Who We Were
August 2013
Lucy Neave / Text Publishing
Annabel has always dreamed of becoming a microbiologist, but it is not until the outbreak of World War II that she is awarded a scholarship to the newly founded Women’s College at the University of Melbourne. It is here she falls in love with Bill, a medic and fellow scientist, but when the Nazis invade the USSR, he too enlists, and it is several years before they are miraculously reunited.
Before long, Annabel accompanies Bill to New York to pursue their research, this time for the US military working on the development of highly dangerous infectious diseases. While the purpose of their tests is initially unclear, the secrecy surrounding it and the escalating Cold War suggests something more sinister than the development of vaccines. Not only must they grapple with the ethics of their work, but the government’s crackdown on Communists which sees them swept up in a world of spies and suspicion, where even those they are closest to are not as they seem.
With resemblances to novels by Jules Verne and Kurt Vonnegut, Who We Were is a scientific and political thriller that will capture your attention, despite the love story being brief and underdeveloped.