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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at.

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Speaker 2: B Katherine Raines has two books to recommend to us

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Speaker 2: this weekend. Hey Catherine, Morning Jack. Let's begin with the

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Speaker 2: latest from John Grisham tell us about Camino Island.

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Speaker 3: So this centers on three characters, author mercer Man and

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Speaker 3: Bruce Cable, who's the owner of Bay Books, and Murser

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Speaker 3: is looking for inspiration for her third novel and Bruce

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Speaker 3: suggests to her the story of Dark Eye, which is

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Speaker 3: this uninhabited island between Florida and Georgia that was once

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Speaker 3: a home to a community of runaway slaves. And the

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Speaker 3: third character is a living descendant of the Dark Isle,

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Speaker 3: miss Lovely Jackson, who's now in her eighties and lives

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Speaker 3: on Comino Island, having left the Dark Island nineteen fifty

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Speaker 3: five when she was fifteen with her mother, who was

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Speaker 3: a slave, and she's published a book about the island

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Speaker 3: in his History and things like that. And now this

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Speaker 3: deserted island has caught the attention of property developers in

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Speaker 3: this large corporation, and they've got political backing and money

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Speaker 3: and plans, and they want to build a casino on

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Speaker 3: this island and lovely plans to prove her ownership of

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Speaker 3: the Dark Isle and thought their plans and protect the

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Speaker 3: land where her ancestors are buried. So you get this

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Speaker 3: captivating and heartbreaking tale of this rich historical perspective and

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Speaker 3: the law of the island, and the chapters are interspersed

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Speaker 3: through the novel and the history of the British and

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Speaker 3: Spanish owned colonies and slavery, and you get her account

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Speaker 3: of the realities of the slave trade and that her

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Speaker 3: mother escaped against this greed of corporations and the questionable

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Speaker 3: practices of politicians and complete disregard for the environment and

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Speaker 3: the sprawl of this business. And it's a great you know,

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Speaker 3: John Grisham's a master storyteller, and it's a great story.

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Speaker 3: And the way all the characters MESSI mald together and yeah,

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Speaker 3: it's just it's well told and you get very engrossed

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Speaker 3: in what's going on in the island and lovely story

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Speaker 3: and it's so good.

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Speaker 2: Great, excellent. Okay, that's Camino Island by John Grisham. You've

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Speaker 2: also read Endgame nineteen forty four House Stalin Won the

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Speaker 2: War by Jonathan Dimbleby.

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Speaker 3: So this looks at how the Soviet victories actually enabled

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Speaker 3: Stalin to dictate the terms of the post war settlement

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Speaker 3: and laid the foundations for the Cold War. And the

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Speaker 3: focus of Dimballi's book is on Operation Baggeration, and it

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Speaker 3: starts in nineteen forty four, and it's the Soviet on

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Speaker 3: slought during the Second World War. And they have this

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Speaker 3: offensive on five fronts for Soviet armies in one Polish

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Speaker 3: and it's partially there and driven by the humiliation of

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Speaker 3: the German evasion in nineteen forty one of the USSR,

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Speaker 3: when the German armony were on the outskirts of Moscow.

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Speaker 3: And so these well over a million men set out

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Speaker 3: across a line stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

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Speaker 3: And it began in June forty four and at the

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Speaker 3: same time as the Normandy landings in the first week

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Speaker 3: of that month, and by August they were on the

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Speaker 3: outskirts of Warsaw. So they advanced in some cases as

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Speaker 3: much as six hundred kilometers and the you know, the

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Speaker 3: Nazi armies were out of the Baltic and batteries in

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Speaker 3: eastern Poland and across the border regions, and you know,

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Speaker 3: both armies suffered horrific casualties in the five months, and

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Speaker 3: thousands of German and Soviet mens killed and wounded and captured,

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Speaker 3: you know, and the devastating losses of German armor and equipment.

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Speaker 3: And you know, he Demultigue brings into his military story,

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Speaker 3: you know, extracts from Russian and German diaries and private letters,

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Speaker 3: so you get this real personal telling of the story

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Speaker 3: as well. What was really interesting, actually Germany's worst enemy

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Speaker 3: was actually probably Adolf Hitler, because again and again he

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Speaker 3: would say that towns were strongholds and he wouldn't let

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Speaker 3: anyone retreat, and then divisions and armies would find themselves surrounded,

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Speaker 3: and it's a pattern to keep it occurring. But by contrast,

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Speaker 3: Start and let his field commanders and kept in contact

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Speaker 3: with him, but he seldom interfered with their decisions. And

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Speaker 3: so you get this Russian offensive alongside Allied conferences and

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Speaker 3: strandederities and this very stormy relationship between Roosevelt, Starden and

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Speaker 3: Churchill as they try to agree on Europe's post war future.

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Speaker 3: And it's a fascinating narrative and a very different kind

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Speaker 3: of look in some ways that you know, how everything

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Speaker 3: came together really how the Cold War started.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is amazing, right, Like I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: just because of the way we all kind of tell

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Speaker 2: our own stories and history and stuff, that Russia's role

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Speaker 2: is often overlooked, at least, you know, through some Western

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Speaker 2: lenses when it comes to you know, the incredible sacrifices

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Speaker 2: and if it's made in World War Two, and you know,

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Speaker 2: remarkable to think about how that story has now been

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Speaker 2: twisted in Russia by Vladimir Putin and is being used

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Speaker 2: once again for you know, what some would say is

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Speaker 2: you know, completely you know, antithetical to democracy. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: quite remarkable. Thank you so much, Catherine. Sounds really interesting.

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Speaker 2: So that's nineteen forty four End Game nineteen forty four

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Speaker 2: How Stalin Won the War by Jonathan Dimbleby and Catherine's

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Speaker 2: first book, The John Grisham One is called Camino Ireland.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks d B from nine am Saturday, or

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