The orphan gunner
By: Sara Knox
Publisher: Giramondo
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Artarmon, N.S.W
Language: eng
Number of pages: 374
ISBN-13: 9781920882280
Subjects: Friendship; Fiction; World War, 1939-1945
Description: The Orphan Gunner is a romance between two young Australian women, set in Lincolnshire during the Second World War. Evelyn is one of the few female pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary. Her friend Olive enlists in the Womens Auxiliary Air Force. When Evelyn disguises herself as her brother in order to save him from almost certain death as a gunner, the substitution leads to Evelyn's own death, but it also brings out the growing intimacy between the two women. This is a novel that explores the seductions of passing, the licence granted by risk, and the selflessness and selfishness of sacrifice.