What would you do if you were a soldier in 1916, found an enemy nurse in a Pozières cellar with constant artillery attacks and the danger of death ever present? Would you trust them not to kill you? Would you rescue them? Or leave them behind while you escaped? Many moral and ethical questions are raised by the author over the course of the book. The interactions with military bureaucrats were understandably not always friendly to a possible enemy agent from 1916 to 1918 when the book is set.

Ed Jacobs has written a story based on his great uncle Martin’s role in World War 1 and using his own military experience and thorough research to imagine a war story with a complex romance. A What if…story around an Australian Staff Sergeant and a German nurse Kerstin who he rescues and becomes close to over the ensuing ordeals of injury, hardship and divided loyalties.

Would it be possible to love the enemy and plan a life together and…where would that be and what obstacles would they face?

The visceral horror of the trenches, constant death and destruction can be felt through vivid description and is contrasted with the beauty of a place untouched by war and a return to some sort of a normal life in France and England while Martin recovers from injury.

Anyone interested in the First World War and particularly the events around Pozières will find this book of great interest. The added dimension of two people caught between opposing forces provides human interest to balance the horrors of war.

Erina S Hutton

Author of A Photographic Memory; George S Hutton’s Port Adelaide and Surrounds, 1924-1984. Mile End SA, Wakefield Press, 2019