FICTION

Sisters in Arms: A Novel of the Daring Black Women Who Served During World War II

Morrow. Aug. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780062964588. pap. $16.99. F
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DEBUT In Manhattan in July 1942, Grace Steele receives an invitation to join the new Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). As a Black woman, she’s finding it nearly impossible to get a teaching job. Her mother’s dream for her (to be a concert pianist) likely died with her recent botched Juilliard audition. Grieving the wartime death of her brother Tony is nearly unbearable; facing her mother’s grief is impossible. Across town, Harlem journalist Eliza Jones, who was raised in her family’s newspaper business, chafes against her father’s rules; she’s ready to make her own mark on the world. Eliza and Grace couldn’t be more different, but their choices bring them together where others root for their failure. They’re assigned to WAAC’s 6888th Central Postal Division, where their herculean task is delivering mail with incomplete addresses to U.S. soldiers overseas.
VERDICT Based on the true story of the 6888th, Alderson’s debut tells of the first women officers in the armed services (also the first Black women to serve, and the only all-Black, female U.S. battalion deployed overseas in World War II). For fans of Hidden Figures and untold stories of heroes and heroines of World War II.
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