I cannot remember the last book to make me cry, so it is remarkable that I was sloppy crying for the last five pages of this novel. I’ll say it right at the beginning: I have read The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds. They were all memorable, noteworthy, and moving. I must say, however, that this is Hannah’s best book yet. She picked a very important subject, a story that needed to be told, a story of my generation, and she did an awesome job.

Frankie McGrath is a sheltered, carefully raised daughter of Connor and Bette McGrath, a successful and wealthy family, living on beautiful Coronado Island off San Diego, CA in the Sixties. She has gone through parochial schools and college, trained to be a nurse, but with her parents’ goal of marrying well, being a successful wife and mother. Her brother Finley, a recent graduate of Annapolis, the Naval Academy, is fired up to go to Vietnam, and earn a place on his father’s Wall of Honor, a wall in his study where photos and decorations of McGrath men who have served the country at times of war are proudly displayed. Inspired by her father’s stories of the courageous family on the wall, Frankie secretly signs up to be an Army nurse, the only service that will allow her to go participate in-country with her minimal nursing experience.

This begins Frankie’s journey from naïve recruit to seasoned, capable, compassionate surgical nurse, experiencing hardships, losses, and trauma she could never have imagined. Hannah brings all aspects of the Vietnam War to life, from the horrific injuries, beyond stressful circumstances of trying to save lives, to the difficult living conditions, and ways the medical teams tried to handle it all and blow off steam, maintaining their humanity in the most trying of situations. This is only half of Frankie’s story.

Hannah also brings to life the reception Frankie receives when, upon returning to the States after two tours of duty, sacrificing so much to save as many lives as she could, she is spat upon, called a baby killer, and faces the denial of everyone that women even served in Vietnam. Her parents, friends, everyone does not want to hear about her experiences. The nation is torn asunder about the war, ashamed of those who sacrificed and returned. Frankie’s attempts to handle the trauma induced by her experiences, and the forced denial of her emotions, leads to alcoholism, drug abuse, ruptured relationships, and attempted suicide. Hannah depicts the gritty realities faced by Vietnam veterans, and the particular torments faced by women who served.

Frankie McGrath is a sympathetic protagonist, one who gave freely of herself with great compassion and skill, who sacrificed her youthful innocence with naive honor for her country. She is relatable, believable, someone we can root for, who stands in for so many women who sacrificed for their country. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the women who tried to save the lives of our boys and men, and who held their hand and cared for them when they died far from home and family.

I was in elementary and middle school during the Vietnam War years. I remember watching reporter Dan Rather, imbedded with soldiers in Vietnam, in helmet and flak jacket, reporting on a nightly basis on battles and casualties. I remember watching protests on TV. I remember worrying about whether my oldest brother’s draft card number would be pulled and he might have to go. I remember POW bracelets, and watching the televised return of the POWs. This book is important for those like me who remember, and even more for those who came later, and only know the war from what they learned in school. If you read only one fiction novel this year, this is the one.