My Father's Secret War

My Father's Secret War PDF Author: Lucinda Franks
Publisher: Miramax Books
ISBN: 9781401309336
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In this moving and compelling memoir about parent and child, father and daughter, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Lucinda Franks discovers that the remote, nearly impassive man she grew up with had in fact been a daring spy behind enemy lines in World War II. Sworn to secrecy, he began revealing details of his wartime activities only in the last years of his life as he became afflicted with Alzheimer's. His exploits revealed a man of remarkable bravado -- posing as a Nazi guard, slipping behind enemy lines to blow up ammunition dumps, and being flown to one of the first concentration camps liberated by the Allies to report on the atrocities found there. My Father's Secret War is an intimate account of Franks coming to know her own father after years of estrangement. Looking back at letters he had written her mother in the early days of WWII, Franks glimpses a loving man full of warmth. But after the grimmest assignments of the war his tone shifts, settling into an all-too-familiar distance. Franks learns about him -- beyond the alcoholism and adultery -- and comes to know the man he once was. Her story is haunting, and beautifully told, even as the tragedy becomes clear: Franks finally comes to know her father, but only as he is slipping further into his illness. Lucinda Franks understands her father as the disease claims him. My Father's Secret War is a triumph of love over secrets, and a tribute to the power of the connection of family.

My Father's Secret War

My Father's Secret War PDF Author: Lucinda Franks
Publisher: Miramax Books
ISBN: 9781401309336
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
In this moving and compelling memoir about parent and child, father and daughter, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Lucinda Franks discovers that the remote, nearly impassive man she grew up with had in fact been a daring spy behind enemy lines in World War II. Sworn to secrecy, he began revealing details of his wartime activities only in the last years of his life as he became afflicted with Alzheimer's. His exploits revealed a man of remarkable bravado -- posing as a Nazi guard, slipping behind enemy lines to blow up ammunition dumps, and being flown to one of the first concentration camps liberated by the Allies to report on the atrocities found there. My Father's Secret War is an intimate account of Franks coming to know her own father after years of estrangement. Looking back at letters he had written her mother in the early days of WWII, Franks glimpses a loving man full of warmth. But after the grimmest assignments of the war his tone shifts, settling into an all-too-familiar distance. Franks learns about him -- beyond the alcoholism and adultery -- and comes to know the man he once was. Her story is haunting, and beautifully told, even as the tragedy becomes clear: Franks finally comes to know her father, but only as he is slipping further into his illness. Lucinda Franks understands her father as the disease claims him. My Father's Secret War is a triumph of love over secrets, and a tribute to the power of the connection of family.

Scholars of Mayhem

Scholars of Mayhem PDF Author: Daniel C. Guiet
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735225222
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
"Riveting...A true-life mix of James Bond, Lawrence of Arabia and 'Casablanca.'" -The Wall Street Journal The astonishing untold story of the author's father, the lone American on a four-person team of Allied secret agents dropped into Nazi-occupied France, whose epic feats of irregular warfare proved vital in keeping German tanks away from Normandy after D-Day. When Daniel Guiet was a child and his family moved country, as they frequently did, his father had one possession, a tin bread box, that always made the trip. Daniel was admonished never to touch the box, but one day he couldn't resist. What he found astonished him: a .45 automatic and five full clips; three slim knives; a length of wire with a wooden handle at each end; thin pieces of paper with random numbers on them; several passports with his father's photograph, each bearing a different name; and silk squares imprinted with different countries' flags, bearing messages in unfamiliar alphabets. The messages, he discovered much later, were variations on a theme: I am an American. Take me to the nearest Allied military office. You will be paid. Eventually Jean Claude Guiet revealed to his family that he had been in the CIA, but it was only at the very end of his life that he spoke of the mission during World War II that marked the beginning of his career in clandestine service. It is one of the last great untold stories of the war, and Daniel Guiet and his collaborator, the writer Tim Smith, have spent several years bringing it to life. Jean Claude was an American citizen but a child of France, and fluent in the language; he was also extremely bright. The American military was on the lookout for native French speakers to be seconded to a secret British special operations commando operation, dropping clandestine agents behind German lines in France to coordinate aid to the French Resistance and lead missions wreaking havoc on Germany's military efforts across the entire country. Jean Claude was recruited, and his life was changed forever. Though the human cost was terrible, the mission succeeded beyond the Allies' wildest dreams. Scholars of Mayhem tells the story of Jean Claude and the other three agents in his "circuit," codenamed Salesman, a unit of Britain's Special Operations Executive, the secret service ordered by Churchill to "Set Europe ablaze." Parachuted into France the day after D-Day, the Salesman team organized, armed, and commanded an underground army of 10,000 French Resistance fighters. National pride has kept the story of SOE in France obscure, but of this there is no doubt: While the Resistance had plenty of heart, it was SOE that gave it teeth and claws. Scholars of Mayhem adds brilliantly to that picture, and further underscores what a close-run thing the success of the Allied breakout from the Normandy landings actually was.

My Secret War

My Secret War PDF Author: Mary Pope Osborne
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780439555128
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Thirteen-year-old Madeline's diaries for 1941 and 1942 reveal her experiences living on Long Island during World War II while her father is away in the Navy.

