Daughters of Mars (Keneally)

The Daughters of Mars 
Thomas Keneally, 2013
Atria Books
528 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781476734613


Summary
New York Times, Editor's Choice

From the acclaimed author of Schindler’s List comes the epic, unforgettable story of two sisters whose lives are transformed by the cataclysm of the First World War.

IN 1915, Naomi and Sally Durance, two spirited Australian sisters, join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father’s farm and carrying a guilty secret with them. Though they are used to tending the sick, nothing could have prepared them for what they confront, first on a hospital ship near Gallipoli, then on the Western Front.

Yet amid the carnage, the sisters become the friends they never were at home and find them­selves courageous in the face of extreme danger and also the hostility from some on their own side. There is great bravery, humor, and compassion, too, and the inspiring example of the remarkable women they serve alongside. In France, where Naomi nurses in a hospital set up by the eccen­tric Lady Tarlton while Sally works in a casualty clearing station, each meets an exceptional man: the kind of men for whom they might give up some of their newfound independence—if only they all survive.

At once vast in scope and extraordinarily intimate, The Daughters of Mars brings World War I vividly to life from an uncommon perspec­tive. Thomas Keneally has written a remarkable novel about suffering and transcendence, despair and triumph, and the simple acts of decency that make us human even in a world gone mad. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—October, 7 1935
• Where—Sydney, Australia
• Education—St. Patrick's College, Strathfield
• Awards—Man-Booker Prize
• Currently—


Thomas Michael Keneally, AO  is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982 which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. The book would later be adapted to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Born in Sydney, Keneally was educated at St. Patrick's College, Strathfield. Subsequently, a writing prize there has been named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest. Although he was ordained as a deacon while at the seminary he left without being ordained to the priesthood. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist and was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.

Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the award-winning Fred Schepisi film The Devil's Playground (1976). More recently he featured as a writer in the critically acclaimed Australian drama Our Sunburnt Country.

In 1983 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.

Keneally was a visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine, where he taught the graduate fiction workshop for one quarter in 1985. He taught, again, at UCI, from 1991-1995, this time as a visiting professor in the writing program.

In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's biography Lincoln to President Barack Obama as a state gift.

The Tom Keneally Centre opened in August 2011 at the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, housing Keneally's books and memorabilia. The site is used for book launches, readings and writing classes.

Schindler's Ark (Schindler's List)
Keneally wrote the Booker Prize-winning novel in 1982, inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. In 1980 Pfefferberg met Keneally in his shop, and learning that he was a novelist, showed him his extensive files on Oskar Schindler. Keneally was interested, and Pfefferberg became an advisor for the book, accompanying Keneally to Poland where they visited Krakow and the sites associated with the Schindler story.

Keneally dedicated Schindler's Ark to Pfefferberg: "who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written." He said in an interview in 2007 that what attracted him to Oskar Schindler was that "it was the fact that you couldn't say where opportunism ended and altruism began. And I like the subversive fact that the spirit breatheth where it will. That is, that good will emerged from the most unlikely places."

The book was later made into a film titled Schindler's List (1993) directed by Steven Spielberg, earning the director his first Best Director Oscar. Keneally's meeting with Pfefferberg and their research tours are detailed in Searching for Schindler: A Memoir (2007). Some of the Pfefferberg documents that inspired Keneally are now housed in the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney. In 1996 the State Library purchased this material from a private collector. In April 2009 a copy of the list (including 801 names) was found in the documentation Thomas Keneally used as research material for his novel. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/27/2013.)

Book Reviews
Poignant...masterly...epic.... [Keneally] has rescued forgotten heroines from obscurity and briefly placed them center stage.
New York Times Book Review


A burly, captivating saga of Australian nurses on the front lines of World War I.... Inscribed with the stately, benign authority of an eminent tale-spinner.
Wall Street Journal


An epic, sweeping book.
LA Times


Magnificent… a stunning performance, full of suspense, searing particulars, and deep emotion.... The huge talents of Thomas Keneally are everywhere on display.
Guardian (UK)


The Daughters of Mars is the work of a master storyteller, sharing a tale that is simultaneously sprawling and intimate.
NPR


May be the best novel of Keneally’s career...a book that aims for, and achieves, real grandeur.
Spectator (UK)


Superbly exciting to read.... An unmissable, unforgettable tribute.
London Times


Not only is The Daughters of Mars one of the most ambitious novels in a career that stretches back to 1964, but it might even be the best… The result is something few other authors would aim for, let alone achieve: genuine grandeur.
Telegraph (UK)


A big and brutal book, a new prism through which to think about World War I...breathtaking...magnificent and almost magical.  There are moments of joy, of pleasure, that make you look up from their page for a while to arrest and savour their sensation.
Australian


The horrific butcher’s bill of WWI trench fighting, which took a toll not only on the wounded soldiers but on the doctors and nurses who tended to them, is at the heart of this moving epic novel from the author of Schindler’s List. The story is told through the experiences of two sisters, Sally and Naomi Durance, both nurses.... By again using individuals to humanize a larger story, Keneally succeeds in conveying the experience to his readers in a manageable way.
Publishers Weekly


