The Daughters of Mars

Description

In 1915, two spirited Australian sisters join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father's dairy farm and carrying a guilty secret with them. Used to tending the sick as they are, nothing could have prepared them for what they confront, first in the Dardanelles, then on the Western Front. Yet they find courage in the face of extreme danger and become the friends they never were before. And eventually they meet the kind of men worth giving up their precious independence for - if only they all survive. At once epic in scope and extraordinarily intimate, The Daughters of Mars brings the First World War to vivid life from an unusual perspective. Profoundly moving, it pays tribute to the men and women who voluntarily risked their lives for peace.

Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty novels since. They include Schindler's Ark, which won the Booker Prize in 1982 and was subsequently made into the film Schindler's List, and The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith, Confederates and Gossip From The Forest, each of which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most recent novels are The Daughters Of Mars, which was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2013, and Shame and the Captives. He has also written several works of non-fiction, including his memoir Homebush Boy, Searching for Schindler and Australians. He is married with two daughters and lives in Sydney.

'Superbly involving' * Catherine Taylor, Books of the Year, Sunday Telegraph * Over and over again, a brief but brilliant phrase turns a statistic into a real person and wrings compassion from you. * Jake Kerridge, Sunday Express * 'Triumphant: this epic saga is one of the best things he has written' * Michael Prodger, Financial Times * 'May be the best novel of his career: a book that aims for, and achieves, real grandeur' * James Walton, Books of the Year, Spectator * Along with a Tolstoyan ability to describe the horrors of battle, this amazing book also has an extraordinary intimacy...an altogether towering achievement. * AN Wilson, Readers Digest * 'A tour de force of storytelling that is both epic and intimate, experimental and traditional.' * James Kidd, Books of the Year, Independent on Sunday * Superbly exciting...unmissable, unforgettable. * Kate Saunders, The Times *