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When We Had Wings

A Novel

ebook
0 of 3 copies available
Wait time: About 20 weeks
0 of 3 copies available
Wait time: About 20 weeks

From three bestselling authors comes an interwoven tale about a trio of World War II nurses stationed in the South Pacific who wage their own battle for freedom and survival.

The Philippines, 1941. When U.S. Navy nurse Eleanor Lindstrom, U.S. Army nurse Penny Franklin, and Filipina nurse Lita Capel forge a friendship at the Army Navy Club in Manila, they believe they're living a paradise assignment. All three are seeking a way to escape their pasts, but soon the beauty and promise of their surroundings give way to the heavy mantle of war.

Caught in the crosshairs of a fight between the U.S. military and the Imperial Japanese Army for control of the Philippine Islands, the nurses are forced to serve under combat conditions and, ultimately, endure captivity as the first female prisoners of the Second World War. As their resiliency is tested in the face of squalid living arrangements, food shortages, and the enemy's blatant disregard for the articles of the Geneva Convention, the women strive to keep their hope— and their fellow inmates—alive, though not without great cost.

In this sweeping story based on the true experiences of nurses dubbed "the Angels of Bataan," three women shift in and out of each other's lives through the darkest days of the war, buoyed by their unwavering friendship and distant dreams of liberation.

"A novel rich in historical detail that immerses readers in the dangers and deprivation WWII nurses suffered in the Pacific, wrapped up with a hopeful ending." -Booklist

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 29, 2022
      Lawhon (Code Name Hélène), McMorris (The Edge of Lost), and Meissner (The Nature of Fragile Things) team up for an illuminating story of the nurses stationed in the Philippines during WWII. Minnesotan Eleanor Lindstrom becomes a nurse to move on from a broken heart; Penny Franklin flees a tragic personal life in Texas; and Filipina Lita Capel hopes to use the job to gain entrée into the U.S., like her older sisters. The three become friends in the Army Navy Club in Manila in August 1941, an idyllic time until their lives are upturned by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The authors ably depict the stark shift in the women’s work during wartime and convey how their friendship continues to inspire them to prevail when faced with hardships after they are separated—Eleanor to Santa Scholastica College, Penny to Corregidor Island, and Lita to the Bataan Peninsula. The atrocities—including starvation and subsistence living—pile up, not only for soldiers but also for the nurses and the civilians turned internees. Though the three women’s personalities seem interchangeable, the authors pull off a gripping and seamless narrative. With this fine tale, the authors succeed at bringing to readers’ minds the courage and sacrifice of those who inspired it. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Book Group.

    • Booklist

      October 1, 2022
      Three superstars of historical fiction team up to tell the story of the Angels of Bataan, nurses in and around the armed forces in the Philippines during WWII. Eleanor Lindstrom leaves her parents' Minnesota dairy farm for life in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. When stationed in Manila, she meets Penny Franklin, an army nurse, and Lita Capel, who has a Filipina mother and American father and also works as a nurse near the base. The three become fast friends, bonding over cocktails in paradise. But everything changes when the Japanese attack. They are separated by their duties, and the horrors of war take them from military bases and local hospitals to internment camps and prisons. Though they are mostly apart, they face similar hardships: malaria, dwindling medical supplies, and harsh treatment from the Japanese, who have apparently never encountered women serving in war before. Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner have crafted a novel rich in historical detail that immerses readers in the dangers and deprivation WWII nurses suffered in the Pacific, wrapped up with a hopeful ending.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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