Author: Ashley Hay Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1501128663 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
""An absorbing and uplifting read." -M.L. Stedman, author of The Light Between Oceans "This is a book in which grief and love are so entwined they make a new and wonderful kind of sense." -Fiona McFarlane, author of The Night Guest Amidst the strange, silent aftermath of World War II, a widow, a poet, and a doctor search for lasting peace and fresh beginnings in this internationally acclaimed, award-winning novel. When Anikka Lachlan's husband, Mac, is killed in a railway accident, she is offered--and accepts--a job at the Railway Institute's library and searches there for some solace in her unexpectedly new life. But in Thirroul, in 1948, she's not the only person trying to chase dreams through books. There's Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war, but who has now lost his words and his hope. There's Frank Draper, trapped by the guilt of those his medical treatment and care failed on their first day of freedom. All three struggle to find their own peace, and their own new story. But along with the firming of this triangle of friendship and a sense of lives inching towards renewal come other extremities--and misunderstandings. In the end, love and freedom can have unexpected ways of expressing themselves. The Railwayman's Wife explores the power of beginnings and endings, and how hard it can sometimes be to tell them apart. Most of all, it celebrates love in all its forms, and the beauty of discovering that loving someone can be as extraordinary as being loved yourself"--
Author: Ashley Hay Publisher: ISBN: 9781760110925 Category : Australian fiction Languages : en Pages : 307
Book Description
'A tender portrait of a marriage and the poetry and grief it contains. A beautiful, dreamy, melancholy book.' Gail Jones, author of 'Five Bells'..In a small town on the land's edge, in the strange space at a war's end, a widow, a poet and a doctor each try to find their own peace, and their own new story...In Thirroul, in 1948, people chase their dreams through the books in the railway's library. Anikka Lachlan searches for solace after her life is destroyed by a single random act. Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war, has lost his words and his hope. Frank Draper is trapped by the guilt of those his treatment and care failed on their first day of freedom. All three struggle with the same question: how now to be alive...Written in clear, shining prose and with an eloquent understanding of the human heart, 'The Railwayman's Wife' explores the power of beginnings and endings, and how hard it can be sometimes to tell them apart. It's a story of life, loss and what comes after; of connection and separation, longing and acceptance. Most of all, it celebrates love in all its forms, and the beauty of discovering that loving someone can be as extraordinary as being loved yourself...A story that will break your heart with hope...''The Railwayman's Wife' illuminates the deepest places of the human heart.' - Debra Adelaide, author of 'The Household Guide to Dying'..'An extraordinary light falls on every page of this tender and gripping story.' - Belinda Castles, author of 'Hannah and Emil'
Author: Dee Yates Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books ISBN: 9780750528146 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 478
Book Description
Railwayman Tom Swales with his wife and five daughters take the end cottage. With no room to spare in the loving Swales household, eldest daughter Mary accepts a position as housemaid to the nearby Stationmaster. There she battles his brutal, lustful nature. When Mary falls pregnant, she flees to York.
Author: Ashley Hay Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1501165151 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 304
Book Description
Through the richly intertwined narratives of two women from different generations, Ashley Hay, known for her “elegant prose, which draws warm and textured portraits as it celebrates the web of human stories” (New York Times Book Review) weaves an intricate, bighearted tale of the many small decisions—the invisible moments—that come to make a life. “Readers who loved the quiet introspection of Anita Shreve’s The Pilot’s Wife and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge will enjoy the detailed emotional journeys of Hay’s characters. Their stories will linger long after the final page is turned” (Library Journal). When Elsie Gormley falls and is forced to leave her Brisbane home of sixty-two years, Lucy Kiss and her family move in, eager to make the house their own. Still, Lucy can’t help but feel that she’s unwittingly stumbled into an entirely new life—new house, new city, new baby—and she struggles to navigate the journey from adventurous lover to young parent. In her nearby nursing facility, Elsie traces the years she spent in her beloved house, where she too transformed from a naïve newlywed into a wife and mother, and eventually, a widow. Gradually, the boundary between present and past becomes more porous for her, and for Lucy—because the house has secrets of its own, and its rooms seem to share with Lucy memories from Elsie’s life. Luminous and deeply affecting, A Hundred Small Lessons is a “lyrically written portrayal” (BookPage, Top Pick) of what it means to be human, and how a place can transform who we are. It’s about a house that becomes much more than a home, and the shifting identities of mother and daughter; father and son. Above all else, this is a story of the surprising and miraculous ways that our lives intersect with those who have come before us, and those who follow.
