Based on a true story, Catherine transforms her house into a military hospital per her late husband’s wish during WWI. It is 1915 outside London, as her house changes its status. Her servants leave her but two people, young boy and an old gardener. Once the house fills with suffering men she has a hard time coping with this. But unexpectedly she finds solace in the company of one wounded soldier.

I do not like the style of writing of this author. The story is boring. The descriptions are boring and drawn out. For example, when Dr. McCleary comes out of retirement to tend wounded soldiers at Catherine’s estate, he lacks experience in maxillofacial surgery. Then she goes on and on with her boring explanation of maxillofacial surgery or lack of experience of it. Or details of interior are quite tedious: “Stone walls and glass had cracked; steams had clouded with silt.” Her creative prose is rather annoying: “The mirrors were the lakes in the landscape of this house. (…) The mirrors (…) age (…) evidence of time’s poisonous breath. (…) Shattering noise, crisp as china breaking.”

You can as well read an encyclopedia. This is such a dreadful read.

@FB: Best Historical Fiction

US: Terry Adams

Unsatisfying.

This had to have been one of the worst books I have ever read. There were 6 characters and none of them were developed to my satisfaction. If she would have just taken one or two and developed them, it would have been great. The plot - WWl at a hospital where the Drs. were trying to save the faces of patients - is a good plot, but it never went anywhere. Even the ending was lacking. I wanted to quit in the middle, but I always try to finish what I start, so I did. Learning about WWl and the plastic surgery that was starting is compelling, but this book lacked depth.

Set in England during WW I, when an estate is turned into a hospital after the young woman's husband is killed in the war. It was interesting, but left something missing for me

"Spring 1915. On a sprawling country estate not far from London a young woman
mourns her husband, fallen on a distant battlefield…

The eerie stillness in which she grieves is shattered as her home is transformed into a bustling military hospital. Unsettled by the intrusion of the suffering soldiers, the increasingly fragile widow finds unexpected solace in the company of a wounded officer whose mutilated face, concealed by bandages, she cannot see. But then their affair takes an unexpected turn. Fate presents her with an opportunity: to remake her lover – with the unwitting help of a visionary surgeon and a woman artist – in the image of her lost husband..."

I was sent this book for review a while back but it was only last week that I had the opportunity to read it. I must say I enjoyed a lot, much more than I thought I would. It's not a book to read in one sitting but something to savour slowly, to appreciate Shields fine writing and interesting medical descriptions.

There are several themes going through the story. The damage inflicted by war ( the book is set during WWI), both physically and emotionally. The importance of the face as a reference of someone's identity and how victims of war wounds to the face are avoided while victims of other wounds are hailed as heroes. How similar situations can reflect differently on two different women - Anna becomes determined and decided to do what she can to help, Catherine wants to believe the sad truth is an illusion going as far as to try and make her wishes a reality.

The story opens with Catherine becoming a widow and her house being transformed in an hospital for patients with severe head injuries. Dr. McCleary and his staff, including a dentist turned surgeon called Kazanjian, try to develop new techniques to heal the men and give them hope of regaining at least a semblance of humanity so they can go back to their families and their lives. Helping on a different level is Anna Coleman, she draws the patients intending to make them masks that will cover their wounds and allow them to go about unnoticed.

One of the patients that Anna draws is Julian, a young man with a terrible head wound who is still trying to come to terms with what he has lost. He captures Catherine's attention when she first confuses him with her dead husband Charles. Confusing her feelings for Julian and for Charles, Catherine starts a relationship with him and starts aiding Anna in her studio. Eventually, knowing the masks will be made with a likeness to old photos of the soldiers she can't resist trying to merge her feelings and changes Julian photo with one of Charles so that his mask (and him in end) will look like Charles.

I found it fascinating to read about all these characters and their feelings. How damaged people are in times of war even when they stay behind. We have glimpses of their past lives but mostly it remains a mystery and it's what they are living currently that really is important and makes the story. Staff and patients are closed in a small community with almost no interference from the outside and their interactions bring to life the horrors of war and the advance of medical techniques which, not matter how sophisticated, will be unable to restore the soldiers to what they were before.

