title: Journey into Darkness
author: Brand, Dell
description: Kit Markham’s world turns upside down when Jack, the boy she always believed she would marry, turns out to be her half-brother. At sixteen, feisty and headstrong, she leaves her home in Melbourne and flees to England. The year is 1855. Though unsure of where life will lead, she is determined to stay away long enough to regain control over her future and leave her feelings for Jack behind. The Crimean War is drawing to a close in Europe and nurses are needed on the hospital ships bringing the wounded back to Britain. Kit volunteers and meets a young Canadian who was severely wounded outside Sebastopol. After caring for him she realises a calling to train as a doctor and travels to America. As a young woman seeking a place in a man’s world, she encounters both opposition and setbacks to her plan and must draw on her strength and resilience to survive. Kit marries Ned and finds she must step outside the accepted role of a doctor’s wife and mother to his children to follow him onto the battlefields of the American Civil War. Further opposition both from her family and from authorities accompanies this decision and Kit is challenged to remain focussed on what she believes is important. Jack re-enters her life, muddying her resolve even more. Ultimately she must decide what it is that will grant her the fulfilment she seeks and make her truly happy.