog training school. Some of the dogs that arrive are themselves veterans of war, including Nia, a German shepherd with trench-damaged paws. Anna brings the ailing Nia home and secretly tends and trains her, convinced she may yet be the perfect guide for the right soldier. In Max Benesch, a Jewish soldier blinded by chlorine gas at the front, Nia finds her person. War has taken Max's sight, his fiancée, and his hopes of being a composer. Yet despite all he's given for his country, the tide of anti-Semitism at home is rising, and Max encounters it first-hand in one of the school's trainers, who is determined to make Max fail. Still, through Anna's prompting, he rediscovers his passion for music. But as Anna discovers more about the conflict's escalating brutality-and Bruno's role in it-she realizes how impossible it will be for any of them to escape the war unscathed . . .

A riveting story of World War II and the courage of one young woman as she is drafted into Churchill’s overseas spy network, aiding the French Resistance behind enemy lines and working to liberate Nazi-occupied Paris… London, 1941: In a cramped bunker in Winston Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms, underneath Westminster’s Treasury building, civilian women huddle at desks, typing up confidential documents and reports. Since her parents were killed in a bombing raid, Rose Teasdale has spent more hours than usual in Room 60, working double shifts, growing accustomed to the burnt scent of the Prime Minister’s cigars permeating the stale air. Winning the war is the only thing that matters, and she will gladly do her part. And when Rose’s fluency in French comes to the attention of Churchill himself, it brings a rare yet dangerous opportunity. Rose is recruited for the Special Operations Executive, a secret British organization that conducts espionage in Nazi-occupied Europe. After weeks of grueling training, Rose parachutes into France with a new codename: Dragonfly. Posing as a cosmetics saleswoman in Paris, she ferries messages to and from the Resistance, knowing that the slightest misstep means capture or death. Soon Rose is assigned to a new mission with Lazare Aron, a French Resistance fighter who has watched his beloved Paris become a shell of itself, with desolate streets and buildings draped in Swastikas. Since his parents were sent to a German work camp, Lazare has dedicated himself to the cause with the same fervor as Rose. Yet Rose’s very loyalty brings risks as she undertakes a high-stakes prison raid, and discovers how much she may have to sacrifice to justify Churchill’s faith in her . . .  "A rousing historical novel." - The Akron Beacon Journal, Best Books of the Year for Churchill''s Secret Messenger

Inspired by fascinating, true, yet little-known events during World War II, The Long Flight Home is a testament to the power of courage in our darkest hours-a moving, masterfully written story of love and sacrifice. It is September 1940-a year into the war-and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. After losing her parents to influenza as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. All her birds are extraordinary to Susan-loyal, intelligent, beautiful-but none more so than Duchess. Hatched from an egg that Susan incubated in a bowl under her grandfather's desk lamp, Duchess shares a special bond with Susan and an unusual curiosity about the human world. Thousands of miles away in Buxton, Maine, a young crop-duster pilot named Ollie Evans has decided to travel to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. His quest brings him to Epping and to the National Pigeon Service, where Susan is involved in a new, covert assignment. Codenamed Source Columba, the mission aims to air-drop hundreds of homing pigeons in German-occupied France. Many will not survive. Those that do make the journey home to England can convey crucial information on German troop movements-and help reclaim the skies from the Luftwaffe. The friendship between Ollie and Susan deepens as the mission date draws near. When Ollie's plane is downed behind enemy lines, both know how remote the chances of reunion must be. Yet Duchess's devotion and her singular sense of duty will become an unexpected lifeline, relaying messages between Susan and Ollie as war rages on-and proving, at last, that hope is never truly lost.