There's a note at the end mentioning that Anna Coleman and Kazanjian were real people and I've been reading more about them online and thinking they did an amazing work.

Recommended!

Didn't get past the first few pages before other books appeared. Abandoned, to be picked up again someday

In the midst of the First World War, a widow is forced to open her estate home to doctors and the wounded, turning her life into a hospital ward.

Catherine has lost her husband to the war and will not admit it to herself that he is gone. Alone in her large estate, she reluctantly allows it to be turned over for the use of a hospital. The patients are specific though, men who have facial wounds and are being treated by doctors who specialize in skin grafts and surgery to heal their broken faces. One wounded man is Julian, a mysterious individual who is placed out to become the recipient of a special face mask. An artist is brought in and the task of creating an astounding mask for those faced with facial injuries begins with Catherine helping. Though, as Catherine attends the artist, she also begins to find interest in Julian. While the concept of this story was interesting, especially that this dealt with facial injuries during a time where plastic surgery was just gaining ground, the story was so all over the place that it was hard to focus. Above anything, this novel was shown as a love story but it is anything close to being about love. Instead, the moment I turned my mind toward this being a horror novel, the more I gained from it. For Catherine is selfish and destructive in her desires toward Julian. Her actions create a monster in herself instead of turning Julian away from appearing monstrous to those around him because of his injury. The depravity extended to many characters, those who insisted they were helping others when really they were bringing destruction and pain. So while the setting is a hospital intent on healing, the broken nature of the characters only caused more turmoil. There was little connection with the characters and they each seemed to live in their own worlds as they ghosted through interactions with one another. There was little love in this novel and much more ravages of the heart.

Though this novel did offer a startling picture into a hospital during the First World War, it did not prove to have engaging enough characters or story to keep interest going.

Set in a country manor turned military hospital for soldiers who suffered disfiguring facial injuries in 1915 England. Pioneering doctors attempt to reconstruct faces (and lives). The lady of the house is a war-widow, rather enjoys her misery, falls in love with a patient, and petitions to reconstruct the patient's face to that of her husband.

Didn't finish, barely started,

It's 1915 and Catherine finds herself like one of many women, a young widow. Heartbroken and lost, she decides to honor her late husbands wishes to allow the troops to use their beautiful, sprawling mansion as a make-shift hospital. Little does she know how much her decision will change the rest of her life.

As she watches her home become an absence of her former life, she slowly finds herself grasping for comfort in the dream of her dead husband. As she begins to take part in helping at the hospital that was formerly her home, she sees a chance at literally being able to recreate her dead husband's image in a soldier who must undergo surgeries to restore his face.

She finds herself torn between making the choice that will forever change not only her life, but the life of Julian, a young soldier who is having his face reconstructed after losing it in battle. Will she make the right choice? And will she be able to live with the choice she's made?

Deep and intricate webs of deception begin to be woven as not only Catherine deals with her decision to betray the young man his right to recreating his own face again but as Anna, the artist who creates drawings of the soldiers, feels a sense of loneliness as her own husband is off in battle. Will Anna allow her feelings for a foreign doctor take her over or will she continue to try to ignore her feelings?

Secrets kept amongst themselves, the doctors all seem to have something to hide that creates an inner turmoil within each of them. As they triumph in huge leaps in the area of reconstructive surgery, an area formerly left untouched by 'modern medicine', they suffer huge setbacks as their minds are dealt with images of horror every day as they repair young soldiers from the front.

Shields creates characters of such depth that you realize you may never complete unpeeling their layers as you find more and more out about them throughout the novel. As your heart aches for all involved, you will find yourself questioning how strong you could be in a situation similar and learn to love each and every one of the characters, despite their flaws.

An excellent story line that reads so easily you will find you've finished reading long before you're ready to close the book. With characters of such depth and reality you will continue to wonder where they went with their lives even after you close the pages. Absolutely awesome! You will want more!

a book club selection disliked by all.