When the World Stood Still: Heartbreaking Historical Fiction Set in the Time of the Spanish Flu

When the World Stood Still: Heartbreaking Historical Fiction Set in the Time of the Spanish Flu

Author: Kate Eastham

Publisher: Bookouture

Published: 2021-02-22

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9781800194885

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The nurses were putting in twelve-hour shifts now, day and night. Emily felt broken inside, dried out, not even capable of tears. They were short-staffed after a softly spoken Irish nurse, who'd only been with them for four days, had died from the deadly flu and two more had fallen ill. And more patients were coming in every hour, though the hospital beds were already full... 1918. Twenty-year-old Emily Burdon has been training as a nurse in London, learning on the job as she tends to patients from the crowded poorhouses that ring the hospital as well as wounded soldiers returning from the war. She pours her heart into her nursing while she waits for happier times - peace in Europe and the return of her childhood sweetheart Lewis from the Western Front. But when the deadly Spanish Flu arrives in London on the heels of the war, Emily's faith and courage are put to the test. All around her men and women in the prime of their lives are wasting away, and until a cure is found there is nothing for Emily and her colleagues to do except make them comfortable, treat them as best they can... and, eventually, ease the pain of their passing. But then Lewis catches the deadly flu himself on his way back home, just as a new doctor is transferred to head up Emily's ward. From the distant land of Prince Edward Island in Canada, Dr James Cantor is the first of a generations-old farming family to have left the island, and wartime London feels a long way away from the rugged beauty of his homeland. But despite their differences, he and Emily find common ground in their passion for helping patients and stopping the spread of the disease. But with life forever changed around her and Lewis' future hanging by a thread, can Emily survive the most terrible epidemic in the history with her life - and heart - intact? A heartbreaking historical novel based on true history - emotional and unforgettable. Perfect for fans of Jean Grainger, The Beantown Girls and Diney Costeloe. What readers are saying about Kate Eastham: 'I was completely glued to this book... I cried and I laughed... I would highly recommend this book - reminds me of Nadine Dorries' Nightingale stories but I preferred this one... Brilliant, entertaining and insightful.' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'I felt a building of emotion and tears in my eyes. It still has the capacity to touch your heart and make you feel as if you are in the air with Jo and in the field hospital alongside Mac. The story is very real and will leave you with a sense of having lived through it as well.' Goodreads reviewer


Pale Rider

Pale Rider

Author: Laura Spinney

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2017-09-12

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 1610397681

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In 1918, the Italian-Americans of New York, the Yupik of Alaska, and the Persians of Mashed had almost nothing in common except for a virus -- one that triggered the worst pandemic of modern times and had a decisive effect on twentieth-century history. The Spanish flu of 1918-1920 was one of the greatest human disasters of all time. It infected a third of the people on Earth -- from the poorest immigrants of New York City to the king of Spain, Franz Kafka, Mahatma Gandhi, and Woodrow Wilson. But despite a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people, it exists in our memory as an afterthought to World War I. In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind's vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. As socially significant as both world wars, the Spanish flu dramatically disrupted -- and often permanently altered -- global politics, race relations and family structures, while spurring innovation in medicine, religion and the arts. It was partly responsible, Spinney argues, for pushing India to independence, South Africa to apartheid, and Switzerland to the brink of civil war. It also created the true "lost generation." Drawing on the latest research in history, virology, epidemiology, psychology and economics, Pale Rider masterfully recounts the little-known catastrophe that forever changed humanity.


