Following her bestselling and critically acclaimed novels LILAC GIRLS and LOST ROSES, Martha Hall Kelly returns with SUNFLOWER SISTERS, a riveting work of historical fiction set during the Civil War and starring Caroline Ferriday’s ancestor, Georgeanna Woolsey.

One of seven accomplished and independent Woolsey sisters, Georgeanna has never been one for fancy dresses and whirlwind courtships. As the United States starts to divide over slavery --- with the Woolseys standing firmly on the side of abolition --- she sees an opportunity to serve her country as a nurse. Even better, she will be training under the esteemed and groundbreaking Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, America's first female doctor. Although her family believes that women should be educated and well-rounded, able to stand on their own alongside or even without husbands, the nursing industry has long been dominated by men. And aside from Georgy’s sister Eliza, most of her relatives and friends find the idea of women acting as nurses to be laughable and unimaginable.

Meanwhile, in the South, we meet Jemma, a 16-year-old slave who lives and works on the Peeler Plantation in Maryland, a costly endeavor run by Anne-May Watson, a cruel and greedy woman. Jemma is fortunate to have been taught to read by her previous mistress, Anne-May’s aunt. But although Anne-May has no trouble using Jemma for notetaking and letter-writing, she is equally quick to abuse her for the slightest infraction, no doubt jealous of her intelligence. Still, Jemma counts her blessings. She lives and works alongside her Ma and Pa; her twin sister, Patience, works only a short walk away at an indigo farm; and the mistress’s husband, Fergus, is an abolitionist who counters his wife’s cruelty whenever he can.

"SUNFLOWER SISTERS is a refreshing change from the wealth of World War II novels and a chance to examine our country’s history with the benefit of Martha Hall Kelly’s clear gaze, careful precision and all-encompassing love for the richness of women’s stories."

Kelly repeats the three-character structure that has made her novels so enthralling, and in Anne-May, she hearkens back to the cast of LILAC GIRLS by including a true villain among her heroic leading ladies. Anne-May sees her slaves --- and any slaves who have been freed by others --- as lesser beings than her and her white friends and family members. Her external cruelty --- beatings, pinches, theft --- is matched only by the wickedness of her interior monologue. She can spin the actions of any person into something evil, lazy or stupid...and, when it comes to her slaves, often all three. But she even acts the villain in her personal life: she openly dislikes her husband, flirts with other men, and struggles with a serious snuff addiction that makes her erratic and moody.

As the Civil War kicks off, Georgy completes her training and becomes a war nurse, all the while planning to open her own nursing school for women using the knowledge she gains firsthand on the job. As her brother-in-law and former beau head to war, she thrives in the action, passing along notes from the battlefront to her family and fighting her own war for respect among the male nurses and doctors working alongside her. Though her efforts are always focused on saving soldiers and helping women and children when she can, she remains steadfastly devoted to the whole reason for the war: putting an end to the cruel inhumanity of the institution of slavery once and for all.

Across the North-South border, the Peeler Plantation sees Fergus head to war, fighting with the North, as Anne-May’s brother signs up to fight for the Confederacy. As a family residing in a border state, the Watsons are not the only family torn apart by the war, but by juxtaposing Anne-May’s wickedness against Jemma’s fight for human rights, Kelly ramps up the tension that comes with brother(-in-law) fighting against brother(-in-law). Unfortunately for Jemma and her family, without Fergus’ interventions, Anne-May grows colder and more abusive, even as her own ambitions pull her further and further into the war --- and grave danger. Propelled by her greed and insatiable appetite for luxury, she unwittingly becomes a Confederate spy, with Jemma, who is twice as smart as she is and far more subtle, writing down every message and taking stock of her mistress’s wrongdoings.

The best moment in every Martha Hall Kelly book is when the three storylines --- each so perfectly written as to be their own novel --- converge. In SUNFLOWER SISTERS, she first brings together Jemma, now a runaway slave, and Georgy as her nurse. Their pairing is, without a doubt, one of the most satisfying I have read in any of Kelly’s books. With their convergence, the novel takes on an even faster pace, full of battle scenes, Gettysburg, espionage and, of course, the dangerous passages of the slaves and those who aided them in their journeys north. With callous Anne-May causing mayhem and disaster in the background, the fight for abolition is never so clear. And although this is a detailed and lengthy book (528 pages!), Kelly never once misses the mark, giving her characters ample room to grow (or, in Anne-May’s case, spiral out of control) and allowing her readers to fully immerse themselves in the Civil War and its aftermath, both on the battlefield and at home.

When I read LILAC GIRLS, I was astounded by Kelly’s ability to live in the head of her villain and write out her very worst thoughts without ever endorsing or excusing them herself. In SUNFLOWER SISTERS, she has done it again with Anne-May. Whether describing Anne-May’s hatred for her slaves or her inability to see beyond the plantation that brings her wealth, dresses and snuff, Kelly never shies away from revealing the depths of slaveowners’ prejudices. With Jemma’s chapters following close behind, the dissonance and lack of humanity take on a sharp edge, one that brings the war right to your living room or reading chair and rings eerily close to our current political and racial landscape.

As always, I am blown away by Kelly’s attention to detail and her love for the Woolsey family. She has cited real historical documents in her writing of Georgeanna, but she also brings to life small factual details that immerse you fully in the time period: the tension of wondering which states will stay in the Union, shocking news from the battlefront, the confusion of battles having different names from either side, and even the need for female nurses to give up their hoop skirts to avoid knocking over limited medical supplies.

Readers of LILAC GIRLS and LOST ROSES will note some fun Easter eggs here. But because Georgeanna is a more distant relative of Caroline’s, I believe that even newcomers will find something to love in this one. SUNFLOWER SISTERS is a refreshing change from the wealth of World War II novels and a chance to examine our country’s history with the benefit of Martha Hall Kelly’s clear gaze, careful precision and all-encompassing love for the richness of women’s stories.