The Women

In 1965, Frankie McGrath, a newly minted nurse, wants to serve the United States. Following her older brother’s footsteps, Frankie enlists in the army and deploys to the Vietnam War. Faced with the horrors of war, her formerly pampered persona falls away, and she becomes a skilled combat nurse. She also meets two lifelong friends, Barb and Ethel. After her service comes to an end, Frankie returns home to the States, battling PTSD (which the VA refuses to treat) and heartbroken by the tepid welcome that she and other veterans receive. Plagued by nightmares, Frankie turns to alcohol and drugs, descending deeper into despair. Hannah (The Four Winds) offers an engrossing portrait of the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, bringing the story of women service people to light and depicting the awful costs of war. Julia Whelan narrates, capturing the emotional turmoil of a woman coming of age in a violent place and time. Whelan’s well-modulated voice delivers Frankie’s wide range of feelings, from joy to utter desolation. Hannah herself reads the afterword, citing some of her sources and acknowledging those who helped her create the book.