Little Souls

Little Souls

Author: Sandra Dallas

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2022-04-26

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1250277892

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Sandra Dallas's Little Souls is a gripping tale of sisterhood, loyalty, and secrets set in Denver amid America’s last deadly flu pandemic Colorado, 1918. World War I is raging overseas, but it’s the home front battling for survival. With the Spanish Flu rampant, Denver’s schools are converted into hospitals, churches and funeral homes are closed, and nightly horse-drawn wagons collect corpses left in the street. Sisters Helen and Lutie have moved to Denver from Ohio after their parents’ death. Helen, a nurse, and Lutie, a carefree advertising designer at Neusteter’s department store, share a small, neat house and each finds a local beau – for Helen a doctor, for Lutie a young student who soon enlists. They make a modest income from a rental apartment in the basement. When their tenant dies from the flu, the sisters are thrust into caring the woman’s small daughter, Dorothy. Soon after, Lutie comes home from work and discovers a dead man on their kitchen floor and Helen standing above the body, an icepick in hand. She has no doubt Helen killed the man—Dorothy’s father—in self-defense, but she knows that will be hard to prove. They decide to leave the body in the street, hoping to disguise it as a victim of the flu. Meanwhile Lutie also worries about her fiance “over there”. As it happens, his wealthy mother harbors a secret of her own and helps the sisters as the danger deepens, from the murder investigation and the flu. Set against the backdrop of an epidemic that feels all too familiar, Little Souls is a compelling tale of sisterhood and of the sacrifices people make to protect those they love most.


As Bright as Heaven

As Bright as Heaven

Author: Susan Meissner

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-01-22

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 0399585974

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From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War comes a novel set during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, telling the story of a family reborn through loss and love. In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters—Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa—a chance at a better life. But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without—and what they are willing to do about it. As Bright as Heaven is the compelling story of a mother and her daughters who find themselves in a harsh world not of their making, which will either crush their resolve to survive or purify it.


The Pull of the Stars

The Pull of the Stars

Author: Emma Donoghue

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2020-07-21

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0316499048

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In Dublin, 1918, a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, in "Donoghue's best novel since Room" (Kirkus Reviews). In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders—Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other's lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work. In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.


Miss Nightingale's Nurse

Miss Nightingale's Nurse

Author: Kate Eastham

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2018-09-25

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1405935898

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Discover the first heartwarming novel in Kate Eastham's nursing series in this gripping and compelling story of strength 'Deftly written . . . a moving account of loss, as well as self-discovery and achievement' Woman's Own 'A vivid, entertaining read which brought history alive' 5***** Reader Review _________ From the docks of Liverpool to a distant battlefield, can one girl find her brother and save herself? Ada Houston's life is shattered when her brother Frank goes missing following an accident at the docks. But a short time later she hears a rumour that he survived and left Liverpool to fight a foreign war. Determined not to lose him a second time she boards a ship to bring him home. But the battlefields of the Crimea are a hostile place for a penniless young woman. Then one day a lifeline is thrown her way as she is offered the chance to train as a nurse under the famous Florence Nightingale. Working in the most terrible of conditions, Ada shows an aptitude beyond anyone's expectations as she cares for her injured countrymen, makes new friends and enjoys the first flutter of romance. But Frank is still missing and she needs to find him before it's too late . . . _________ 'A wonderfully written book' 5***** Reader Review 'Gripped me right from the start' 5***** Reader Review 'You felt you were with them' 5***** Reader Review


The Great Influenza

The Great Influenza

Author: John M. Barry

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2005-10-04

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 9780143036494

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#1 New York Times bestseller “Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history.”—Bill Gates "Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."—Chicago Tribune The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart." At the height of World War I, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.


The Stand

The Stand

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 1474

ISBN-13: 0307743683

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A monumentally devastating plague leaves only a few survivors who, while experiencing dreams of a battle between good and evil, move toward an actual confrontation as they migrate to Boulder, Colorado.


A Death-struck Year

A Death-struck Year

Author: Makiia Lucier

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0544164504

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A deadly pandemic, a budding romance, and the heartache of loss make for a stunning coming-of-age teen debut about the struggle to survive during the 1918 flu.


Cover Title: A Different Sort of Real

Cover Title: A Different Sort of Real

Author: Kerry Greenwood

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 9781865048628

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The Diary of Charlotte McKenzie, Melbourne, 1918-1919. As the horrors of the First World War are drawing to a close, a danger has arisen that will kill more people around the world than the Great War itself - an influenza pandemic. Charlotte McKenzie, assisting the doctor next door, finds herself experiencing at close hand the effects of this devastating disease. When it finally attacks her own family, how can Charlotte cope?