Book Review: THE LAST REUNION by Kaye Nunn

    

THE LAST REUNION

by

Kayte Nunn

Five women come together at a New Year's Eve's party after decades apart, in this thrilling story of desire, revenge and courage, based on a brave group of Australian and British WWII servicewomen

Burma, 1945. Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy: five young women in search of adventure, attached to the Fourteenth Army, fighting a forgotten war in the jungle. Assigned to run a mobile canteen, navigating treacherous roads and dodging hostile gunfire, they become embroiled in life-threatening battles of their own. Battles that will haunt the women for the rest of their lives.

Oxford, 1976. At the height of an impossibly hot English summer, a woman slips into a museum and steals several rare Japanese netsuke, including the famed fox-girl. Despite the offer of a considerable reward, these tiny, exquisitely detailed carvings are never seen again.

London and Galway, 1999. On the eve of the new millennium, Olivia, assistant to an art dealer, meets Beatrix, an elderly widow who wishes to sell her late husband's collection of Japanese art. Concealing her own motives, Olivia travels with Beatrix to a New Year's Eve party, deep in the Irish countryside, where friendships will be tested as secrets kept for more than fifty years are spilled.

Inspired by the heroic women who served in the 'forgotten war' in Burma, The Last Reunion is a heartbreaking love story and mystery by the international bestselling author of The Botanist's Daughter and The Silk House. It is also a tribute to the enduring power of female friendship.

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My Thoughts

In a sea of WWII historical fiction novels, Kayte Nunn’s THE LAST REUNION immediately stands out in its depiction of the real life Women’s Auxiliary Service that aided the war effort during the Burma Campaign (modern day Myanmar). These women – known as wasbies – ran mobile canteens and provided much needed morale for troops in regions filled with danger and primitive conditions.

The book starts in 1976 when a valuable netsuke (a small carved ornament) is stolen from a museum. Following this event, we get a dual timeline story that switches between WWII and 1999. The netsuke’s appearances and disappearances over 50-plus years is the tie that binds the characters and their story. The story culminates at a wasbie reunion in 1999. There is much reminiscing, friendships are re-forged, and long held, sometimes painful, secrets are revealed.

I really enjoyed this book. It was engaging, educational, well written and thoughtfully plotted. This is only the second Kayte Nunn book I’ve read and once again, I am impressed. 

Review copy courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher.

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About the Author

I grew up in England and the US, and then lived in Sydney, Australia for more than 20 years, working as a book, magazine and web editor and writer. I’ve more than two decades of publishing experience and am the former editor of Gourmet Traveller WINE magazine.

I had always written – terrible poetry, short stories and angst-ridden diaries – and have an enduring love of books and stories. I remember being so hungry for words that I would scour the cereal packets over breakfast and prowl my parents’ bookshelves in search of something new to read.

At boarding school, I read my way through the junior library before being given special permission to read from the senior library – and went straight from pony books to Solzhenitsyn and John Wyndham. Discovering Jilly Cooper is one of the abiding happy moments of my teenage years.

Ironically, when I changed jobs, it was almost always in pursuit of more writing, until finally I gathered my courage and began to write fiction – something I thought only people far cleverer than me could do. I am somewhat astonished that I am now the author of six novels.

http://kaytenunn.com/