The story is told from two different perspectives, Anna and Elizabeth. Did you prefer one over the other? Or have a timeline/story narrative that your preferred writing? Nunn is an author passionately dedicated to her research and this is very much evident in The Last Reunion. I was amazed by the forgotten story of the lost women of the Fourteenth Army. It is vital that we dredge up these absent stories and place them in the spotlight via engaging narratives, such as The Last Reunion. I am grateful to Kayte Nunn to drawing my attention to an aspect of the war that I was not previously aware of, despite having read such a wide range of literature around the WWII conflict. I valued the time that I spent with each keynote member of the group that gave up their lives so selflessly during the Burma conflict. These were incredibly testing times for the women, especially in a physical sense. We also learn of the emotional wounds of war from viewpoint of the women decades later. This is a time that continues to haunt them, for good reasons. It was heartbreaking to read.

The growing friendship between Olivia and Beatrix was a real pleasure to read and Kayte Nunn conveys some of the horrors of the Burma campaign and the conditions of war without giving the reader nightmares. I have enjoyed other historical fiction novels from this author, including The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant and The Silk House and I knew I was in safe hands here. Burma, 1945. Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy: in search of adventure, attached to the Fourteenth Army, fighting a forgotten war in the jungle. Assigned to run a mobile canteen, they become embroiled in life-threatening battles of their own. Oxford, 1976. A woman steals several rare Japanese netsuke, including the famed fox-girl, from a museum. London and Galway, 1999. Olivia, assistant to an art dealer, meets Beatrix, an elderly woman who wishes to sell a collection of Japanese art. Olivia travels with Beatrix to a New Year's Eve party in Ireland where friendships will be tested as secrets kept for more than 50 years are spilled. Anyways my point is I loved this book (4 / 5 ★) and would recommend it to others! The only problem we found with it though was that the story is fairly complete and wrapped up and exactly what it is meant to be, while this isn’t a bad thing, it didn’t leave much room for discussion on the book itself. In this way we didn’t find it the best book for a book club but we filled in our extra time by discussing all the books we are currently loving!! I know there has been a plethora of new releases set in WWII lately, but The Last Reunion is highly recommended for fans of historical fiction who are interested in character development more than the politics or strategies of war.It is not based on real events, though I did read stories of plant hunters and to what ends some of them would go in their search for rare plants. London and Galway, 1999. On the eve of the new millennium, Olivia, assistant to an art dealer, meets Beatrix, an elderly widow who wishes to sell her late husband's collection of Japanese art. Concealing her own motives, Olivia travels with Beatrix to a New Year's Eve party, deep in the Irish countryside, where friendships will be tested as secrets kept for more than fifty years are spilled. When I am walking or cooking or driving I’m also in the world of my current novel, thinking about the characters and what might happen next, so I make sure to always have a notebook to hand.

I enjoyed this wonderful story of friendship and resilience. This is the fourth of Ms Nunn’s novels I have read, and I have enjoyed (and learned from) each one. Kayte is a superb writer both in the research she undertakes and the story she then weaves from that, inclusive of characters that you really come to care for. The fact that so much of this story is based on and/or inspired by real life events certainly adds a richness of appreciation to events. This is historical fiction at its best.This author knows how to develop a good piece of fiction out of historical fact and she seems to try something different in each of her books. In 1944, Beatrix, Plum, Bubbles, Lucy and Joy are assigned to a mobile canteen unit where they find themselves working long days, and nights, to supply soldiers with food, drink, sundries and a dance partner. I enjoyed getting to know these authentically portrayed, interesting female characters, admiring the strength and courage they displayed in such physically, and emotionally, challenging circumstances. Nunn’s vivid descriptions of the environment and the ‘Wasbies’ role in Burma is fascinating, and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about this relatively obscure facet of wartime history.

Olga Grotova – interview: ‘I started to think how soil and plants are sometimes the only witnesses’ Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes. Beatrix, and her friends Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy are five young women in search of adventure who become Wasbies and find themselves alongside the Fourteenth Army, fighting a forgotten war in the jungle against the Japs. Olivia, is a young Australian and assistant to an art dealer, she meets Beatrix an elderly widow who wishes to sell her late husband's collection of Japanese art, in particular a valuable small intricately carved Japanese netsuke named the fox-girl.Ruth Maclennan: ‘I realised that global warming was happening, and asked, how do I as an artist respond to that’ This book has a dual timeline and it flows seamlessly between WWII and the jungles of Burma (1945), and England in the late 1990’s.