Our final novel for 2014 was The Daughters of Mars, by Thomas Keneally. Thomas Keneally is an accomplished writer, and, this, his 29th novel continues his high standard. Again, he takes up the theme of war, and focusses the action on the nursing careers of Sally and Naomi Durrance, two Australian sisters, who attend the wounded, firstly in a hospital ship, later on Lemnos Island, and finally at the Western front. Keneally's mastery of technical detail never falters in his description of the horrific injuries suffered by soldiers from shelling and gas, and makes it clear that these were the side effects of war that authorities preferred to keep hidden from those at home. Love stories there are, but these are subsumed by the insistent message that, far from being glorious, war is dreadful and futile and survival is a chance thing.
NB We have vacancies for four new members in 2015