The Daughters of Mars: A Novel Paperback – May 6, 2014

Because I "enjoyed" reading Schindler's List, that is if you can say you "enjoyed" reading it (well at least I didn't neck while watching the movie like Seinfeld did), I decided to read Keneally's newest historical novel, The Daughters of Mars. This is a novel I believe, foremost, to be about sisterhood. Secondly, it's about the nurses of The Great War, WWI. And thirdly, it's about WWI. It's a semi-long book, 517 pages and at times it does ramble, but the majority of the time you are captivated by the lives of the two main characters, the Durance sisters, Naomi and Sally. They are from "the bush" country of Australia. Naomi leaves the country farm to be a nurse in Sydney and Sally , also a nurse, stays at home to take care of their mother, who is dying of cervical cancer. She saves up a lethal dose of morphine to put her mother out of her misery. One day her sister Naomi comes to stay, and while Sally is asleep and Naomi is at her mother's bedside, their mother dies. Sally finds that her stash of morphine has disappeared and believes that Naomi has done the merciful thing, something she's ashamed to say that she wished she had the mental strength to do. This secret has a toll on their relationship but becomes a catalyst for a bond they never thought they could achieve. Naomi decides there is more to life than living and working in Sydney and signs up to become a volunteer nurse to minister to wounded Australian soldiers serving in Africa, Asia and Europe. Sally, unbeknownst to Naomi, does the same thing. As the narrative of the sisters proceeds, there is, of course, some "history" in the novel regarding the battles of WWI. The battle that christens the sisters into the misery of war is that of Gallipoli. Gallipoli is a big deal in Australia and is commemorated on April 25 of each year. It should be. Australia lost 8,700 men at Gallipoli. The sisters see the war action up close and personal. They see human bodies savaged by shells, bullets, shrapnel, trench foot, gangrene, mustard gas, typhoid, shell shock and influenza. "On a cot before them lay a man whose wound once unbandaged showed a face that was half steak and no eyes. The lack of features made his age impossible to guess."The sisters start out in Cairo and then are moved to a hospital "black ship" (a black out of all lights etc and the red cross gone) meaning it will be a hospital vessel once again once it drops troops at Gallipoli. But on their way there, the ship is torpedoed. This is a harrowing account. The ship is sinking and the girls as well as soldiers and fellow nurses cling to the remaining life boats. They hear "huge metal shrieks and thumps... within the ship and the unearthly lament of mules and ponies went on...A horse with bulging eyes came swimming up, the sort they might use to pull a canon." Keneally describes the wounded and those that just gave up and dropped into the sea.The girls are sent to the Greek island of Lemnos and are treated not as Florence Nightingales but as sub par medical cleaning ladies and to sexual harassment and subjugation. As Naomi says, "They'll never be able to print the story of the sinking ship because we weren't hysterical enough." Even with the larger picture of the war looming, Keneally does offer a picture into the private lives of our sisters and their fellow nurses. He tries to show that even in these trying times there is a need for humanity and love. There are furtive kisses and fumbling, love gained and in war, love lost.Keneally's primary sources for the novel were the wartime journals of the Australian nurses, unearthed in state archives. He also tried to add authenticity to his writing by writing in a style reminiscent of the time. He says in his Author's Note, "The punctuation used in this narrative might seem occasionally eccentric, but is designed to honor that of the forgotten private journals of the Great War, written by men and women who frequently favored dashed rather than commas." It does take awhile to get used to but once you're into the story, it becomes a part of the narrative. Everything in this novel, as the reviewer from NPR says, "lives and breathes with marvelous intensity". As Naomi takes her sister by the chin and commands Sally, she says, "There are only two choices, you know. Either die or live well. We live on behalf of thousands who don't. Millions. So let's not mope about it, eh?"Keneally plays with few literary effects except for the final chapter. There he offers us alternate postwar futures for the sisters. That I didn't like. For such a straightforward book about the bonds of sisterhood, the carnage of war, the simple determination to live or die just didn't seem right to me. The only thing I can think of is that wars are full of ambiguities and vagaries. What allowed some to live and others die?

