Medium – Book
About the Book – In war-torn France, during the First World War, a nameless woman in nursing uniform is found with shrapnel wounds to the feet. All she knows is her name may be Stella Bain, that she is a nurse and that she can drive an ambulance. She also remembers that she has an obsessive need to get to the Admiralty in London. She works hard in Marne, before making her way to London, where she is ‘adopted’ by a kind doctor and his wife. Through working with the doctor, she begins to regain her memories, but finds that there are things that she is terrified of and is fleeing from.
My Thoughts – This book is billed as a cross between Downton Abbey, Atonement and something else altogether, and I would definitely agree. It has the drama of Downton, the underlying threat of Atonement alongside something very different and remarkable. The story is told in sections, which take place in different time periods and places. There are letters, court proceedings and actual pieces of prose, which break up the text and mean that it is told from many viewpoints. The plot has a number of twists and turns, including the revelation of the identity of Stella, which drives the book from the second half onwards.
Stella is an interesting character, who despite horrible circumstances, maintains a hardiness and solidity which is very attractive. She comes into contact with a number of very sympathetic characters, although I would knock half a star off for the treatment of some of these characters (for example, the doctor’s wife). Alongside the storyline, I really enjoyed the depiction of shell shock, and the author’s demonstration of how it did not just effect the male soldiers, but also the female nurses. This is a book I could see myself reading again, and recommending to others, which does not often happen with books that I read (usually, even the best ones are a one time thing and go to a charity shop or languish on a shelf).
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