Author: Brendon Judd Publisher: Penguin Books ISBN: 9780143019152 Category : Military railroads Languages : en Pages : 328
Book Description
This is the untold story of the hundreds of New Zealand railwaymen - shunters, builders, engine drivers, firemen, engineers - who answered the call to construct and operate a railway network in the Western Desert during the Second World War. Overlooked in other war histories, these men played a significant role in the Allied victory in North Africa. The desert railway became a crucial strategic operation, transporting soldiers, equipment and supplies to the front line, that the Germans were determined to destroy. The various challenges they faced, from relentless bombing, to the dreaded fifty-day-long khamseen winds, to the siege of Tobruk, culminated in the second Battle of El Alamein, during which Field Marshal Montgomery stated, 'Well, now it's the railway versus Rommel.' The Desert Railway is a tribute to the courage and enterprise of these railwaymen who kept the trains running no matter what.
Author: Raphael Samuel Publisher: Verso Books ISBN: 1784786381 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 256
Book Description
A fascinating account of life as a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain The Lost World of British Communism is a vivid account of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Raphael Samuel, one of post-war Britain’s most notable historians, draws on novels of the period and childhood recollections of London’s East End, as well as memoirs and Party archives, to evoke the world of British Communism in the 1940s. Samuel conjures up the era when the movement was at the height of its political and theoretical power, brilliantly bringing to life an age in which the Communist Party enjoyed huge prestige as a bulwark for the struggles against fascism and colonialism.
Author: Eric Lomax Publisher: Charnwood ISBN: 9781444819854 Category : Large type books Languages : en Pages : 352
Book Description
During the Second World War, Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway, and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio. Left emotionally scarred, and unable to form relationships, Lomax suffered for years - until, with the help of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, he came to terms with what had happened. Almost 50 years after the war his life was changed by the discovery that his interrogator, the Japanese interpreter, was still alive; their reconciliation is the culmination of this extraordinary story.
Author: The Gentle Author Publisher: Saltyard Books ISBN: 9781444703962 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
"I am going to write every single day and tell you about my life here in Spitalfields at the heart of London..." Drawing comparisons with Pepys, Mayhew and Dickens, the gentle author of Spitalfields Life has gained an extraordinary following in recent years, by writing hundreds of lively pen portraits of the infinite variety of people who live and work in the East End of London. Everything you seek in London can be found here - street life, street art, markets, diverse food, immigrant culture, ancient houses and history, pageants and parades, rituals and customs, traditional trades and old family businesses. Spend a night in the bakery at St John, ride the rounds with the Spitalfields milkman, drop in to the Golden Heart for a pint, meet a fourth-generation paper bag seller, a mudlark who discovers treasure in the river Thames, a window cleaner who sees ghosts and a master bell-founder whose business started in 1570. Join the bunny girls for their annual reunion, visit the wax sellers of Wentworth Street and discover the site of Shakespeare's first theatre. All of human life is here in Spitalfields Life.
Author: Ashley Hay
Author: Ashley Hay
Author: Ashley Hay
Author: Dee Yates
Author: Ashley Hay
Author: Brendon Judd
Author: Raphael Samuel
Author: Eric Lomax
Author: Ananth V. Krishna
Author: The Gentle Author