The Lieutenant

A young astronomer in colonial Australia faces tragedy on the ground in this follow-up to the award-winning The Secret River—“A triumph. Read it at once” (The Sunday Times, UK). A stunning follow-up to her Commonwealth Writers’ Prize-winning book, The Secret River, Grenville’s The Lieutenant is a gripping story of friendship, self-discovery, and the power of language set along the unspoiled shores of 1788 New South Wales, Australia. As a boy, Daniel Rooke was an outsider. Ridiculed in school for his intellect and misunderstood by his parents, he finds a path for himself in the British Navy—and in his love for astronomy. As a young lieutenant, Daniel joins a voyage to Australia. And while his countrymen struggle to control their cargo of convicts and communicate with nearby Aboriginal tribes, Daniel constructs an observatory to chart the stars and begin the work he prays will make him famous. Out on his isolated point, Daniel becomes involved with the local Aborigines, forging an intimate connection with one girl that will change the course of his life. But when his compatriots come into conflict with the indigenous population, Daniel must turn away from the stars and declare his loyalties on the ground.

Reproduction of the original: The Lieutenant-Governor by Guy Wetmore Carryl

An Army nurse in Hawaii grapples with wounded soldiers and a broken heart as America enters WWII in a novel of “nonstop action, romance, and suspense” (Publishers Weekly). A USA Today Bestseller November, 1941. Though she’s never seen the ocean before, Eva Cassidy has her reasons for making the crossing to Hawaii aboard the SS Lurline. Newly enlisted as an Army Corps nurse, she is stunned by the splendor of the Pacific, and even more so by Lt. Clark Spencer, a man who clearly has secrets of his own. Though she is drawn to him, Eva’s troubled past prevents her from following her heart. Though Clark warns Eva that America will be drawn into the war, nothing could prepare them for the surprise attack that will change the world they know. In the wake of the Pearl Harbor bombing, Eva and her fellow nurses take on the immense duty of keeping the American wounded alive. But the danger that finds Eva threatens everything she holds dear. Amid the chaos and heartbreak, she must decide whom to trust and how far she will go to protect those she loves.

"A must-read war memoir… with zero punches pulled, related by one of the most incisive observers of the American political scene." —KIRKUS (starred review) "Funny, biting, thoughtful and wholly original." —Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried Jeff Danziger, one of the leading political cartoonists of his generation, captures the fear, sorrow, absurdity, and unintended but inevitable consequences of war with dark humor and penetrating moral clarity. If there is any discipline at the start of wars it dissipates as the soldiers themselves become aware of the pointlessness of what they are being told to do. A conversation with a group of today’s military age men and women about America’s involvement in Vietnam inspired Jeff Danziger to write about his own wartime experiences: “War is interesting,” he reveals, “if you can avoid getting killed, and don’t mind loud noises.” Fans of his cartooning will recognize his mordant humor applied to his own wartime training and combat experiences: “I learned, and I think most veterans learn, that making people or nations do something by bombing or sending in armed troops usually fails.” Near the end of his telling, Danziger invites his audience—in particular the young friends who inspired him to write this informative and rollicking memoir—to ponder: “What would you do? . . . Could you summon the bravery—or the internal resistance—to simply refuse to be part of the whole idiotic theater of the war? . . . Or would you be like me?”

