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A Novel
by Suzanne Feldman
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.
"Feldman's rendering of the Western front is unsentimental and unsparing, making this an effective war story despite the slow plot movement." - Publishers Weekly
"This novel is about the resilience and strength of women in war, but also about love." - Booklist
"Perfect for fans of Lilac Girls, The Alice Network and Girls on the Line." - Suzanne Rindell, author of The Two Mrs. Carlyles
"A ferociously gripping portrayal of love and war. A soaring, impressive achievement." - Elise Levine, author of This Wicked Tongue and Blue Field
"This touching, intricate, high-stakes novel of two sisters is a welcome addition to the WWI canon, which continues to depict the Great War as the exclusive province of men. Intimate, unexpected and very real." - Padma Viswanathan, author of The Ever After of Ashwin Rao and The Toss of a Lemon
"A riveting narrative that redefines who the true heroes of war are." - Dennis Danvers, author of The Perfect Stranger
"This novel is immersive, profoundly affecting, and transformative in my appreciation and understanding of women of the past." - Olga Zilberbourg, author of Like Water and Other Stories
This information about Sisters of the Great War was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Suzanne Feldman graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1981 and received a Masters in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University in 2004. Her novel Absalom's Daughters (Holt, 2016) received a starred review in Kirkus. Her short story "The Witch Bottle" (Gargoyle Magazine 2016) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She received a Nebula Award in 2001 for her short fiction and the Editors Prize for fiction in 2005 at The Missouri Review. She has had stories published in Narrative Magazine, including "The Lapedo Child," which was selected as one of the year's best (2013). She was a finalist for the Bakeless Prize in 2005. She attended the Sewanee Writers Conference as a Walter E. Dakin Fellow in 2019.
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