Naomi and Sally Durance are sisters from the Macleay district of NSW, both working as nurses at the outbreak of WWI. Naomi had taken herself off to work at a big hospital in Sydney while Sally stayed home with her parents and nursed at the local District hospital. They both volunteer as military nurses at the start of the war and are sent out to Egypt to nurse on the hospital ships transporting the wounded from the Dardanelles.The book is wonderfully descriptive of the conditions the nurses and doctors had to work under and the author has obviously fully researched the standard of medicine available at the time. The drugs and surgical techniques were very limited and basic resulting in the inability of the medical staff to save the most critically wounded patients. That many patients were treated and stabilised enough to be shipped home was a credit to the bravery and professionalism of the medical staff. It must have been extremely traumatic for the young nurses and doctors to suddenly be thrust into the horrific injuries and terrible deaths that many of their patients suffered and yet I didn't get much of a sense of that in the book. That the nurses were stressed was clear; always tired, they lost weight and ceased menstruating and many of them lost their bubbly personalities but they continued to work tirelessly to care for their charges. I can't help feeling that there must have been some who struggled and broke down under the stress and workload.Following the withdrawal from the Dardanelles the nurses were sent on to France. Sally eventually to a clearing post a few hours from the front which served to administer acute care so the wounded could then be moved to hospital. Naomi elected to help set up a voluntary hospital by the wealthy wife of an English Viscount. Here for the first time they encounter soldiers suffering from the after effects of gas and discover that there are yet more ways to die horribly. Yet despite all this the nurses are able to fall in love and occasionally get leave to visit London or Paris to see the sights and catch up with loved ones. Naomi and Sally find themselves gaining a better understanding of each other and becoming friends as well as sisters.Although the events of the war and the battles at Ypres and on the Somme are referred to, there is not much detail of the fighting as the novel is focused on the medical care of the wounded. This results in making the war seem a little remote even when the clearing station comes under fire itself later in the novel. Perhaps because of this remoteness I didn't really feel a strong connection with the characters. The narrative was great but there was a lack of tension and the story felt just a little flat. Nevertheless It was a very enjoyable saga. It put the events of WWI into perspective for me and gave me an idea what it would have been like to have worked in a military hospital at the time. There is also a wonderfully evoked shipwreck scene that felt entirely realistic. That the author offered two alternative endings to the book for the reader to choose between was also a nice touch.Just a word in warning that many readers have commented that they found the lack of speech marks in the novel very annoying. It didn't bother me at all and in fact I didn't even notice until it was pointed out. I always felt is was made quite clear who was speaking but if this is likely to annoy or distract you, you might prefer to try the audio version.

From the author of Schindler's Ark, a superb historical novel - more history than novel - in which Australian nurses from NSW and Victoria volunteer for duty in the military hospitals of WW1 Europe and North Africa.This book pulls no punches. It is not romanticised; the nurses get filthy, they get ill, some drown or are injured en route to Africa when their hospital ship is torpedoed.Much more than merely 'recommended reading': an experience of history brought to life, and death.

I found the book on one hand interesting (nurses at the front in WWI), on the other hand the characters aren't interesting at all. I couldn't relate to any of them, they all lack depth and emotions. The first part of he book is much more easier to read, the second part is definietely dragging its feet. The speech marks are completey missing, but one can get used to it pretty quickly.

SynopsisThe story is set during WWI and centres around two sisters Naomi and Sally - both nurses who volunteer to serve at the front. Part 1 of the book is set in Dardanelles where the sisters are tending to soldiers wounded at Gallipoli. Here, they form friendships and relationships which follow them through the remainder of the novel. During part 2, the sisters serve at different aid stations as part of the Western Front. The sisters share a guilty secret of an event that occurred before they enrolled, and this secret creates a tension in the girl's relationship, and is never far from their minds even amongst the chaos of tending to the wounded.My thoughtsI have mixed feelings about this book. On the plus side the descriptions of events, and emotions of those involved were so vivid and at times harrowing it almost felt as though I were there, living through the horrors of war. The character depictions of many of the key players were interesting and well written and I felt as though the author kept true to actual events rather than embellishing for the sake of a good story. As such I kept reading. On the downside, I found my attention frequently wandering and I just couldn't stay engrossed for long periods (this NEVER happens when I love a book!) - it therefore took me some time to get through. I'm also not a fan of alternate endings - I much prefer something more definite!Warning - this book does not use quotation marks to indicate speech. This didn't bother me, but I imagine it will irk some readers.

"The Daughters of Mars" is a powerful anti war novel by Tom Keneally. Against the backdrop of Gallipoli and the Western Front he tells of two dedicated and brave Australian nurses, their friends, acquaintances and their romances.

I normally don't read books about war because I can't bear the total unnecessary loss of life .I started this book with the view of just reading a few pages and then going on to something else. I could not put it down, I loved the women and their stories and I cried reading the end.We are so proud of the New Zealand and Australian nurses and I can't imagine how hard it would have been to return to life back home after the war.