Central & Eastern Europe – One for the Weekend

Vienna. Historical Fiction. Based on a true story. A rising, young and glamorous star of the stage, Hedy catches the eye of an Austrian arms dealer and it is her beauty and her that protects her from the rising Nazi party. Once married, she is present at her husband's dinners and meetings, displayed for her looks and with her scientific interests and intellect going unnoticed.  Underestimated by the men in the room, she develops a keen understanding of the Third Reich's plans and potential flaws. Fleeing to Hollywood she becomes Hedy Lamarr, a star of the silver screen, and develops an idea to help combat the enemy.

Gost is surrounded by mountains and fields of wild flowers. The summer sun burns. The Croatian winter brings freezing winds. Beyond the boundaries of the town an old house which has lain empty for years is showing signs of life. One of the windows, glass darkened with dirt, today stands open, and the lively chatter of English voices carries across the fallow fields. Laura and her teenage children have arrived. A short distance away lies the hut of Duro Kolak, who lives alone with his two hunting dogs. As he helps Laura with repairs to the old house, they uncover a mosaic beneath the ruined plaster and, in the rising heat of summer, painstakingly restore it. But Gost is not all it seems; conflicts long past still suppurate beneath the scars.

Growing up in Zagreb in the summer of 1991, 10-year-old Ana Juric is a carefree tomboy; she runs the streets with her best friend, Luka, helps take care of her baby sister, Rahela, and idolizes her father. But when civil war breaks out across Yugoslavia, football games and school lessons are supplanted by sniper fire and air raid drills.  The brutal ethnic cleansing of Croats and Bosnians tragically changes Ana's life, and she is lost to a world of genocide and child soldiers; a daring escape plan to America becomes her only chance for survival. Ten years later she returns to Croatia, a young woman struggling to belong to either country, forced to confront the trauma of her past and rediscover the place that was once her home.

Romance. Antonia Butler is on the brink of a life-changing decision and a job advert looking for a multilingual housekeeper at a beautifully renovated Croatian farmhouse, Vila Maslina, is one she can’t ignore. Arriving on the tiny picturesque island of Korčula, Antonia feels a spark of hope for the first time in a long time. This is a chance to leave the past behind. But this island, and its inhabitants, have secrets of their own and a not-too-distant past steeped in tragedy and war. None more so than Vila Maslina’s enigmatic owner Damir Maric. A young man with nothing to lose but everything to gain…

Budapest, 1952. When a young teacher,  Katalin, and her father, Márton, are woken by the ringing of the doorbell in the dead of night, it can mean only one thing. The Secret Police have come to arrest him on charges of subversion. But Katalin knows her father is innocent. In a communist society where ordinary people live in fear of the dreaded Secret Police, suspicion and betrayal are rife. Whilst Márton endures the injustice of being wrongly accused, Katalin must find out who amongst her friends and acquaintances she can truly trust. But there is a glimmer of hope in the darkness and, for the first time, it seems that change is possible. In October 1956, a student-led demonstration soon turns into a bloody battle to overthrow the hated communist regime. Confronted by Soviet tanks, young and old take to the streets, armed with Molotov cocktails, bravery and cunning. Katalin and those she loves must fight for freedom. They must fight to survive.  

Budapest. Balthazar Kovacs, a detective on Budapest's murder squad, is on the trail of a dead man.  Minutes ago, he received an anonymous SMS showing a body and an address: 26 Republic Square - the former Communist Party headquarters and once the most feared building in the country. But now, amid the ruins of the demolished building, Kovacs finds no dead body, just six members of the Gendarmerie - an elite police force reporting directly to the prime minister - and an invitation to hand over his phone and cease his investigation.  Kovacs has taken his first step on a journey deep into Budapest's dark heart, towards a deadly intersection of the criminal underworld, the corridors of power and the ghosts of history. A journey that will force him to choose between the law and family loyalty.

Non-fiction. Summer 1940, Witold Pilecki, a Polish underground operative, accepted a mission to uncover the fate of thousands interned at a new concentration camp, report on Nazi crimes, raise a secret army and stage an uprising. The name of the camp - Auschwitz. A meticulously researched account of the two and a half years he spent forging a resistance within the camp, and gathering evidence of horrifying abuse and mass murder.

In a world ruled by fear, who can you trust? Cristian lives in a country repressed by a cruel dictator. At 17 he dreams of being free, studying philosophy and poetry, but everything he does is controlled by the State. In this climate of constant suspicion, can he trust his best friend, his girlfriend or even his family?When the secret police blackmail him, he is faced with an impossible choice. Will he betray those he closest to him or will he resist and ask the lives of those he loves?

Romania. Autumn, 1939. Newly-weds Guy and Harriet Pringle step aboard the train to Bucharest. Guy's lecturing job awaits, alongside friends and the ever-ardent Sophie - but for Harriet, alone and naive, it's a strange new life. As Guy's world collides with that of his new bride, Harriet realises how little she knows the man she has married.

Any book set in this location.