A brilliant and heartbreaking piece of historical fiction from Heather Morris - always so well researched.

DNF. Couldn’t get into this book at all. 25% in and it wasn’t clicking for me which is a shame as I have enjoyed other books by the author.

It has an unusual writing style and it didn’t help that it was over descriptive in some places then scant in others. The pov’s would switch mid chapter and this happened early on so it was hard to follow at times as we hadn’t yet had character development.

Not for me.

Heat, dust and starvation.
What a moving story, showing the strength and determination of women P.O.W.'s
The story starts in Singapore when the Japanese invade, people try to flee, Sally is John and Norah's daughter, to give her a better chance of survival, they send her off off with Barbara, Norah's sister. John is ill and recovering from Typhus, he, Norah and her other sister Ena are captured. John is separated from Norah, so she and Ena have to continue without him, they rescuer a little girl, Jean who has been separated from her parents.
The trio are housed in various camps, some better than others, but the starvation, beatings and constant work takes its toll on all of them. Housed with them are a group of Australian nurses, overseen by Nesta a small but mighty woman, they do their best to treat everyone. A group of Dutch women and some Nuns are also with them. Between the groups Norah manages to form a choir which gives performances and lifts everyone's spirits.
A story of unbelievable cruelty, depravation and the strength of the human spirit.
Thank you Heather, NetGalley and Bonnier books for this ARC

I love books about sisters. This has a good plot.

4 stars

Thanks to Heather Morris and publisher for my eARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

Morris does historical fiction so well! Enjoyed this immensely - her research and knowledge of the WWII time period is so evident.

A really beautiful book that was so well done and well written. Hard subject to read about but also important to know. A brilliant story of bravery, strength, selflessness, friendship. I would 100% recommend this book to my friends!

This was my first time reading a book from the author but I am delighted to say I thoroughly enjoyed the story and I look forward to reading more books from the writer in the future.

While it's an intense story about women prisoners of war in WWII, it didn’t fully work for me. Morris uses Australian/NZ phrasing that, for me, didn’t feel authentic to the historical setting, and I’m still on the fence about her fictional approach to real, sensitive events she’s not directly connected to. The focus on resilience and friendship is moving, though, and it might resonate with readers looking for an emotional WWII story, even if some aspects feel a bit detached from the period.

‘Sisters Under the Rising Sun’ by Heather Morris tells the story of a group of women imprisoned in a Japanese camp in Indonesia during World War Two. Morris is a new author for me. I chose the book because of the subject matter and my memory of ‘Tenko’ on television in the Eighties, which made a big impression on me. Only later did I discover the same author wrote ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz.’
As the Japanese army invades Singapore in 1942, families and nurses flee on ships only to be attacked, shipwrecked and washed up on a remote Indonesian island. There are two main groups of women, Sister Nesta and her group of Australian nurses, and English sisters Norah and Ena and other civilian women and children. All arrive at the camp traumatised, weak, dehydrated, under-nourished and terrified. Loved ones missing or drowned or shot, isolation from everything familiar, fearing death at any moment. This is a traumatic tale and I stuck with it early on as the subject is interesting despite, emotionally, feeling a step away from what was happening. The third-person viewpoint is distant, wandering from Nesta to Norah and quickly back again when I really wanted to know their inner thoughts, the things they weren’t saying out loud.
The women are separated from the men and Norah’s sick husband John is taken to a different camp. Their daughter Sally was evacuated earlier from Singapore and Norah can only hope Sally is safe with her aunt. This is a story of female support, friendship, bravery and determination in the face of despair, cruelty, deprivation, filth and disease. The women get settled into a camp, organise, clean, work out systems to survive and to support each other, but no sooner are they settled than without warning they are moved again to another rat-infested filthy camp. The story is linear which, given we know the outcome and timeline of the war, is natural, but there was little suspense about the outcome of key characters. I particularly enjoyed the musical sections about Norah’s voice orchestra and would have appreciated more of this, particularly from individual singers.
I’ve read many novels now that are ‘based on a true story’ which have left me feeling vaguely disappointed. Does true history in some way shackle the writer’s imagination? This only seems to happen with novels based on relatively recent true history, as if there is a sub-conscious duty to tell the truth at the sacrifice of fiction. It doesn’t seem to happen with historical fiction that is based centuries ago.
A fascinating subject, the true story of these women really was horrendous.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

I expected more from a multimillion-copy bestselling author. The book is based on a true story. The author has obviously sat down and interviewed relatives of the original prisoners and based the narrative around that. Which would be fine, but it shows. Parts of it read like transcriptions. There's a flashback in the first part where one of the nurses is telling her history and the reasons she got into nursing and it reads exactly like an interview, not a natural narrative at all!

I wanted to read this book because I wanted more insight into this part of the war. Most of my education was on Germany and the UK with a little look into France. So it was interesting to see a different perspective on it. It was really enlightening on the conditions of prison camps under Japanese occupation.

I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the writing had been better though. It also felt really emotionless. The only emotion I got was from the contents of the story, there were no writing techniques used to add suspense or convey emotion. There was also not a lot of plot structure. It read like a series of reminiscences.

I honestly think that the author was more concerned with facts and not enough with making it a good story.

I have read many books based on WW2 but was unaware of the atrocities carried out by the Japanese. This was a very harrowing but good read, made all the more so by the fact that its based on real people

Wow, thank you to the publishers and to Netgalley. I'm so thankful that I have been given the opportunity to read this one. I don't know if I would have purchased it myself, but I absolutely loved it and then realising it is based on a true story - my jaw hit the floor!

The authors notes were fantastic too, I don't normally read those either, but I am so glad I did.

What a story, what phenomenal women.

