Prolific author and historian Lauren Willig (The English Wife; the Pink Carnation series) "smelled drama" when she read about Smith College alumnae who volunteered to aid civilian victims in World War I France. Band of Sisters, based on letters from these 18 women, pays faithful homage to their bravery as well as their friendship.
"It was like college again--college with the threat of impending destruction, that was," Kate Moran thought as the Smith College Relief Unit left a war-weary Paris for the rubble of the French countryside and their assigned village, Grécourt. Memories of July's festive dockside sendoff in New York had faded as fast as their smart gray uniforms soiled in the mud. With Kate and her former roommate Emmie Van Alden as the novel's lead protagonists, the women's talents and personalities emerge. They contend with shortages, illness, weather and German shells, but as their planned six-month stay continues, their stamina grows. Reminders of kinder times lighten the circumstances--they banter, quote poetry, savor letters from home--as they come to understand and rely on each other. Brief respites come from British and Canadian soldiers who offer camaraderie and become dancing partners for makeshift social events.
By March, and the German advance, they're shepherding refugees while defying orders to evacuate, because "they were the Smith Unit and they were here, and that was what they did." A harrowing denouement leads to a postwar epilogue, a well-deserved farewell to the brave "Smithies." --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.