Flight of the Wild Swan

Starred review from January 29, 2024
Pritchard’s splendid latest illuminates the life of Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) by portraying the idiosyncratic woman behind the Victorian icon. When Florence is a teen, her mother judges her “aloof” and “obstinate,” while her father appreciates her intellect. At 16, Florence believes she hears God charging her to end the world’s suffering. Her landed gentry parents reject her pleas to study nursing, however, as they consider the work to be squalid and menial. Florence spends a decade of forced inaction in deepening despair before she attempts suicide and her parents relent. By 30, she’s a seasoned medical administrator who calls sanitation, hygiene, and statistics her “Earthly deities.” Meanwhile, Britain is fighting Russia in the Crimea, where injured British soldiers face horrific conditions. Florence’s friend Sidney Herbert, Britain’s secretary of war, authorizes her to lead a contingent of nurses—the first women nurses for the British armed forces—to reform a military hospital near Constantinople. She arrives in 1854 to find the building rotting, the men in charge contemptuous, and hospital supplies insufficient to meet the seemingly endless stream of maimed soldiers, many dying of diseases rather than battlefield injuries. The novel’s brief scenes are both vividly intimate and wide-angled enough to capture the complexity of Florence’s life and times. Pritchard excels in this marvelous and moving work. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary.

September 13, 2024

Essayist and novelist Pritchard (A Solemn Pleasure; The Odditorium) offers a sentimentality-free portrait of Florence Nightingale, the ever-determined woman who pioneered modern nursing. As a child, Nightingale desired the privileges of being a boy and yearned to work among the sick and the poor. Though her parents initially resisted her desires, she was eventually afforded the education necessary to follow her dreams. Pritchard's expansive portrait of Nightingale allows listeners to see her not just as a legendary nurse but as a human being with aspirations not befitting her station and with the will to stand up against society's expectations. Listeners hear the entirety of her life from childhood to death. Narrator Jayne Entwistle's skillful performance is wide-ranging, ably capturing Nightingale's voice at the beginning of the book and an eyewitness's account toward the end. The book begins with a first-person narration centered on Nightingale's letters and diary entries; the narrative later switches to the third person, creating some disconnect. VERDICT As she relays fascinating details about a pioneering nurse and statistician, Entwistle's expressive narration delights. Pritchard's insightful and affecting portrait of Nightingale would be at home in any library's historical fiction section.--Amber Wessies

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