The wing of night was an unusual title

This novel won the Nita Kibble Literary Award in 2006.

From the book cover:

In 1915 a troopship of Light Horsemen sails from Fremantle for the Great War.  Two women farewell their men: Elizabeth, with her background of careless wealth, and Bonnie, who is marked by the anxieties of poverty.  Neither can predict how the effects of the most brutal fighting at Gallipoli will devastate their lives in the long aftermath of the war.

The Wing of Night is a novel about the strength and failure of faith and memory, about returned soldiers who become exiles in their own country, about how people may become the very opposite of what they imagined themselves to be.

It is a testament to the other side of the Anzac experience.  An engaging and thoroughly believable depiction of the impact of war on a generation of ordinary folk, of the memories that haunt lay soldiers and those left at home to pick up the pieces.

I seem to have read a few novel recently with some link to war, I guess that is understandable as I am taking part in a historical fiction reading challenge.

The Wing of Night by Brenda Walker was a love story as well as one about the experiences of war.  It is one that I enjoyed reading as the novel had two very different protagonists and their stories were intertwined. If you are interested in Australians in World War I, with the spotlight falling on those who were left at home and those who returned home after the war, then this is the book for you.  It was an interesting read.

Another book by this author is Reading by Moonlight: how books saved a life. This is a memoir about the time Brenda Walker was having treatment for breast cancer. You can listen to a programme on this by clicking here.  You can also read and listen to more on this book at the ABC Book Club website. This book also won the Nita Kibble Literary Award, this time in 2011.  It is a book I have put on my list of books to read.