The Wartime Sisters
Fiction
St. Martin's Press
January 22, 2019
Advanced reader copy
304
Free from publisher
The next powerful novel from the author of The Two-Family House, about two sisters working in a WWII armory, each with a deep secret. Two estranged sisters, raised in Brooklyn and each burdened with her own shocking secret, are reunited at the Springfield Armory in the early days of WWII. While one sister lives in relative ease on the bucolic Armory campus as an officer’s wife, the other arrives as a war widow and takes a position in the Armory factories as a “soldier of production.” Resentment festers between the two, and secrets are shattered when a mysterious figure from the past reemerges in their lives.
I was a huge fan of this author's last book (The Two Family House). I was so excited to pick this one up and it did not disappoint! I will caution readers going in expecting a story about WWII, that it is much more of a character driven story set during that time period. While there is mention of the war, and I loved the insight into the war munitions production facilities, this is more about the two sisters. We have insight into their early life, where one sister resents the other's beauty and opportunity. Then on the flip side, the sister with the comfortable lifestyle seems to have the upper hand later in life. Both sisters are keeping their own big secret, and they are an important turning point in the book when they are revealed! I thought the writing was crisp and the story flowed well, without lots of extraneous information thrown in. I also enjoyed the foray into the snotty officer's wife, who was not very welcoming to an outsider in her midst.
A well done character story about sisters who must learn to get past perceived transgressions to improve the quality of not only their relationship, but their lives.
I think that WWII has been explored so much as a topic that it is probably more interesting to read about characters during that time.