Thank you Heather Morris for telling this story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this e-arc!

Heather Morris never disappoints this story is one that I’ll think about for a long time. I really enjoyed every part it of. It was so emotional and thought provoking!

Solid 4 stars!

I actually found this book more absorbing and heartfelt that the authors previous works. I was rooting for the characters throughout and I loved the descriptions of their musical efforts. It focused on part of history that I knew very little about and I found it fascinating. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

A lovely, emotional story set in WWII. The setting alone sets the scene for some traumatic moments. Well developed and authentic characters help to create this fabulous story.

One thing that gets to me when I read a Heather Morris book is how realistic they are. I love the fact that they are based on real people and situations and that I learn so much from them.


Her book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is my absolute favorite historical fiction book of all time. It’s just an incredible book.
Sisters Under The rising Sun is an unputdownable book. It’s heartbreaking, yet full of courageous moments and actions.

The women displayed such bravery in the face of adversity time after time. This was a very well researched book, and I enjoyed the author’s notes in the back of the book. We learn more about the characters and their life after the events at the end of the book.


Brave women are struggling to survive in Japanese POW camps in WWII. Their lives were a living hell, faced with starvation, abuse, deprivation of the most basic needs. A novel of sisterhood, bound together by chance and the need to survive the dark circumstances that their life has become. Let us remember these women and the many sacrifices they have given.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Sisters Under The Rising Sun by Heather Morris is a powerful true story of survival in the Far East during World War II.
The novel starts in 1942 as the Japanese are invading Singapore. The fear and terror at the docks has been captured by the author. Some, make it home. However, the main characters are captured and spend the war in several Japanese P.O.W. camps. This is their story.
The women show much bravery and resilience. They develop a camaraderie, determined to keep going. Comfort is found in the setting up of an orchestra – which is just the women’s voices. They raise morale giving concerts which even the Japanese guards enjoy.
For the women, their war is one of death and disease in the tropical heat, as well as fear, starvation and cruelty. We witness man’s inhumanity to man.
Heather Morris has created a heartbreaking, and also inspiring, novel. We hear much about the war in Europe but less about the war in the Far East. This book offers a glimpse into a very different war.
I liked the inclusion of photographs at the end of the book, enabling the reader to put faces to names.
The war was brutal but the women were hope-filled and had strength of character. This book needs to be read in memory of those who perished and of those who survived.
I received a free copy. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Heather Morris' earlier novels and was looking forward to learning more about a time in history that I knew little about. In this instalment, we follow passengers fleeing Singapore in the midst of WWII to escape the Japanese invasion. A few days into the voyage, the ship is bombed and the survivors seek refuge on a remote Indonesian island. There they are captured and held in various POW camps for years, fighting the weather, illness, starvation, and brutality.

I listened to the audiobook for this one and I think that heavily impacted my overall thoughts and feelings. The narrator was good but I struggled to distinguish the different voices and she had a habit of not leaving line breaks between paragraphs which meant I often had to stop and work out what was happening as the story had moved in a different direction.

The coverage of the event itself was well-researched and documented, however, it felt a lot more like 'this happened and then this' unlike The Tattooist of Auschwitz for example, which had a much better flow. It read more like a memoir than historical fiction. I hate to say it, and I imagine this is because we're fairly desensitized to war with the myriad of books and films that now saturate the market, but I was quite bored a lot of the time. That's not to say that what these women went through was easy; quite the polar opposite. I just didn't feel a connection to any of the characters and wasn't as engaged with the story as I have been with others in the past.

I did love the parts about the voice choir which was also the best part about the audio as it actually played a recording of the hymn and Bolero which gave me goosebumps. And of course, I shed many a tear at the end.

I definitely learned a lot and for that I am grateful to Heather Morris for bringing another true story to life. It just wasn't written in a way that I could fully engage with.

I loved this book and have recommended it to my friends.
Based on a real life story of Australian nurses trapped in Hong Kong during the Second World War and then deported to Japanese Prisoner of War camps. Joined by civilians who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, the story tells of the courage and determination of those who were imprisoned.
Heartbreaking read but so interesting.

3 stars.

An informative read sharing an important part of history.

WWII. Families are fleeing Singapore to get away from Japanese army invasion. A ship carrying fleeing civilians and nurses is attacked leaving the evacuees lost at sea and eventually washed up on a remote island in Indonesia where they are captured by the Japanese army and held in prisoner-of-war (POW) camps.

This novel follows perspectives from the evacuee families and the nurses who fled with them, eventually ending up together in the POW camps. The narratives are blended together throughout chapters switching by paragraphs which I found confusing at times. I would have preferred clearer cut perspectives — by chapter or subtitle.

I connected more strongly with the nurses and enjoyed following their journey more so than the families they were alongside. There is a musical element to this storyline which I found endearing overall, but also struggled in believing the extreme cheeriness the author wrote these scenes with.

Friendship and sisterhood is a main theme and one that was critical for daily survival in the camps. The relationships were well fleshed out but at times, too cheery and because of this I failed to fully connect with the characters. I liked them and learned from them, but wasn’t invested in them.

The overall tone of the book wasn’t as heavy as I expected. The characters had a “cuteness” to them that felt unfitting during these horrific times. The characters dialogue and behaviour during their imprisonment wasn’t believable but it did make for a quick and easy read. The writing lacked the grit and heaviness I expect in historical fiction novels. The writing flowed well other than my preference for having the perspectives more clear cut. The atmosphere was vivid but my lack of connection to the characters kept me at a distance from the story.

Overall, this wasn’t a winner for me, but I appreciate learning about this time in our history. I recommend this to readers looking for a lighter but informative historical fiction experience.

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy!