Sisters Under the Rising Sun

LoveReading Says

From the acclaimed author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris’ Sisters Under the Rising Sun is a heart-breaker, heart-healer and all-round heart-stirrer of a story about making unimaginable choices in order to survive the unimaginable. It’s also a joyous tale of finding the beauty of friendship, sisterhood and music in even the most brutal of circumstances, in this case Singapore as it’s on the verge of falling to the Japanese army during WWII.

Caught in such a terrifying situation Norah, an English musician, takes the decision to put her eight-year-old daughter on a ship that’s leaving Singapore while she stays to care for her aging parents. At the same time, Nesta James, a Welsh Australian nurse, has signed up to care for the Allied troops. The women’s paths cross aboard a merchant ship, which is soon bombarded near Indonesia and sunk.

Against all odds. Nesta and Norah reach a remote island, where they’re captured and imprisoned in a POW camp. Conditions are brutal, but the women draw on phenomenal reserves of love, kindness, grit and resourcefulness to keep each other safe and sane, and to aid the survival of other prisoners. 

Suffused in love, light, music and incredible camaraderie, Sisters Under the Rising Sun is an insightful, inspiring show-stopper of a story.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About Sisters Under the Rising Sun

The phenomenal new novel, based on a true story, from the multimillion-copy bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's Journey and Three Sisters.1942. Singapore is falling to the Japanese Army. English musician Norah Chambers places her eight-year-old daughter Sally on a ship leaving Singapore, desperate to keep her safe. As the island burns, Australian nurse Nesta James joins the terrified cargo of people, including the heartbroken Norah, crammed aboard the HMS Vyner Brooke. After only two days at sea, the ship is bombarded and sunk.Nesta and Norah reach the beaches of Indonesia only to be captured and held in one of the notorious Japanese POW camps, places of starvation and brutality. But even here joy can be found, in music, where Norah's 'voice orchestra' transports the internees from squalor into light. The friendships they build with the dozens of other women in the camps will give them the hope, strength and camaraderie they need in order to stay alive.Sisters under the Rising Sun tells the story of women in war: a novel of sisterhood, bravery and resilience in the darkest of circumstances.The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a #3 Sunday Times bestseller from 5 May 2024

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