Books like 'Retrospective'
Readers who enjoyed Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical military, war & conflict historical-fiction literary-fiction communism latinx-mc war politics poc-mc
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My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCentered around the 1986 attempt on the life of Augusto Pinochet, an event that changed Chile forever, My Tender Matador is one of the most explosive, controversial, and popular novels to have been published in that country in decades. It is spring 1986 in the city of Santiago, and Augusto Pinochet is losing his grip on power...Categorized as:
historical-fiction latinx-mc literary-fiction poc-mc politics war 20th-century 21st-century -
![The Woman from Tantoura: A Palestinian Novel by Radwa Ashour]()
The Woman from Tantoura: A Palestinian Novel by Radwa Ashour
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsPalestine. For most of us, the word brings to mind a series of confused images and disjointed associations-massacres, refugee camps, UN resolutions, settlements, terrorist attacks, war, occupation, checkered kouffiyehs and suicide bombers, a seemingly endless cycle of death and destruction... -
![The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa]()
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsHaunted all her life by feelings of terror and emptiness, forty-nine-year-old Urania Cabral returns to her native Dominican Republic - and finds herself reliving the events of 1961, when the capital was still called Trujillo City and one old man terrorized a nation of three million people...Categorized as:
historical-fiction latinx-mc literary-fiction poc-mc politics war 20th-century 21st-century -
![The Scot's Deception by Keira Montclair]()
The Scot's Deception by Keira Montclair
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThey must trust each other—or bear the consequences.Chrissa Grant isn’t the sort of lass who enjoys sitting at home. With a pivotal battle looming between Robert the Bruce and the English, she knows exactly where she wishes to be: fighting with her older cousins, the group known as the Highland Swords...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war adult ancient-civilization book epic fiction -
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![The Incorrigible Optimists Club by Jean-Michel Guenassia]()
The Incorrigible Optimists Club by Jean-Michel Guenassia
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsParis, 1959. As dusk settles over the immigrant quarter, 12-year-old Michel Marini - amateur photographer and compulsive reader - is drawn to the hum of the local bistro. From his usual position at the football table, he has a vantage point on a grown-up world - of rock 'n' roll and of the Algerian War...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 21st-century adult audiobook bildungsroman -
![On a Wing and a Prayer by Helen Carey]()
On a Wing and a Prayer by Helen Carey
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratings‘This dramatic and poignant novel depicts the resilience of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary war.Unputdownable!’ Western Telegraph Life is hard in London in 1941, and yet Helen de Burrel finds herself volunteering to join the SOE. Nobody knows that her cool exterior conceals such courage ... and such fear. It also means that love, when it strikes unexpectedly, is doubly dangerous... -
![Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan]()
Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this searing novel, a courageous young woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka.Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war politics poc-mc fiction historical audiobook -
![Γκιακ by Δημοσθένης Παπαμάρκος]()
Γκιακ by Δημοσθένης Παπαμάρκος
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsΟι ήρωες των διηγημάτων του Γκιακ, στρατιώτες που πολέμησαν στη Μικρασιατική Εκστρατεία, έρχονται αντιμέτωποι με τους ρόλους που τους επιβάλλουν οι παραδοσιακοί κανόνες και το βίωμα του πολέμου. Συγκρούονται, υποτάσσονται, ζουν εν κρυπτώ ή φεύγουν. Το γκιακ είναι το αίμα, ο συγγενικός δεσμός και ο νόμος του αίματος που σκιάζει τις ζωές τους...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war literary-fiction fiction 21st-century historical drama violent-conflict -
![Under a Sunburnt Sky by Lilly Mirren]()
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![The Fire Dream by Franklin Allen Leib]()
The Fire Dream by Franklin Allen Leib
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn epic military novel of soldier's combat in Vietnam This is a sweeping, gut-wrenching portrait of soldiers at war from a man who fought, and saw friends die, in Vietnam. It is a saga of men from all walks of life, thrown together by the arbitrary nature of unrelenting combat of Vietnam, each man in the team is put to the ultimate test-combat... -
![The Wife Who Risked Everything by Ellie Midwood]()
The Wife Who Risked Everything by Ellie Midwood
