My mother went back to school for her PhD in Anatomy when I was a pre-teen. During the summers of my high school years I worked with her in her lab, and let me tell you, you see your mother in a new light when you see her dissect a rat. Though I didn’t go into medicine, anyone raised in our household learned an impressive amount of biology just sitting around the dinner table. Consequently, I’ve always loved fiction with a medical bent. My mother was also the one to introduce me to historical fiction, so perhaps I was fated to write a historical novel with a nurse protagonist.
Lillian Dolan is optimistic about her new job at the New York Cancer Hospital after dreaming for years of becoming a nurse. But she struggles to fit in, so when the confident surgeon Dr. Bauer takes a shine to Lillian, she is thrilled to be noticed.
Lillian has been warned not to get too close to the patients, but Mrs. Sokolova draws her in. When Mrs. Sokolova’s situation becomes dire, however, she puts Lillian in an impossible situation – all while the young nurse slowly loses control of her relationship with Dr. Bauer. Her decision to help her patient throws her life into chaos, and she must make a terrible choice: capitulate to Dr. Bauer’s demands or face possible arrest.
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In this two-timeline story set in New York City, a nurse at the quarantine station on Ellis Island in 1911 is connected to the wife of a 9/11 Twin Towers victim through a beautiful scarf that survives through the decades. The Triangle Shirtwaist factory disaster also figures into this story, so there is so much to learn here – including the need for nurses to scrub the scales off the skin of patients recovering from scarlet fever! Yikes.
Two sisters from Baltimore volunteer for WWI, one as a nurse, one as an ambulance driver. Though this isn’t a romance, each find love amid the gruesome reality of war – one with a doctor, one with another (female) ambulance driver. The sheer number of amputations will leave your head spinning.
In a 1918 Irish hospital, a nurse for mothers-to-be is in quarantine for three days due to a contagious flu. Nurse Power, together with a rebellious doctor and a young volunteer, struggle to make it through, birthing babies while trying to keep all their patients alive without knowing what virus they are battling. Donoghue is always a treat to read, and the story is a solemn reminder that the 21st century didn’t invent pandemics.
A dual-time story written by a Vanderbilt undergraduate (!), this is the story of a nurse at the Coney Island incubator “exhibit” where premature babies were brought because hospitals did not want to invest in this new technology (yes, this really happened). In 1926, Nurse Anderson takes a failing baby there with intentions of returning it to the parents, and a special education teacher in the 1950s has a connection to that fateful decision. Another fascinating piece of history that is not well known.
Based on a real-life WWI nurse, this novel is about Julia Stimson who supervised dozens of British nurses in Rouen, France. Horrific battle injuries and a deadly influenza that infiltrates their camp put Julia to the test, all while she tries to advocate for her nursing staff and navigate the egos of some of the male doctors. But when one doctor falls for her, she must decide how this relationship squares with her career aspirations. This book is a wonderful way to learn about this amazing woman who wants to put her career first.
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We think you will like Nothing But Blue Sky, Life Sentences, and Milkman if you like this list.
From Anne's list on Irish books by Irish authors I like to rave about.
David has lost his wife far too early. A man in mourning, he relives their twenty years together and sees that the ground beneath them had shifted and he had simply not noticed, or was it more that he had chosen not to. The writing here is spectacular and the theme of love and loss so very moving. Set between Ireland and Spain, McMahon captures the sublime and mundane nature of long-term love with exceptional skill. Another reason I like this book is that in my debut novel, my main character Maurice Hannigan, while very different from David, was also a widower, and naturally, the issue of loss figured heavily so I feel a bond to this book that is very special.
From Anne's list on Irish books by Irish authors I like to rave about.
Set over three generations of the one family, this is the story of their fight for survival. What I love here is not just the prose, because there is no one finer than O’Callaghan, but also because it touches on the depopulation of Ireland’s small islands during the famine and the small island to which he refers has a very significant family connection for me. Partly based on O’Callaghan’s own family, Life Sentences tells an epic story of working-class life in Ireland from famine right through to modern-day. It is an unforgettable tale of love, abandonment, and reconciliation.
From Anne's list on Irish books by Irish authors I like to rave about.
Anna Burns won the booker for this novel and rightly so. Burn plays with the norms of novel writing both in the unique voice she uses and in not giving any of her characters' names. It takes a page or two to get there but when you do it is a treat. We meet Middle Sister who is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her Maybe-Boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. Set in Belfast, this is a fabulous book, exploring teenage inhibition in the backdrop of troubles. It is funny and sad and captures the quirks and cruelties of growing up in a divided community.