The Daughters of Mars (Thomas Keneally, 2012)

Had seen favorable reviews when this was published in 2012.  And I liked it.  Two sisters are raised in Australian back country; older one goes to Sydney to work; they aren't terribly close.  But both volunteer for service during WWI recruitment drive.

So essentially this provides a very different take on WWI - perspective of Australian nurses who train in Egypt, serve on a hospital ship off Gallipoli (and then on the nearby island of Lemnos), and then make their way up to France.  The older sister (Naomi) ends up working in an Australian-run hospital in northern France, while the younger sister (Sally) works closer to the front (including stints at clearing stations).  They are in service all the way up to the end (including "Spanish" flu outbreak (which was quite interestingly discussed here)).

Not too much detail about medical stuff, but it does help give an idea about the challenges of 1915-era medical efforts running up against industrial killing.  Amazing to think of the doctors and nurses that faced this stuff endlessly, year in and year out.

The two sisters are pretty strong characters, but I didn't think the author romanticized what this was all about.

Medical personnel were critical players here, but quite naturally they tend to be overlooked by the historians and novelists in favor of other aspects of the war (though Hemingway did address the topic quite famously here).

Making this book all the more worthwhile.