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBerlin, 1943: “Where’s your husband?” the SS man demanded.“There’s no one home,” Margot said before they started tearing the place apart. “I’m alone here.” In his eyes was nothing but ice and death, and it occurred to Margot that only she stood between her husband and the soldier’s machine gun.In Nazi Germany, Margot refuses to buckle under the weight of Hitler’s tyranny... -
![The Bogside Boys by Eoin Dempsey]()
The Bogside Boys by Eoin Dempsey
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the Amazon Top Ten Overall Bestselling author of Finding RebeccaThe war will force him to choose between his community, his family, or the woman he loves. The city of Derry, Northern Ireland, 1972The Bogside is an area in open revolt, cordoned off from the rest of the city of Derry, patrolled by masked IRA men atop burnt out barricades... -
![1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War by Morgan Llywelyn]()
1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War by Morgan Llywelyn
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Irish fight for independence is one of the most captivating tales of the twentieth century. Morgan Llywelyn, the acclaimed historical writer of books like Lion of Ireland, Bard and The Horse Goddess , is the writer born to bring this epic battle to life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war politics literary-fiction fiction historical 20th-century audiobook -
![Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts]()
Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis classic novel follows the career of Major Rogers, whose incredible exploits during the French and Indian Wars are told through Langdon Towne, an artist and Harvard student who flees trouble to join the army... -
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![Children Of The Arbat by Anatoli Rybakov]()
Children Of The Arbat by Anatoli Rybakov
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSet in 1934, Children of the Arbat presents a masterful and chilling psychological portrait of Stalin and details the beginning of his reign of terror and its impact on a generation - represented by a circle of young friends living in Moscow's intellectual and artistic center, the Arbat...Categorized as:
communism historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century audiobook book -
![A Prophet Without Honor: A Novel of Alternative History by Joseph Wurtenbaugh]()
A Prophet Without Honor: A Novel of Alternative History by Joseph Wurtenbaugh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings‘A Prophet Without Honor’ is that rare novel that provides a rich, entertaining and fully immersive reading experience, along with a resonant, thought-provoking subtext. Written in epistolary style and populated with interesting, fully-realized characters, the multi-general narrative is a seamless blend of authentic fact and sound speculation...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century adult alternate-history book -
![Danny Boy by Anne Bennett]()
Danny Boy by Anne Bennett
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA deeply moving saga of a young couple with high hopes for a bright future in rural Ireland, only to find themselves embroiled in the uprising of 1916 and having to make a new life for themselves in Birmingham. Rosie's family doesn't have much money, but she's rich in other ways: she loves her life on the farm, her sisters, her friends, and even her spoilt baby brother... -
![Into the Burning Dawn: Heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 historical fiction set in Italy by Natalie Meg Evans]()
Into the Burning Dawn: Heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 historical fiction set in Italy by Natalie Meg Evans
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the terrace courtyard of the palazzo overlooking a sparkling bay, the scent of ripening lemons filled the air. His deep brown eyes gazed into hers with determination and longing. ‘Will you do it? Risk everything and join us?’Twenty-one-year-old Imogen Fitzgerald was raised in an English orphanage and never knew her parents... -
![One Left: A Novel by Kim Soom, Bonnie Oh]()
One Left: A Novel by Kim Soom, Bonnie Oh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDuring the Pacific War, more than 200,000 Korean girls were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers. They lived in horrific conditions in "comfort stations" across Japanese-occupied territories. Barely 10 percent survived to return to Korea, where they lived as social outcasts...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war fiction historical tragedy ww2 violent-conflict -
![The Cake Tree in the Ruins by Akiyuki Nosaka]()
The Cake Tree in the Ruins by Akiyuki Nosaka
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIntensely moving stories that tell of the absurd violence of war, and tenderly depict the animals and children caught in its vortex.In 1945, Akiyuki Nosaka watched the Allied firebombing of Kobe kill his adoptive parents, and then witnessed his sister starving to death...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc war 20th-century adult anthologies asian-mc -
