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MWSA Review
None of Us the Same by Jeffrey K. Walker is a powerful look at how war affects not only its combat participants but also the medical personnel who tend to them and the families whose soldiers come back as a far different person than the one who left. Based on the author’s extensive research into World War I, the story alternates between a group of young Newfoundlanders and the Irish nurse who befriends and cares for them, both physically and emotionally. Since there are not many books written about Newfoundland’s and Ireland’s involvement in World War I, this novel adds depth and understanding to the era as well as to the awful cost of trench warfare and its effect on the bodies and minds of those who fought. Despite the horror, the book is engagingly written with beautiful detail. This is a must read if you are interested in WWI, nursing care, war tactics, post-traumatic stress, and coming of age novels.
Review by Betsy Beard (February 2022)
Author's Synopsis
Fiery Deirdre Brannigan had opinions on everything. She certainly hated the very idea of war in 1914. Childhood pals Jack Oakley and Will Parsons thought it a grand adventure with their friends. But the crushing weight of her guilty conscience pushes Deirdre to leave Ireland and land directly in the fray. Meanwhile the five friends from Newfoundland blithely enlist. After all, the war couldn’t possibly last very long…
They learn quickly how wrong they are and each is torn apart by the carnage in France.
What began with enthusiastic dreams of parades and dances with handsome young soldiers turned into long days and nights in the hospital wards desperately trying to save lives. And for the good and decent young men in fine new uniforms aching to prove themselves worthy on the field of battle, the horrors of war quickly descended.
But it is also the war which brings them together. Deirdre’s path crosses with Jack and Will when they’re brought to her field hospital the first day of the slaughter on the Somme. Their lives part, their journeys forward fraught with physical and emotional scars tossing them through unexpected and often painful twists and turns. But somehow, a sliver of hope, love and redemption emerges. And their paths cross again in St. John’s.
When the guns finally fall silent, can Deirdre overcome her secret demons through a new life with battered Jack? Can shell-shocked Will confront his despotic father’s expectations to become the man his young family deserves?
ISBN/ASIN: B071F8ZBKR, 194710800X, 978-1947108004
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 285