Australian sisters Naomi and Sally Durance volunteer as nurses at the beginning of World War I.... [T]heir service is a testament to the scope of war, as the number and nature of casualties they treat range from shrapnel and bayonet wounds to gassing, trench foot, shell shock, and finally the Spanish flu. Along the way we meet an unforgettable cast of supporting characters.... Highly recommended. —Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Library Journal


Sally and Naomi Dorrance, grown sisters, aren’t particularly close. Personality ­differences nudge them apart.... Their world is opened drastically as they volunteer as nurses during WWI.... Their ship is torpedoed off the Greek islands, and the sisters’ survival of a sinking ship is perhaps the most compelling—and longest—scene in this lengthy novel.... [I]n the end, it is their nursing experiences, their having to face countless horrors of loss of life and limb, that become the true meaning of their sisterly bond. —Brad Hooper
Booklist


[A] Winds of War–like epic.... Naomi and Sally Durance are two sisters who join the Nursing Corps in 1915 and sail off to Gallipoli, where they witness terrible things... [O]n arriving at the Western Front....they discover "a dimension of barbarity that had not existed on Gallipoli...," namely the terror of gas warfare.... Keneally is a master of character development and period detail, and there are no false notes there.... [Fans will find] much to admire in Keneally's fast-moving, flawlessly written pages.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. In writing The Daughters of Mars, Thomas Keneally drew inspiration from actual wartime diaries, historical hospitals, and real hospital ships. How does the novel reflect the author’s diligent research? Which scenes and characters feel especially life-like?

2. Consider the differences between Naomi and Sally Durance at the beginning of the novel. Why has Naomi left home, and why has Sally stayed? What feelings does each sister seem to have for the other? What causes their relationship to strengthen?

3. Consider the impact of their mother’s death on the Durance sisters. How do they express their grief differently? Were you surprised when Naomi contradicted Sally’s version of their mother’s death at the end of the novel? Why or why not?

4. The Daughters of Mars focuses on Naomi and Sally’s experiences, but it also features colorful secondary characters, including brash benefactors, stern hospital matrons, thoughtful doctors, rude orderlies, and nurses of all dispositions. Who was your favorite character of the novel, excluding Sally and Naomi, and why?

5. Revisit the nurses’ first experience of battle: treating soldiers from Gallipoli on the Archimedes. How do Sally, Naomi, Freud, Honora, and Elsie react to the first rush of patients? Which of the nurses seems energized by their nursing duties, and which are overwhelmed?

6. Consider the traumas of battle that the Durance sisters experience, from hearing the bombings of the Dardanelles at a distance to aerial attacks in the French countryside. Which of these scenes conveys the sights, sounds, and feelings of war most effectively? Explain your answer.

7. Aborad the Archimedes, Ian Kiernan comments on Naomi’s last name, Durance: “I think that’s a pretty fine name, he said. I mean, if you put an ‘en’ in front of it, you have one of the most flattering of words” (88). Consider the signs of endurance in Naomi. What traumas can she endure, and when does her strength falter? Why does Kiernan admire her enduring spirit?

8. Naomi tells Sally, “Our cold hearts are what we inherited. That’s not to blame Mama and Papa” (122). Why do Naomi and Sally believe they have “cold hearts?” When does each sister begin to realize that she has another warmer and more vulnerable side after all?

9. As Naomi takes charge of the rescue raft after the sinking of the Archimedes, Sally observes, “Naomi was in the water but superior to it…. It was a grateful wonder. It was a light shining through ice” (151). Revisit Naomi’s heroism during the disastrous events in the Aegean Sea. Which of her actions, gestures, and attitudes helped the soldiers, doctors, and nurses of the raft survive?

10. Consider the challenges that the nurses face on the island of Lemnos, after the Archimedes sinks. Why does the hospital administration treat the shipwrecked nurses differently? Which nurses suffer the most during their stay on the island? How do Naomi and Sally react to the persecution of their companions?

11. As they are leaving Lemnos, Naomi and Sally take stock of their strengths in the war–Sally notes Naomi’s courage, while Naomi praises Sally’s “calmness and valour” (218-219). What evidence of these characteristics has each sister displayed? What weaknesses go hand-in-hand with their strength?

12. Consider the character of Lady Tarlton, who single-handedly founds the Australian voluntary hospital in Boulogne. In what ways is she a victim of her social station? How do gossip and convention hinder her?

13. Naomi remarks that the war has acted as “a machine to make us true sisters” (331). Consider how Naomi and Sally’s relationship evolves during the long years of the war. When do they seem closest? What keeps them apart? When can they finally be considered “true sisters”?

14. The Daughters of Mars has an unconventional double ending, narrating Charlie Condon’s art opening from two perspectives: with Sally as a survivor of the flu epidemic, then with Naomi. What does this dual ending add to the novel? How do the Durance sisters remain connected, even in death? - See more at:
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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