By Cecelia Holland
A self-serving political participant in sixteenth-century Rome is stuck up within the ruthless and strong Borgia family’s lethal intrigues of homicide and betrayal
it really is often called the town of God—but Rome on the sunrise of the 16th century is an unholy position the place opulence, poverty, and decadence cohabitate sinfully less than the ruthless rule of Rodrigo Borgia, the debauched Pope Alexander VI. Englishman Nicholas Dawson is secretary to the ineffectual ambassador of Florence and, as such, reveals himself associated with Borgias’ murderous machinations, particularly the brutal energy performs of the warlord Cesare, the pope’s bastard son. a talented liar, conspirator, undercover agent, and manipulator—a guy attracted to energy and the pleasures of excess—Dawson coolly performs his half in Rome’s draconian political dramas with a watch to non-public achieve and no precise allegiance to any part or participant. yet his appeal to a gorgeous and extremely harmful younger guy quickly threatens to carry Dawson’s mystery corporations crashing down round him, dooming him to a brutal and ignoble fate.
the nice Cecelia Holland is acclaimed as certainly one of America’s most appropriate creators of ancient fiction. With City of God she brings a amazing epoch and a mythical family members of scoundrels and murderers to breathtaking life—the corrupt patriarch pope; the suspiciously widowed and incestuous daughter, Lucrezia; Cesare, the bloodthirsty conqueror; and the tragically imprisoned and damned Caterina Sforza. Holland has written a beautiful story of betrayal, deception, and blood.
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Halvorsen. ” Mercedes showed Col. Halvorsen the window where she had watched the planes and showed him the yard below where the white chickens had once lived. Then she tried to tell him how much his gift had meant to her. Col. Halvorsen’s eyes misted over. Oh, yes, he knew! But how could he tell Mercedes the joy that had come to him from two sticks of gum? He’d seen a World War go by, and a Cold War begin, but he’d always found in the children’s eyes the hope for a better tomorrow. No, he couldn’t explain, so he penned a wish for Mercedes on his original letter: Dear Mercedes and family!
Halvorsen softly rubbed his head. His little friend’s sweet hope was as fragile as the eggs and as precious to him as the white chickens were to her. But would he ever find the garden with the chickens? Even with Peter’s map, he couldn’t find his yard by the canal. As October days passed into November, a thick, soupy fog began to blanket Berlin’s sky. Walking home with Mama, Mercedes prayed the pilots would be safe today. She prayed, too, that the fog would lift so the Chocolate Pilot could find her chickens in the yard at last.
We stay in Berlin. Period! President Harry S. Truman June 28, 1948 The Berlin Airlift The Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949 is still one of the greatest humanitarian missions the world has ever known. 2 million people for 15 desperate months. It began three years after WWII had ended, when defeated Germany and its capital, Berlin, were carved into four pieces like a pie by the Allied countries who had conquered Adolf Hitler’s army. Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union (Russia) controlled the eastern sector of Berlin as well as East Germany.