When Tsar Nicholas
recruits medical students for the Crimean War, Audrey thinks he’s
finally gotten lucky. He’s hungry and this job promises food, but
the promise doesn’t hold up. When Audrey finds himself en-route to the
Crimean War, he’s cold, more hungry than ever, his clothes are
threadbare, and he has no idea why he agreed to go to war as a
surgeon.
In the Crimea in
1854, Audrey encounters horrors that threaten to unhinge his mind.
Soldiers are dying from wounds he can’t repair. Amputations are
done with no anesthetic. He’s so tired he’s afraid of killing his
patients.
When the war ends,
he just wants to get away from people, including Maria, a nurse he
met in the Crimea. It takes a long time, but Audrey begins to come
back and find a calling in helping people.
This is Jane
Marlow’s second book about Russia in the 1800s. She does an
excellent job showing what conditions were like. In fact, the writing
is so realistic that the book is hard to read at times. Conditions in
the Crimea were brutal and Marlow doesn’t sugar-coat the
description.
I enjoyed the book
and would recommend it to anyone interested in Russia in the 1800s.
It’s not always an easy book to read. Living through the horrors with Audrey can be hard to take. However,
the history is well done and presents a thoughtful picture of the
savagery
of war.
I received this book
from PR by the Book for this review.
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