Her Secret War

Her Secret War PDF Author: Pam Lecky
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0008464855
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
”A great WWII-era historical fiction that has it all: mystery, suspense, history, espionage, action, and a dash of romance all wrapped up into an addictive and intriguing novel.” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A life-changing moment

Breaking the Code

Breaking the Code PDF Author: Karen Fisher-Alaniz
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1402261136
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
On his 81st birthday, without explanation, Karen Fisher-Alaniz's father placed two weathered notebooks on her lap. Inside were more than 400 pages of letters he'd written to his parents during WWII. She began reading them, and the more she read, the more she discovered about the man she never knew. They began to meet for lunch every week, for her to ask him questions, and him to provide the answers. It was through this process that she discovered the secret role he played in WWII. Karen's father was part of a small and elite group of men who were trained to copy and break top-secret Japanese code transmitted in Katakana. Through this journey, with painful memories now at the forefront of his thoughts, Karen's father began to suffer, making their meetings as much about healing as discovery. Thus began an unintended journey—one taken by a father and daughter who thought they knew each other—as they became newly bound in ways that transcended age and time.

When Time Stopped

When Time Stopped PDF Author: Ariana Neumann
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982106395
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
In this astonishing story that “reads like a thriller and is so, so timely” (BuzzFeed) Ariana Neumann dives into the secrets of her father’s past: “Like Anne Frank’s diary, it offers a story that needs to be told and heard” (Booklist, starred review). In 1941, the first Neumann family member was taken by the Nazis, arrested in German-occupied Czechoslovakia for bathing in a stretch of river forbidden to Jews. He was transported to Auschwitz. Eighteen days later his prisoner number was entered into the morgue book. Of thirty-four Neumann family members, twenty-five were murdered by the Nazis. One of the survivors was Hans Neumann, who, to escape the German death net, traveled to Berlin and hid in plain sight under the Gestapo’s eyes. What Hans experienced was so unspeakable that, when he built an industrial empire in Venezuela, he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it. All his daughter Ariana knew was that something terrible had happened. When Hans died, he left Ariana a small box filled with letters, diary entries, and other memorabilia. Ten years later Ariana finally summoned the courage to have the letters translated, and she began reading. What she discovered launched her on a worldwide search that would deliver indelible portraits of a family loving, finding meaning, and trying to survive amid the worst that can be imagined. A “beautifully told story of personal discovery” (John le Carré), When Time Stopped is an unputdownable detective story and an epic family memoir, spanning nearly ninety years and crossing oceans. Neumann brings each relative to vivid life, and this “gripping, expertly researched narrative will inspire those looking to uncover their own family histories” (Publishers Weekly).

Secrets My Father Kept

Secrets My Father Kept PDF Author: Rachel Givney
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
ISBN: 176014455X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
A novel that will stay with you. An ending that will shock you. Kraków, Poland, 1939. As Hitler prepares to invade, an inquisitive and intelligent young woman tries to find her mother who disappeared 15 years go. Standing in her way is her father, who refuses to talk about what happened... A captivating story about the struggle of pioneering women in a male-dominated time, and the lengths people will go to, to protect their family. ‘Intimate and character-driven, uniting romance and mystery with a clever twist.’ The Age

The Secret War

The Secret War PDF Author: Matt Myklusch
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 141699565X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
Sequel to: Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation.

Timeless

Timeless PDF Author: Lucinda Franks
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
ISBN: 1429949279
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
In this beautifully rendered literary memoir, Lucinda Franks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, tells the intimate story of her marriage to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, one of the great men of our time. "Words by the millions have been printed about you, but none have revealed your real life, your secret life--which is that you belong to me." After Lucinda interviewed Bob for The New York Times in 1973, the two took a while to understand that they had fallen in love. Franks was a self-styled radical who marched with protesters and chained herself to fences. Morgenthau was a famous lawyer, a symbol of the establishment, who could have helped put her in jail. She was twenty-six. He was fifty-three. Now, thirty-six years into a marriage that was never supposed to happen, one between two people as deeply in love as they are different, they are living proof that opposites can forge an unbreakable life bond. In Timeless, Franks offers a confidential tour of their unconventional years together, years that are both hilarious and interlaced with suspense. At the same time, she takes us behind the scenes to reveal the untold stories behind some of Morgenthau's most famous cases, many of which she helped him brainstorm for. A compelling memoir with piercing insights into how a relationship grows and develops over a lifetime, Timeless grants us an enlightening window into one of New York's most famous yet defiant and iconoclastic couples, and the trials and successes of their union.

Secret Father

Secret Father PDF Author: James Carroll
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618485352
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
"A beautifully textured exploration of relationships between husbands and wives, parents and sons, friends and lovers. Love, in its harsh and dreadful facets, is portrayed as a powerful force, capable of fusing hearts but also of destroying them. . . . The taut drama of history, interlaced with the emotional sagas of these marvelously drawn figures, makes for a very satisfying narrative." Library Journal, starred review From the author of City Below and Prince of Peace, a suspenseful drama of family and politics set in Cold War Berlin. Missed signals, cloaked motives, false postures, and panicked responses echo tragically across borders and generations when, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a father and son recount the tense events of nearly thirty years before. In 1961, just before the Wall rises, three teenagers from an American school in West Germany travel to the Communist side of the divided city to join a rally. Unknown to them, their parents have unfinished business reaching back to World War II which will pull the teens into the vortex of an international incident.