“The Daughters of Mars” by Thomas Keneally – A Different Kind of Heroines

When we explore the great wars which happened before us, most notably the First and Second World Wars, we tend to focus on the ones who gave orders and the ones doing the killing. 

However, there is a different type of hero who always arises in these situations, albeit he/she is overshadowed by the more graphic, explicit and explosive endeavors of others.

In The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally, we get to follow this type of hero as two young sisters living on a farm in Australia, named Naomi and Sally Durance, decide to join the war effort in 1914 and provide some much-needed relief to those wounded in battle. 

The book follows them as they venture further and further away from their homeland, making plenty of essential discoveries on the nature of man and the insatiable cruelty of life, all while trying to be that shining beacon of hope for so many who have lost the will.

Though The Daughters of Mars can at times become a bit too slow or uselessly-detailed for its own good, on the whole it offers a story that is both exciting and meaningful on a number of levels. 

The fact that the novel and the characters’ actions were based on real letters sent by Australian women in the same type of situation only serves to enrich the story with real and accurate details, ones that make this book’s actors come alive.

Of course, the story isn’t solely about chaos and all the atrocities men have had the audacity to commit against each other over the years; we are also treated to the other side of the coin, exploring the many things that help keep the wounded going and how one can find an anchor and cling to sanity in a world that has lost it eons ago. It even goes as far as spilling over into a sort of political history lesson on how the women became much more empowered after the First World War.

All in all, I have to admit that The Daughters of Mars surprised me in a number of pleasant ways. I wasn’t expecting it to be so good at drawing the reader into the middle of the action, nor did I believe it would go beyond the confines of entertainment. 

If you like to explore the invisible heroes in war, the role of nurses during such large conflicts, or want to gain some extra perspective on the First World War, this is a book I would definitely recommend you read.

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Thomas Keneally Thomas Keneally is an Australian playwright and author whose career has mostly taken him into the domain of non-fiction. Perhaps his best-known novel is Schindler's Ark (later adapted to the movie Schindler's List), a book based on the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a survivor of the Holocaust who risked everything to save as many Jewish victims as he could. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Man Booker Prize in 1972, 1975, 1979 and 1982.