As today is ANZAC Day I thought to write about the book that has been keeping me company for the past few weeks.  It is “The Daughters of Mars”, the 29^th novel by Thomas Keneally.  Probably best known for his book Schindler’s Ark, made into the movie Schindler’s List, Keneally sets this book in the First World War, on the hospital ships off Gallipoli, the medical facilities on Lemnos and off to the Western Front in war torn Europe.

I read it as a book a couple of years ago and enjoyed it, as much as you can enjoy a book about death and destruction.  This year it was nominated by our book club for the April discussion.  I decided to listen to as an audio book this time and found it was available on BorrowBox.

There are quite a few characters so it may be worthwhile noting their names and a few characteristics to avoid confusion, whichever way you choose to experience this book.

The story begins with two sisters.  Naomi, the older one, has escaped the dairy farm in northern NSW and is nursing in Sydney.  She appears confident and sophisticated compared to her younger sister Sally, who stayed on the farm with her parents and is a nurse in a country hospital.

Like most siblings they have their differences, but they find themselves on the same ship setting sail for Egypt.  Later, as their hospital ship hovers off Gallipoli, taking on board the wounded from that skirmish, I thought of my biological father who was wounded on the beach and taken by barge to such a hospital ship.  

Note: For those who don’t know me and think that having a father who experienced Gallipoli is an impossibility, I have written a blog called A is For Ancestry. My father was nearly 60 when I was born and was 22 when he enlisted in WWI. His experience at Gallipoli can be read in X Marks the Spot. In the blog I changed Bert’s name to Ted as some of his children (my half brothers and sisters) were alive at the time.

Anyway, I think it added to my fascination with the book to imagine Bert joking with the nurses as he followed the same route from Egypt to Gallipoli, then to Lemnos, Rouen and Amien.

One of the most riveting parts of the book is the episode where the Archimedes, a hospital ship, is torpedoed as it approaches the Dardanelles.  By now we have become acquainted with the various characters and their different personalities so that the drama of the ship sinking and their attempts to save themselves and others is heart stopping.

Keneally goes into considerable detail describing the wounds and methods of treatment the soldiers experienced. I find this fascinating and try to imagine myself as a WWI nurse. I really don’t think I would have the courage.  Their dedication in impossible circumstances with often limited training transformed them into a new version of their former selves.

There are romances, as you would expect, mostly low key and threatened with the constant fear of separation. They blossom with the background of war but also the novelty of exploring new places.

I won’t give away the ending except to say some reviewers find it awkward and unworkable. I disagree. What it does is distance the reader from their immersion in the book. Maybe it is necessary to come up for air after five years of dealing with the slaughter and mutilation of “the war to end all wars”.