![Hereward: End of Days by James Wilde]()
Hereward: End of Days by James Wilde
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEngland, 1071. Five years have passed since the crushing Norman victory at the Battle of Hastings. The country reels under the savage rule of the new king, the one they call 'the Bastard.' The North has been left a wasteland villages razed, innocents put to the sword, land stolen. It seems no atrocity is too great to ensure William's grip upon the crown... -
![The Invasion Year by Dewey Lambdin]()
The Invasion Year by Dewey Lambdin
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Invasion Year is the seventeenth tale in Dewey Lambdin's smashing naval adventure series...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war action-adventure adult book fiction historical -
![Ever My Love by Gretchen Craig]()
Ever My Love by Gretchen Craig
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOn the eve of Civil War, the daughter of Southern planters finds her loyalties tested in a magnificent saga of family pride and forbidden love...Brought up amid the luxury of plantation life, Marianne Johnston never questions her sheltered life until, driven by her conscience, she joins the Underground Railroad... -
![The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories by Jay Rubin, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki]()
The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories by Jay Rubin, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA major new anthology of great Japanese short stories introduced by Haruki Murakami.This fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the great Japanese short story, from its modern origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable works being written today...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 21st-century adult anthologies classics fiction -
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![The Stars Look Down by A.J. Cronin]()
The Stars Look Down by A.J. Cronin
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Stars Look Down was A.J. Cronin's fourth novel, published in 1935, and this tale of a North country mining family was a great favourite with his readers. Robert Fenwick is a miner, and so are his three sons. His wife is proud that all her four men go down the mines... -
![Javanese Gentry by Umar Kayam]()
Javanese Gentry by Umar Kayam
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"In my mind rose a misty picture of a little girl in a floral dress. As for her face: nothing. I could only hope that she had been pretty. I sat overcome. What a procession of developments in one day! Only that morning I had left Madiun; at midday I was wobbling on a buggy past an ocean of rice fields; tonight, suddenly, I had been renamed by my parents and handed a wife... -
![Em by Kim Thúy]()
Em by Kim Thúy
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsKim Thúy's Em is a mesmerizing novel of profound power and tenderness, and an affirmation of the greatest act of resistance: love. In the midst of war, an ordinary miracle: an abandoned baby tenderly cared for by a young boy living on the streets of Saigon. The boy is Louis, the child of a long-gone American soldier. Louis calls the baby em Hồng, em meaning little sister, or beloved... -
![Ports of Call by Amin Maalouf, Alberto Manguel]()
Ports of Call by Amin Maalouf, Alberto Manguel
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA graceful story of love across an insuperable gulf and a powerful allegory for the conflict that has beset the Middle East for the last half century. To call your son Ossyane is like calling him Rebellion. For Ossyane’s father it is a gesture of protest by an excited Ottoman prince, for Ossyane himself it is a burdensome responsibility... -
![My Lvov: Holocaust Memoir of a twelve-year-old Girl by Janina Hescheles, Yaroslav Hrytsak]()
My Lvov: Holocaust Memoir of a twelve-year-old Girl by Janina Hescheles, Yaroslav Hrytsak
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhile still twelve years old, Janina Hescheles wrote this harrowing report from her hiding place in Cracow. The notebook, filled with clear childlike writing, was fortunately preserved. She tells about the German occupation of Lvov, the loss of her parents, about the Ghetto and mass murder in the notorious forced-labor camp Janowska in Lvov...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century adult book coming-of-age fiction -
![The Incredible Story of Henry N. Brown by Anne Helene Bubenzer]()
The Incredible Story of Henry N. Brown by Anne Helene Bubenzer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHenry N. Brown came into this world on July 16, 1921. He had to wait until his second eye was sewn before he could see, but from that moment his life was never dull. Henry N. Brown is the story of the twentieth century, as witnessed by a little bear... -
