Thomas Keneally - The Daughters of Mars

Ah, he said, you’re free!

Naomi and Lady Tarlton argued them into it, Ian said. Once there was peace, there was even less sense in keeping us shut up anyhow.

I have a confession to make, said Charlie to Naomi. The sight of her renewed his spasm of loss. I hope it doesn’t offend you. I have a girlfriend here.

Well, of course you have a girl, said Naomi.

I think she understands—unjust as it might be to her—there would never be anyone… Well, you know.

Sally never grasped her own value, said Naomi. And neither did I. Not sufficiently.

They all stood looking at each other, knowing that the most important matters had been broached. Now, said Charlie, I have to forbid you from buying one of these canvasses. Your being here is enough honor.

Dear fellow, said Ian Kiernan, laughing, Naomi does what she wants, didn’t you know?

He had a sudden duty to introduce them to Estelle. Half turning, he called her name across the room. She advanced towards Naomi and Kiernan and Charlie with the remnants of suspicion on her well-made face. The three of them waited for her in unuttered agreement on the incapacity of things to provide the essential Sally.

Thanks go abundantly to my indomitable agent Amanda Urban, and to Judith Curr and Peter Borland, for giving the Durance Sisters a genial home.

At the same level of sincerity, I must state my gratitude to my wife, Judy, natural-born editor of first choice and—very handily for this narrative—a former nurse, though in a later era than that dealt with in The Daughters of Mars . My sister-in-law, Jane Keneally, is also a nurse and read the manuscript and gave editorial input.

And my brother, Dr. John Keneally, made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to child anesthesia and analgesia during the writing of this book, took time in the midst of severe illness to do a very thorough medical and general edit of the manuscript.

Needless to say, no blame for any remaining errors in the manuscript attach to these generous people.

I would like to declare a debt to the following works:

A. G. Butler, The History of the Australian Medical Services in World War I, Volumes 1–3 (Sydney, 1938–42).

Janet Butler, “Nursing Gallipoli: Identity and the Challenge of Experience,” Journal of Australian Studies, Issue 78, 2003.

Nurse Elsie Cook war diaries, Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

Stretcher bearer George R. Faulkner war diaries, 1916–17, Mitchell Library, Sydney.

J. M. Gillings and J. Richards (eds.), In All These Lines: the Diary of Sister Elsie Tranter, 1916–19 (Newstead, Tasmania, 2008).

Marina Larsson, Shattered Anzacs (Sydney, 2009).

Peter Rees, The Other Anzacs (Sydney, 2008).

Bruce Scates and Raelene Francis, Women and the Great War (Cambridge, 1997).

Michael B. Tyquin, Gallipoli: The Medical War (Sydney, 1993).

W. C. Watson, Narrative of Experiences in France, 1917, war diaries, Mitchell Library, Sydney.

THOMAS KENEALLYbegan his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty-one novels since. They include Schindler’s List, which won the Booker Prize in 1982, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates, all of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written several works of nonfiction, including his boyhood memoir, Homebush Boy, The Commonwealth of Thieves, and Searching for Schindler . He is married with two daughters and lives in Sydney, Australia.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Thomas Keneally

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First Atria Books hardcover edition August 2013

Originally published in Australia in 2012 by Vintage Australia

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ISBN: 978-1-4767-3461-3

ISBN: 978-1-4767-3463-7 (ebook)