When a Martian spacecraft lands on Woking Common, mankind is terrorized by aliens in tall, armored capsules which stalk the countryside on three legs. The machines wreak havoc on London and the Southern Counties, and survivors are driven underground. Scientist John Nicholson tells how he was plunged into a paralyzing nightmare of stark terror, savage madness and utter destruction.

Here is the story of two families in small-town Basque country, pitted against each other by the ideology and violence of the terrorist group ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty), from the unrelentingly grim 1980s to October 2011 when the group proclaimed an end to its savage insurgency. Erstwhile lifetime friends--especially the generation of parents on both sides--the two families become bitter enemies when a father of one is killed by ETA militants,...