![The Way Back to Florence by Glenn Haybittle]()
The Way Back to Florence by Glenn Haybittle
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn 1937 Freddie (English), Isabella (Italian) and Oskar (a German Jew) become friends at an art school in Florence where they are taught by the dictatorial but magus-like Maestro and his sinister fascist assistant Fosco. When war arrives Freddie returns to England to become the pilot of a Lancaster bomber...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century adult book fiction -
![Enemies of the Heart by Rebecca Dean]()
Enemies of the Heart by Rebecca Dean
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBerlin 1909 - cousins Vicky and Zelda are about to meet the Remer brothers... Vicky Hudson is only seventeen when she marries Berthold Remer and moves from her idyllic Yorkshire home to Berlin. Adjusting to her new life isn't easy, not least when she discovers that the Remer family are producing weaponry for the German army... -
![The King's Commoner: The rise and fall of Cardinal Wolsey by David Field]()
The King's Commoner: The rise and fall of Cardinal Wolsey by David Field
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe infamous Tudor king, Henry VIII, is on the throne! Perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden, Robyn Young, Alison Weir and Anthony Riches. Men rise and fall from power in Henry VIII’s treacherous court... Tudor England Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of York owes his favoured status to the most volatile monarch that the nation has ever known... -
![Until the Sun Falls by Cecelia Holland]()
Until the Sun Falls by Cecelia Holland
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsIn the thirteenth century the Mongol hordes swept out of Mongolia to over-run half the world. This novel follows Psin, a Mongol general, through the military campaigns in Russia and Europe, among his own family and in his own heart... -
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![The Dying Grass: A Novel of the Nez Perce War by William T. Vollmann]()
The Dying Grass: A Novel of the Nez Perce War by William T. Vollmann
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this new installment in his acclaimed series of novels examining the collisions between Native Americans and European colonizers, William T. Vollmann tells the story of the Nez Perce War, with flashbacks to the Civil War. Defrauded and intimidated at every turn, the Nez Perces finally went on the warpath in 1877, subjecting the U.S... -
![Success to the Brave by Alexander Kent]()
Success to the Brave by Alexander Kent
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSuccess to the Brave is the fifteenth Richard Bolitho story and chronologically it follows the events covered by A Tradition of Victory.In the spring of 1802 Richard Bolitho is summoned to the Admiralty in London and given his orders for a difficult and, to him, distasteful task...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war action-adventure adult book fiction historical -
![The Renegade: A Tale of Robert the Bruce by Jack Whyte]()
The Renegade: A Tale of Robert the Bruce by Jack Whyte
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Renegade is a blazing, brilliant, new historical adventure in Jack Whyte's Guardians series. Packed with action, heroism, and vibrant historical detail, The Renegade recounts the life of Scotland's greatest medieval king, Robert the Bruce... -
![Any Approaching Enemy by Jay Worrall]()
Any Approaching Enemy by Jay Worrall
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith the stunning high-seas adventure Sails on the Horizon, Jay Worrall introduced a bold new hero in the rousing tradition of Jack Aubrey: Charles Edgemont, an ambitious officer in His Britannic Majesty’s navy. Raised to the rank of captain for gallantry under fire, Edgemont proved his mettle in the bruising British victory over the Spanish fleet at the Battle of St. Vincent...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war action-adventure adult book fiction historical -
![Down Our Street by Lena Kennedy]()
Down Our Street by Lena Kennedy
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGolden-haired, sunny-natured Amy is the apple of her mother's eye, youngest and dearest of Annie Flanagan's lively brood of thirteen. With the outbreak of World War II the Flanagan family is sundered, shaken from their crowded nest in London's East End. Joe is soon made a sergeant, fighting in France. Billy volunteers for the Army Transport, young Dan fulfils his dreams and joins the RAF... -
![Passage West by Rishi Reddi]()
Passage West by Rishi Reddi
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Recommended Book from BookRiot, Bustle, The Millions and Teen Vogue A Los Angeles Times BEST CALIFORNIA BOOK of 2020 * A New England Independent Booksellers' 2020 NEW ENGLAND BOOK AWARD FINALISTA sweeping, vibrant first novel following a family of Indian sharecroppers at the onset of World War I, revealing a little-known part of California history1914: Ram Singh arrives in the Imperial Valley... -
