Judith Allnatt reviews Acts of Love and War by Maggie Brookes, a book set during the Spanish Civil War which “cannot fail to move the reader.”
Lucy Nicholson has loved the Murray brothers, Tom and Jamie, ever since they moved next door when she was only six years old. Now in their 20s, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War the brothers elect for opposing sides.
Lucy is filled with admiration for Tom’s revolutionary idealism in fighting for the democratically-elected Republicans; concern at Jamie’s crusade to write of ‘communist atrocities’ for the Catholic Herald; and sick anxiety for them both.
Against opposition from her father, society’s expectations of her gender, and the dangers of a war zone, Lucy volunteers as a humanitarian aid worker with a Quaker organisation to help save evacuated children and hopes to somehow bring both brothers safely home.
However, as Hitler and Mussolini send troops and planes in support of Franco and the Republicans try desperately to keep these enemies at bay, the question becomes whether any of the three will survive.
As suggested by the title, Acts of Love and War weaves together two highly dramatic stories. The love story concerns Lucy’s divided feelings for the two brothers who court her, offering different qualities: Tom, funny, impulsive and exciting; Jamie, romantic, serious and determined.
The competition is finely balanced and the plot brings first one brother then the other closer to her heart, keeping the reader guessing about which brother she will choose and about the impact of this rivalry on the brothers’ relationship.
The war story concerns the heroic efforts by Lucy and fellow aid workers to save the children traumatised, starving, and sometimes orphaned by the war. Drawing on meticulous research, the writer transforms factual detail into scenes that touch the heart.
The donations of dried milk and sugar made by the Quakers become the welcoming cocoa served by volunteers at stations and canteens to exhausted mothers and terrified children, not only to provide fast nourishment to thin bodies but also to comfort and reassure them that they have reached a safer place where things will be better.
Lucy, previously a primary school teacher, must draw not only on her empathy for children but on dogged determination to beg, borrow or steal essential food, clothes, medicines and blankets. She must find courage in the face of bombardment and lawlessness in the streets, and the ability to feed souls as well as bodies.
The stories of both the refugees and their protectors are told with honesty, insight and a tenderness that cannot fail to move the reader.
Although the romantic premise of the book is the choice between two beloved brothers, there are effectively three loves at play, the third being the children Lucy tries to save – and in particular an orphan girl rendered dumb by the horrors she has witnessed.
Lucy, pulled between three different types of loving and facing dilemmas of both desire and conscience, must learn lessons not only about the depths and heights that her fellow man can reach but about the topography of her own heart.
Acts of Love and War by Maggie Brookes was published on 9 June, 2022.
Read Maggie’s moving feature, The Spanish Civil War: a war against children, to find out about the true events that inspired her novel.
Judith Allnatt‘s most recent book is The Silk Factory, published in paperback on 11 February, 2016.
She writes novels and short stories and has taught Creative Writing at a number of universities.
Image:
Unidentified children during the Spanish Civil War from the Alexander Albert MacLeod fonds: Archives of Ontario © Queen’s Printer for Ontario
