What I’m Reading: The Fire by Night

I finished my audio book The Fire by Night by Teresa Messineo.  I picked this one as it was a WWII book and there are few WWII books that I listen to that I don’t enjoy.

I really liked the book.  It tells the story of two WWII nurses.  Each have an entirely different upbringing.  One gets stationed in Hawaii and the in Europe on the front lines working in a MASH unit.  Each nurse deals with unthinkable things.

I have relatives that were nurses in WWII.  I am so sad that they have all past away.  I wish I had known their stories.  Reading this book makes me wish it even more.  People often talk about regrets.  I don’t have many regrets but not knowing their stories is definitely a regret I have.

Here’s what Amazon had to say:
“A powerful and evocative debut novel about two American military nurses during World War II that illuminates the unsung heroism of women who risked their lives in the fight—a riveting saga of friendship, valor, sacrifice, and survival combining the grit and selflessness of Band of Brothers with the emotional resonance of The Nightingale.

In war-torn France, Jo McMahon, an Italian-Irish girl from the tenements of Brooklyn, tends to six seriously wounded soldiers in a makeshift medical unit. Enemy bombs have destroyed her hospital convoy, and now Jo singlehandedly struggles to keep her patients and herself alive in a cramped and freezing tent close to German troops. There is a growing tenderness between her and one of her patients, a Scottish officer, but Jo’s heart is seared by the pain of all she has lost and seen. Nearing her breaking point, she fights to hold on to joyful memories of the past, to the times she shared with her best friend, Kay, whom she met in nursing school.

Half a world away in the Pacific, Kay is trapped in a squalid Japanese POW camp in Manila, one of thousands of Allied men, women, and children whose fates rest in the hands of a sadistic enemy. Far from the familiar safety of the small Pennsylvania coal town of her childhood, Kay clings to memories of her happy days posted in Hawaii, and the handsome flyer who swept her off her feet in the weeks before Pearl Harbor. Surrounded by cruelty and death, Kay battles to maintain her sanity and save lives as best she can . . . and live to see her beloved friend Jo once more.

When the conflict at last comes to an end, Jo and Kay discover that to achieve their own peace, they must find their place—and the hope of love—in a world that’s forever changed. With rich, superbly researched detail, Teresa Messineo’s thrilling novel brings to life the pain and uncertainty of war and the sustaining power of love and friendship, and illuminates the lives of the women who risked everything to save others during a horrifying time.“

Amazon readers give the book 4.4 stars.  I think I’d agree.  I liked it.   As you all know I like books about WWII.  This one gave me a new perspective.  I’ve not read a book about the experiences of nurse on the front.  This is a debut novel.  I am looking forward to more from this author.