BAND OF SISTERS
by
New York Times Bestselling Author
Lauren Willig
Releasing March 2, 2021 from William Morrow
Pre-order
your hardback copy now!
A
group of young women from Smith College risk their lives in France at the
height of World War I in this sweeping novel based on a true story—a skillful
blend of Call the Midwife and The Alice Network—from New York Times bestselling
author Lauren Willig.
A
scholarship girl from Brooklyn, Kate Moran thought she found a place among
Smith’s Mayflower descendants, only to have her illusions dashed the summer
after graduation. When charismatic alumna Betsy Rutherford delivers a rousing
speech at the Smith College Club in April of 1917, looking for volunteers to
help French civilians decimated by the German war machine, Kate is too busy
earning her living to even think of taking up the call. But when her former
best friend Emmeline Van Alden reaches out and begs her to take the place of a
girl who had to drop out, Kate reluctantly agrees to join the new Smith College
Relief Unit.
Four
months later, Kate and seventeen other Smithies, including two trailblazing
female doctors, set sail for France. The volunteers are armed with money,
supplies, and good intentions—all of which immediately go astray. The chateau
that was to be their headquarters is a half-burnt ruin. The villagers they meet
are in desperate straits: women and children huddling in damp cellars, their
crops destroyed and their wells poisoned.
Despite
constant shelling from the Germans, French bureaucracy, and the threat of being
ousted by the British army, the Smith volunteers bring welcome aid—and hope—to
the region. But can they survive their own differences? As they cope with the
hardships and terrors of the war, Kate and her colleagues find themselves
navigating old rivalries and new betrayals which threaten the very existence of
the Unit.
With
the Germans threatening to break through the lines, can the Smith Unit pull
together and be truly a band of sisters?
About
the Author:
Lauren
Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty novels,
including The Summer Country, The Ashford Affair, and The English Wife, as well
as the RITA Award-winning Pink Carnation series. An alumna of Yale University,
she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a JD from Harvard Law
School. She lives in New York City with her husband, kindergartner, toddler,
and vast quantities of coffee.
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