Tristan Sadler, a gay soldier, recalls his time spent fighting in World War I and the intensity of his friendship with Will Bancroft, a soldier who became a conscientious objector and was shot as a traitor.

From the author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies and The Absolutist, a propulsive novel of the Russian Revolution and the fate of the Romanov family. 
 
Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, The House of Special Purpose illuminates an empire at the end of its reign. Eighty-year-old Georgy Jachmenev is haunted by his past—a past of death, suffering, and scandal that...

A humorous short story from the collection, BEYOND THE STARS, written by an internationally bestselling author Abigail Crumb works every day after school at the local vet's while she saves up for a present for her pet elephant. So when she loses – and then finds again – one of the puppies in her care, she knows she can't tell anyone without putting her job on the line. But how will she keep her secret? After several chance encounters with Henry...

Written in Dickensian prose, This House Is Haunted is a striking homage to the classic nineteenth-century ghost story. Set in Norfolk in 1867, Eliza Caine responds to an ad for a governess position at Gaudlin Hall. When she arrives at the hall, shaken by an unsettling disturbance that occurred during her travels, she is greeted by the two children now in her care, Isabella and Eustace. There is no adult present to represent her mysterious employer,...

Berlin 1942: Als Bruno eines Tages nach Hause kommt, werden gerade alle seine Habseligkeiten in Kisten verpackt. Sein Vater wurde befördert und die Familie muss umziehen, an einen weit entfernten Ort, wo es niemanden gibt, mit dem er spielen kann. Ein hoher Zaun trennt ihn von den seltsamen Menschen in gestreiften Anzügen in der Ferne. Aber Bruno beschließt, dass es mehr an diesem verlassenen Ort geben muss, als es den Anschein hat. Er trifft auf...

Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.

Set in Poland during World War II. Innocent and naive 8-year-old Bruno is bored and restless in his new home. Ignoring his mother, he sets off on an adventure in the woods. He comes across a high fence which separates him from the people he can see through it. Soon he meets a young boy in striped pajamas, and a surprising friendship develops.

A toy soldier. A butter dish. A compass. Mundane objects, perhaps, but to the remarkable authors in this collection, artifacts such as these have inspired stories that go to the heart of the human experience of World War I. Each author was invited to choose an object that had a connection to the war--a writing kit for David Almond, a helmet for Michael Morpurgo--and use it as the inspiration for an original short story. What results is an extraordinary...