Women, Medicine, World War I

In many ways, this novel reminded me of Kate Morton, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Both authors are from Australia, and both use the dual narrative set up for their novels, focusing on relationships between women and mothers and daughters. Technically, Iris is Grace’s grandmother but since Rose died during childbirth, she raised her as her own. The biggest difference is that to me, MacColl’s novel didn’t have the same page turner quality to it as Morton’s novel. That doesn’t mean this wasn’t a fairly readable novel, but I didn’t have that same need to find out what happened and how it all fit together. Morton’s novels come with a mystery or a twist, and usually the catalyst is someone from a younger generation discovering something odd or mysterious about the past and deciding to dig into it – as a result, it’s easy to get invested as a reader and keep reading till everything is revealed. In comparison, this felt more like Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, revolving around an elderly woman’s memories as she faces her death.

http://notesfromtheofficersclub.blogspot.com/2014/03/book-21-in-falling-snow.html