In Falling Snow: A Novel
This satisfying saga from an award-winning Australian author takes the reader across continents and time. After her 15-year-old brother goes off to fight in the Great War, Iris Crane journeys to France with the intention of bringing him home. Soon after she arrives, however, Iris, who is a trained nurse, is persuaded to join the staff of a military hospital set up in the French abbey of Royaumont. All who work there, from doctors to drivers, are women. The hospital at Royaumont really existed; it was part of the efforts of the Scottish Women’s Suffrage Federation to give women’s medical units a chance to serve on the Western Front. Back in Australia 60 years later, Iris considers whether to attend a Royaumont commemoration, and her granddaughter, Grace, struggles to balance family and career. Grace makes missteps in her work as an obstetrician while simultaneously trying to ignore the fact that there might be something wrong with her son. Women as healers, family secrets, medical mysteries, historical setting—call the producers of Call the Midwife. --Mary Ellen Quinn