Soviet Child

In a country ruled by fear, no one is innocent. Stalin's Soviet Union is an official paradise, where citizens live free from crime and fear only one thing: the all-powerful state. Defending this system is idealistic security officer Leo Demidov, a war hero who believes in the iron fist of the...

Tom Rob Smith-the author whose debut, Child 44, has been called "brilliant" (Chicago Tribune), "remarkable" (Newsweek) and "sensational" (Entertainment Weekly)-returns with an intense, suspenseful new novel: a story where the sins of the past threaten to destroy the present, where families must...

Lea Ypi grew up in the last Stalinist country in Europe: Albania, a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police. While family members disappeared to what she was told were "universities" from which few "graduated," she swore loyalty to the Party. In her eyes, people were equal, neighbors helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world.

Flying combat missions in wartime is always dangerous. But imagine doing so in a slow, rickety biplane, at night, with no lights or navigational equipment of any kind. Sound impossible? It wasn't for the Soviet Night Witches. This unit of incredibly brave women flew hundreds of missions to attack German forces on the front lines during World War II. Learn all about these brave women and how their skill and courage in battle helped defeat the Nazis to win the war.

Tom Rob Smith's debut, Child 44, was an immediate sensation and marked the arrival of a major new talent in contemporary fiction. Named one of top 100 thrillers of all time by NPR, it hit bestseller lists around the world, won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and the ITW Thriller Award for...

On May 31, 1988, President Ronald Reagan stood before a packed audience at Moscow State University. He delivered a speech that would go down in history, as it was the first time an American president had given an address about human rights on Russian soil. The importance of this speech was largely overlooked at the time, yet the following year, in November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and the Soviet Union began to disintegrate, leaving the United States the sole superpower on the world stage.

July, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 has triumphantly returned to Earth. In this alternate history thriller, President Richard Nixon puts into a motion a scheme to ramp up the space race to pressure the Soviets into making diplomatic and military concessions. Thus begins a story of high adventure on the final frontier and of low intrigue in the corridors of power back on Earth. It will prove to be the fulfillment of a dream for Wendy Pendleton to be the first woman to walk on the moon. It will be a nightmare for Cal Lauren, a political operative determined to stop the space race at all costs ...

Leo Tolstoy began his trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth in his early twenties. Although he would in his old age famously dismiss it as an ‘awkward mixture of fact and fiction’, generations of readers and listeners have not agreed, finding the series to be a charming and insightful portrait of inner growth against the background of a world limned with extraordinary clarity, grace and color.

Janvier Chouteu-Chando's Fortune's Children is the gripping story of a mixed-race German who escapes Nazi rule and seeks refuge in French Cameroun, and then leads his father’s family and Business Empire through Africa’s most brutal colonial war that historians describe as ‘France’s Hidden war in Africa”. When Hans Wette escapes Nazi Germany and joins his father Josef Nana Njike in Africa, he is oblivious to the extent of his father’s vision. Not until the African legend dies and Hans and his siblings inherit his legacy, do they find that his fortune and vision conflict with ...

From a beloved voice in children’s literature comes this landmark memoir of hope amid harrowing times and an engaging and unusual Holocaust story. With backlist sales of over 2.3 million copies, Uri Shulevitz, one of FSG BYR’s most acclaimed picture-book creators, details the eight-year...

Most books about the Soviet Union focus on politics, food shortages, or lack of democratic freedoms. This collection of stories portrays everyday experiences of a young girl growing up in the Soviet Union of the 1970s. Childhood can be a magical and innocent time, oblivious to political regimes and problems. And that's what these 12 stories strive to convey.