"...fear, horror, guilt and grief stay with you..."
May is a 28-year-old mother of two, married to George, and she is drowning in melancholy. The year is 1914 and her daughters are away at boarding school. George has really taken to drink and other women leaving May untethered and fractious. An American by birth, she has come to live in London and is finding her life completely meaningless over the last 12 years. When she meets Elsie Knocker at the studio of a local artist, May is encouraged to volunteer as a war nurse on the continent just as World War I is gearing up. Despite her initial misgivings due to her lack of training and fortitude, May interviews with the French Red Cross and is appointed to the Voluntary Aid Detachment to perform some nursing duties and is assigned to Field Hospital 19 in Bray-Sur-Somme. Leave taking was a disaster but May is determined to do her part in the war effort and naively heads out for duty without a clue that her life will never be the same.
The war years are dreadful and May experiences the full range of emotions in the tents that make up their "hospital" and living quarters. Her immaturity yields to personal growth through the reality of caring for the sick and wounded men and from her camaraderie with the doctors, nurses and others she works with. It's the worst of times but May thrives despite the daily horrors and the overwhelming sense of loss. She misses her two daughters desperately and her husband makes May pay for leaving him. But even in the midst of war, hearts still long for belonging and understanding and May meets a man who softens her hardened attitude about love. NO SPOILERS.
This was a lovely historical fiction inspired by the life and times of Mary Borden, a well known nurse, novelist and poet who did spend part of the Great War in the Somme. It was easy to read this over a couple of hours as I found myself immersed in the story and invested in all the characters. I found May to be a bit of a contradiction but her fortitude impressed me and I reveled in her personal growth throughout her struggles and triumphs. The descriptions of the activities in the hospital were, of course, fascinating to me as I'm an RN and always love the medical details. I can't imagine how hard that work would have been in such primitive conditions with the horrible injuries and the never ending presence of death as the maimed and traumatized soldiers kept coming. I was reminded again of how far women have come despite the constraints of society, the difficulty of balancing motherhood and work, and the need for self-actualization and personal fulfillment. I did not feel that May was a neglectful mother despite attempts to paint her as such. I'm not certain that, even now, women can have it all though I do think that it's a precarious balancing act done well by many. I enjoyed this book as well as the first in the series, THE WAR NURSES, and I look forward to the next by Lizzie Page.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-book ARC to read and review.
Although this is the second novel in the War Nurses series it can be read as a standalone though I'd recommend you read the first one first!
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