![]() Julia is joined on the ward by two other remarkable women. They’ve all been beaten down by life, by poverty, by the judgment of the Catholic Church, and by society’s expectations of a woman’s responsibility: ‘She doesn’t love him unless she gives him twelve.’ Mother of five at twenty-four, an underfed daughter of underfed generations… this flu had only tipped her over.’Īngered and saddened by the plight of her patients - too many pregnancies, not enough food - Julia is almost as exhausted as her charges. When one of her patients dies, Julia, completing the necessary paperwork, thinks to herself, ‘I’d have been tempted to put: Worn down to the bone. They’re mostly poor and young and all ill with the flu. She becomes almost the sole contact for women who are scared and suffering. As the other nurses fall prey to fever, Julia is thrust into leading the ward. ![]() ![]() Through our narrator Julia, a capable and kind nurse, we’re dropped into the day-to-day grind of the frontline workers in an overwhelmed city hospital. ![]() It’s suspenseful, exhilarating, and heartbreaking in equal measure. Almost all of the action in this historical novel takes place in one room over three days: a hospital ward for pregnant women afflicted with the Spanish flu in 1918 Dublin. ![]()
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