When FINAL BLACKOUT was written there was still a Maginot Line, Dunkirk was just another French coastal town and the Battle of Britain, the Bulge, Saipan, Iwo, V2s and Nagasaki were things unknown and far ahead in history. While it concerns these things, its action will not take place for many years yet to come and it is, therefore, still a story of the future though some of the "future" it embraced (about one fifth) has already transpired. When published in magazine form before the war it created a little skirmish of its own and, I am told, as time has gone by and some of it has unreeled, interest in it has if anything increased. So far its career has been most adventurous as a story. The "battle of FINAL BLACKOUT" has included loud wails from the Communists—who said it was pro-fascist (while at least one fascist has held it to be pro-Communist). Its premises have been called wild and unfounded on the one hand while poems (some of them very good) have been written about or dedicated to the Lieutenant. Meetings have been held to nominate it to greatness while others have been called to hang the author in effigy (and it is a matter of record that the last at least was successfully accomplished). The British would not hear of its being published there at the time it appeared in America, though Boston, I am told, remained neutral—for there is nothing but innocent slaughter in it and no sign of rape. There are those who insist that it is all very bad and those who claim for it the status of immortality. And while it probably is not the worst tale ever written, I cannot bring myself to believe that FINAL BLACKOUT, as so many polls and such insist, is one of the ten greatest stories ever published. Back in those mild days when Pearl Harbor was a place you toured while vacationing at Waikiki and when every drawing room had its business man who wondered disinterestedly whether or not it was not possible to do business with Hitler, the anti-FINAL BLACKOUTISTS (many of whom, I fear, were Communists) were particularly irked by some of the premises of the tale. Russia was, obviously, a peace-loving nation with no more thought than America of entering the war. England was a fine going concern without a thought, beyond a contemptuous aside, for the Socialist who, of course, could never come to power. One must understand this to see why FINAL BLACKOUT slashed about and wounded people. True enough, some of its premises were far off the mark. It supposed, for instance, that the politicians of the great countries, particularly the United States, would push rather than hinder the entrance of the whole world into the war. In fact, it supposed, for its author was very young, that politicians were entirely incompetent and would not prevent for one instant the bloodiest conflict the country had ever known. Further, for the author was no critic, it supposed that the general staffs of most great nations were composed of stupid bunglers who would be looking up their friends on the selection board when they should be looking to their posts and that the general world wide strategy of war would go off in a manner utterly unadroit to the sacrifice of efficiency. It surmised that if general staffs went right on bungling along, military organization would cease to exist, and it further—and more to the point—advanced the thought that the junior combat officer, the noncom and, primarily the enlisted men would have to prosecute the war. These, it believed, would finally be boiled down, by staff "stupidity," to a handful of unkillables who would thereafter shift for themselves. FINAL BLACKOUT declared rather summarily—and very harshly, for the author was inexperienced in international affairs—that the anarchy of nations was an unhealthy arrangement maintained by the greed of a few for the privileges of a few and that the "common people" (which is to say those uncommon people who wish only to be let go about their affairs of getting enough to eat and begetting their next generation) would be knocked flat, silly and completely out of existence by these brand new "defensive" weapons which would, of course, be turned only against soldiers. Bombs, atomics, germs and, in short, science, it maintained, were being used unhealthily and that, soon enough, a person here and there who was no party to the front line sortie was liable to get injured or dusty; it also spoke of populations being affected boomerang fashion by weapons devised for own governments to use. Certainly all this was heresy enough in that quiet world of 1939, and since that time, it is only fair to state, the author has served here and there and has gained enough experience to see the error of his judgment. There have been two or three stories modeled on FINAL BLACKOUT. I am flattered. It is just a story. And as the past few years have fortunately proven, it cannot possibly happen.

American pilot Mike Malloy has learned his lesson: when you join the French Foreign Legion, it’s best not to wipe the floor with two French officers. . . no matter how richly they deserve it. And it appears he has all the time in the world to think about it. He’s been sentenced to five years in a Moroccan penal battalion—which is French for death sentence. But Malloy, who could easily pass for actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is about to get a reprieve ... if he’s willing to fly into the heart of the Sahara and into the teeth of a Berber rebellion. It’s an offer Malloy can’t refuse. All he has to do is fly two passengers into the desert and return with a book that disappeared 800 years ago. But as he’s a man who doesn’t go by the book, this expedition could turn out to have unexpected benefits. One of his passengers is a young American woman whose eyes are as beautiful and blue as the wild blue yonder.... Hubbard once said that writers too often “forget a great deal of the languorous quality which made the Arabian Nights so pleasing. Jewels, beautiful women, towering cities filled with mysterious shadows, sultans equally handy with robes of honor and the beheading sword ... these things still exist, undimmed, losing no luster to the permeating Occidental flavor which reaches even the far corners of the earth today.” Hubbard brings this unique insight to his stories of North Africa and the Legionnaires, investing them with an authenticity of time, place and character that kept his readers asking for more.

He's doing what he can to save the Prince Regent's life . . . but can he save his new marriage as well? Evan Eldridge never meant to be a war hero--he just wanted to fight Napoleon for the future of his country. And he certainly didn't think that saving the life of a peer would mean being made the Earl of Whitelock. But when the life you save is dear to the Prince Regent, things can change in a hurry. Now Evan has a new title, a manor house in shambles, and a stranger for a bride, all thrust upon him by a grateful ruler. What he doesn't have are all his memories. Traumatized as a result of his wounds and bravery on the battlefield, Evan knows there's something he can't quite remember. It's important, dangerous--and if he doesn't recall it in time, will jeopardize not only his marriage but someone's very life. Readers who enjoy Julie Klassen, Carolyn Miller, and Kristi Ann Hunter will love diving into this brand-new Regency series filled with suspense, aristocratic struggles, and a firm foundation of faith.