War is lived in seconds: in the grip on a cockpit column, in the photograph found in a dead man's pocket, in the song playing somewhere beyond the ruins. Helena P. Schrader's VOICES ON THE WIND: Assault (A Novel of Malta in WWI, Part 1) understands this, and from that understanding arises a novel of remarkable humanity.
The story follows Ned, a pilot carrying the weight of each mission into the next; Candice, an intelligence officer navigating a world that rarely makes room for women; and Stevie, a Quaker in the Royal Navy. The prose is tense, moving through battle scenes in a way that shows how these characters are never sure whether they will survive: "Ned sat in the sweat-soaked silence of the cockpit, his arm muscles aching from the white-knuckled grip he'd kept on the column, and he reviewed what had just transpired."
Yet Schrader offers so much more than the painful memories of war and the pressures of keeping the crew safe. Each character is well developed and filled with resilience, responsibility, determination, and moral perspectives on the war. Thus, the novel looks beneath ideologies and stereotypical heroes to find the heart of what it means to be at war.
The emotion behind many battle scenes is palpable. When men embark on a boat where the crew has been shot, for example, the injustice and sadness at the loss of life leap off the page: "The older man had the photo of a woman with two children in his inside breast pocket, but there were no names on the back; he needed no reminder of his wife and children's names." The terror that civilians feel during their towns' bombings will make readers aware of the war's impact. Likewise, it shows how everyday joys (pets, films, love, music, etc.) hold so much value during these harrowing times.
Schrader delves deeply into the social beliefs of the era. Bancroft's reluctance to have a female team member, racism, social segregation in American towns, and religious belief systems meld together in a way that immerses the audience in this period. Other interesting details include Will's Bible, a priest's disillusionment regarding the way that power and class define women's relationships with both partners and their children, Candice's relationship with Ned, and Steve's fears with Rosemary. Quite magically, Schrader unpacks the divides that come with war—showing that individuals, culture, and political beliefs do not necessarily intertwine. VOICES ON THE WIND is, ultimately, a novel about conviction and courage. It deserves to be read widely.
Helena P. Schrader's VOICES ON THE WIND: Assault (A Novel of Malta in WWI, Part 1) is a very human portrait of war that moves between the cockpit, the intelligence room, and the sea.
~ Nicci Attfield for IndieReader