![Imagining Argentina by Lawrence Thornton]()
Imagining Argentina by Lawrence Thornton
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis astonishingly proficient and gripping first novel should be required reading for anyone who calls him or herself a responsible citizen. Not only is it masterfully written, with images as sharp as shards of broken glass, but it also carries a message so potent it burns into the conscience...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami]()
The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAn international bestseller available in English for the first time,a story of forbidden love set against the background of Arabic culture and endless feuds between clansA dead man hangs from the portal of St Paul s Chapel in Damascus. He was a Muslim officer and he was murdered...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war action-adventure adult book fiction -
![The Voyage: A Historical Novel set during the Holocaust, Inspired by real events by Roberta Kagan]()
The Voyage: A Historical Novel set during the Holocaust, Inspired by real events by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOn May 13th 1939, five strangers boarded the MS St. Louis, Promised a future of safety away from Nazi Germany and Hitler’s third Reich unbeknownst to them they were about to embark upon a voyage built on secrets, lies, and treachery. Sacrifice, love, life, and death hung in the balance as each fought against fate but the voyage was just the beginning... -
![All We Left Behind by Danielle R. Graham]()
All We Left Behind by Danielle R. Graham
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFor fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz‘Heart-wrenching. Emotional. A powerful story of wartime love and devotion’ Glynis Peters, author of The Secret OrphanA powerful and incredibly moving historical novel inspired by an untold story of the Second World War.Vancouver 1941As the war rages around the world, Hitler’s fury is yet to be felt on the peaceful shores of Mayne Island... -
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![Push Not the River by James Conroyd Martin]()
Push Not the River by James Conroyd Martin
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA panoramic and epic novel in the grand romantic style, Push Not the River is the rich story of Poland in the late 1700s--a time of heartache and turmoil as the country's once peaceful people are being torn apart by neighboring countries and divided loyalties... -
![Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins]()
Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis poetic novel, by the acclaimed author of John Dollar, describes America at the brink of the Atomic Age. In the years between the two world wars, the future held more promise than peril, but there was evidence of things unseen that would transfigure our unquestioned trust in a safe future. Fos has returned to Tennessee from the trenches of France... -
![The Beginning and the End by Naguib Mahfouz]()
The Beginning and the End by Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFirst published in 1956, this is a powerful portrayal of a middle-class Egyptian family confronted by material, moral, and spiritual problems during World War II...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction -
![The One I Was by Eliza Graham]()
The One I Was by Eliza Graham
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRestless, troubled Rosamond Hunter has spent most of her life running away from the past, filled with guilt about her involuntary role in her mother’s death. When her nursing job brings her back to Fairfleet, her childhood home, to care for an elderly refugee, she is forced to confront the ghosts that have haunted her for so long... -
![I'm Staying Here by Marco Balzano]()
I'm Staying Here by Marco Balzano
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCuròn, 1920.In a small village in South Tyrol, Trina longs for a different life. She dedicates herself to becoming a teacher, but the year that she qualifies Mussolini's regime abolishes the use of German as a teaching language.In this new climate of fear and uncertainty Trina works for a clandestine network of schools in the valley, always with the risk of capture.Curòn, 1939... -
![The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton]()
The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAt the end of the nineteenth century, three revolutionary women fight for freedom in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton’s captivating new novel inspired by real-life events and the true story of a legendary Cuban woman–Evangelina Cisneros–who changed the course of history.A feud rages in Gilded Age New York City between newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer...
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