Summer Books

 The story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s. The Women is that rarest of novels—at once an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics, of a generation both fueled by dreams and lost on the battlefield.

“Women can be heroes, too.”

When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyric beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.

This incredible story combines heart-stopping adventure, broken lives transformed, and the realities of spiritual warfare, all rolled together in a page-turning thriller set behind the Iron Curtain. Most riveting of all is that this is a true story, which has inspired and challenged generations of Christians since its first publication almost forty years ago.

Following the rise of Communism after the Second World War, Christians behind the Iron Curtain had never felt more alone. Persecuted for their faith they wondered whether they had been forgotten by their fellow Christians around the world.

But God was calling a young Dutchman, Andrew, to be his ambassador to the faithful. Smuggling a few, then hundreds, then thousands of Bibles across dangerous borders and into needy hands, he risked his life time and again to bring hope to those who needed it most.

This classic book has sold over ten million copies in English alone. This edition includes a new Foreword and Epilogue to update Andrew's story and underline its continuing relevance to a whole generation of readers.