Sixty years before the 1915 landings at Gallipoli there was a lesser-known landing, also in April and again with British and French troops. This one, however, was as allies of the Ottoman Empire, as part of the Dardanelles campaign in the Crimean War (1853-1856) against Russia. This conflict lies at the centre of the lives of Laura Elvery’s protagonists in her long-expected debut novel. While much of that conflict has been relegated to the dusty shelves of history (though perhaps again relevant with recent and current actions in Crimea and Ukraine), one enduring legacy is the figure of Florence Nightingale.
Nightingale follows three characters whose lives intersect during the war, the first being the eponymous Nightingale herself. The English social reformer is renowned for her role in the creation of modern nursing and improvements to hygiene and sanitation, informed by her work in Constantinople during the war. The prologue, which focuses on a younger Nightingale saving a baby owl, sets in place the image of a woman who cares for the injured.
But we meet Nightingale later in life, not at the peak of influence, but in her dying breaths at the grand age of 90 years. The sense of frustration with her traitorous flesh – confined to bed, losing sight, alone with weakening memories – is palpable: a woman of the world is reduced to a woman in a room. Nightingale, once the carer, is cared for by a young woman named Mabel, and receives an unexpected final visitor in the form of a spectre from the war, Silas. The first part of the novel alternates between the first-person voices of Nightingale and Silas, each slipping across and through time.
Nightingale and Silas are connected not just by the war, but by a third person, Jean, who worked as a nurse under Nightingale. The second part of the novel focuses on Jean’s journey to war. Like Nightingale, she’s another woman of independence, strength and ambition, but with a less privileged background. In this way, Nightingale not only celebrates women and the difficult work that they do during and outside of warfare, but also reveals the role of class and other social restrictions as barriers to be faced. With Jean’s presence, the novel also takes on elements of a love story and a mystery.
These three time travelling perspectives and stories lie side by side in the third part of the novel.
The highlight of Nightingale is, unsurprisingly, the writing. Elvery is known for her award-winning short stories, and her way of arranging words in ways that is unexpected, astute and indeed quite sublime can be found in abundance.
However, the characters are not quite convincing, which seems odd to say when the story is inspired by an historical one. Nightingale comes across as incomplete. For instance, she was not only a nurse but a renowned statistician, who excelled in mathematics, and this informed her approach to reform. This is mentioned in the blurb, but is relatively invisible in the narrative. Nor are Silas’ hauntings particularly convincing. The fragments are there – great writing, interesting characters, unique approaches – but they don’t quite connect to make a whole.
Read: Book review: My Name is Emilia Del Valle, Isabel Allende
If you want to know more about Nightingale the person, consult a biography. But if you are looking for an ethereal contemplation on memory and dreams, on ageing and trauma, on women’s work and war, on death, life and the spaces in between, all told through exquisite writing, then Nightingale is a book for you.
Nightingale, Laura Elvery
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
ISBN: 9780702265877
Pages: 222pp
Format: Paperback
RRP: $32.99
Publication date: 29 April 2025
