The Swiss Nurse

This novel takes place during the Spanish Civil War and the days leading up to World War II.  Mario Escobar has taken real personalities from the era and  built a novel around things these people accomplished to help the disenfranchised and refugees from Spain.  The particular character, Elisabeth Eidenbenz, saw a great need among the Spanish refugees in France, and worked as hard as she could to fulfill that need with a maternity hospital.  She was outspoken, bold, and took no prisoners (so to speak) where fulfilling these needs was a necessity rather than a luxury.  The biggest need she filled was creating a maternity hospital for the expectant mothers. 

Isabel is one of the refugees who ends up needing the maternity hospital, especially after being malnourished in the refugee camp.  She is unsure where her husband, Peter is, but eventually finds him.  Peter spent an inordinate amount of time in prison camps in France for various slights against the powers that be at the time.  

Elisabeth, Isabel, and Peter have their own story lines throughout the plot, so it's like three plots in one cohesive novel.  This is the kind of book that takes contemplation to sense all of the nuances of the  times and events, the twists and turns of the plot, and the absolute horror that was going to be coming to France in the near future.  

For Isabel and Peter, and later their daughter Lisa, they not only had to get out of Spain, but they also had to find passage from France to America.  The State Department thwarted every attempt until they finally relented and gave them the Visas and documentation they needed to leave France, but they had to leave under assumed identities to get away from the camps. 

I found this book to be compelling and hard to put down.  It stretched my knowledge of World War II and the surrounding events and put faces and voices on people who would otherwise have no  representation.  Elisabeth is based on an historical person who did many of the things outlined in the book.  I give it Five Stars. 

Harper Muse provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.