Sisters under the Rising Sun: A powerful story from the author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Softcover

Morris, Heather

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1786582252 ISBN 13: 9781786582256

Publisher: Zaffre, 2024

Synopsis

A Richard and Judy summer book club pick

'One of the books of the decade' - Richard Madeley

The phenomenal new novel, based on a true story, from the multimillion-copy bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's Journey and Three Sisters

Singapore is burning. It is February 1942, and the Vyner Brooke is sailing out of the harbour and to safety. On deck is an English musician, Norah Chambers, who gazes over the besieged city as the beautiful voices of the Australian nurses on board sing 'Waltzing Matilda'.

One of these nurses is Nesta James, a pint-sized rocket of a woman, who quells her fears by caring for the frightened people on board.

But danger lies ahead. When Nesta and Norah meet at a female prisoner-of-war camp they must find strength and resilience they never knew they had. Can they work together to survive against all odds, and find hope in the darkest of days?

Sisters under the Rising Sun tells the inspiring true story of women at war and of the friendship and sisterhood that changed the generation that came after them.

Don't miss out on THE WISH - the new Heather Morris novel of unexpected friendship, love and legacy. Out now in hardback, ebook and audiobook.

About this title

About the Author

Born in New Zealand, Heather Morris is passionate about stories of survival, resilience and hope. In 2003, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, Heather was introduced to an elderly gentleman who 'might just have a story worth telling'. The day she met Lale Sokolov changed both their lives. Lale's story formed the basis for The Tattooist of Auschwitz and the follow-up novel, Cilka's Journey. In 2021 she published the phenomenal conclusion to the Tattooist trilogy, Three Sisters, after being asked to tell the story of three Holocaust survivors who knew Lale from their time in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Together, her novels have sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. Sisters Under the Rising Sun, a heart-wrenching novel based upon the experiences of women in Japanese POW camps, was published in 2023 to great acclaim. Heather's first contemporary novel, The Wish, will be published in September 2025.

From the Back Cover

In the midst of WWII, an English musician, Norah Chambers, places her eight-year-old daughter Sally on a ship leaving Singapore, desperate to keep her safe as the island falls to the Japanese Army.

Australian nurse Nesta James has enlisted alongside the Allied forces. As Singapore is overrun she joins the terrified cargo of people, including the heartbroken Norah, crammed aboard the Vyner Brooke merchant ship. Only two days later the Vyner Brooke is bombarded and sunk.

Nesta and Norah reach the beaches of a remote island, only to be captured and held in one of the notorious Japanese POW camps. The camps are places of starvation and brutality, where disease runs rampant. But even here joy can be found, in music, where Norah's 'voice orchestra' has the power to transport the internees out of the squalor and into the light. Sisters in arms, Norah and Nesta devote themselves to the women's survival while discovering their own extraordinary reserves of courage, love and strength.

Sisters under the Rising Sun is a story of women in war: of sisterhood, bravery and friendship in the darkest of circumstances, from the multimillion-copy bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's Journey and Three Sisters.

Edition details

• Publisher: Zaffre
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1786582252
• ISBN 13: 9781786582256
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384