It is one thing to know what you aspire to become. It is quite another to be told that you can't realize your dream because you are a woman. This is the situation Ruth Duncan found herself in. The story opens in 1914 in Baltimore. When it becomes obvious Ruth has no future there, she and her sister Elise courageously cross the Atlantic to volunteer at the Belgian front. Ruth volunteered as a nurse and Elise as an ambulance driver and mechanic. What they found, they could never have imagined.
Theirs is a story filled with unimaginable horrors. Even so, somehow the sisters showed incredible strength, courage and commitment. Brought to life with vividly depicted conditions, setting and actualities of the war, readers are immersed into the narrative. I found this to be a remarkable story about love, suffering and healing. Masterfully told, this book is well worth reading. Highly recommended.
Inspired by real women, this powerful novel tells the story of two unconventional American sisters who volunteer at the front during World War I
August 1914. While Europe enters a brutal conflict unlike any waged before, the Duncan household in Baltimore, Maryland, is the setting for a different struggle. Ruth and Elise Duncan long to escape the roles that society, and their controlling father, demand they play. Together, the sisters volunteer for the war effort—Ruth as a nurse, Elise as a driver.
Stationed at a makeshift hospital in Ypres, Belgium, Ruth soon confronts war’s harshest lesson: not everyone can be saved. Rising above the appalling conditions, she seizes an opportunity to realize her dream to practice medicine as a doctor. Elise, an accomplished mechanic, finds purpose and an unexpected kinship within the all-female Ambulance Corps. Through bombings, heartache and loss, Ruth and Elise cherish an independence rarely granted to women, unaware that their greatest challenges are still to come.
Illuminating the critical role women played in the Great War, this is a remarkable story of resilience, sacrifice and the bonds that can never be vanquished.
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