The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

1918 Ireland was in the midst of the end of a brutal war and an influenzas pandemic that was wiping out much of a country that had suffered much already. This story takes place at a hospital in Dublin, on a floor that handles maternity patients who are suffering from influenza and focuses on a few of these women and the nurses giving them care. Nurse Julia Power is 30, unwed and drowning in caring for her patients without relief. They are shadows of themselves these wed and unwed, soon to be mothers many of them struggling at home just as much as they are struggling to breathe in their hospital bed. Julia is struggling right along with them until the day that Bridie shows up to help and lifts all of them up. A horrific reminder of what many of us are going through now but also a beautiful love story of two women who feel like life and love has passed them over. Heartbreaking and full of wisdom peppered with some of the absolute idiocy of the way these women were treated. 
Fans of Emma Donoghue, ANGELA'S ASHES and deadly pandemic books like A YEAR OF WONDER will enjoy.   4 stars