Good will always triumph over evil. Right? It seems to have been the case in most of the conflicts we read about in our history books. In every case though, evil gets a good bite of the cherry before being vanquished. While evil is in the ascendancy, there will be horrendous suffering inflicted on the weakest members of society, and it doesn’t always need a war for this to happen. A corrupt government can turn its army on the people to subdue and control, as was the case in East Pakistan in 1971. This provided the historical context for the fictional events in the novel Niramaya A Female Medic’s War Journey.

Victories over the perpetrators of evil are hard won and require the intervention of heroes who emerge, not only from armed resistance fighters but from the unlikeliest of places. When writing the first drafts of the novel it was a great opportunity to pay homage to the unsung heroes of every war: the medics, the farmers who supply food, the engineers who maintain the supplies of fresh water and electricity to name but a few. Thus emerged the main protagonist of the story, Doctor Meena. In her it was possible to pay tribute to medics and women by inserting her into the most harrowing of events, to challenge her ability to overcome adversity from the unique perspective of a woman facing an out-of-control military.

To further enhance the role of women as medics during war, it was with great pleasure that another female supporting character, Monica, a feisty nurse, was inserted. Shunned by her family for declaring sexual orientation not tolerated in the rural community in which she lived, forcing her to abandon her home and family. Her allegiance to Doctor Meena is unwavering and presents a formidable team confronting evil but their resilience is challenged on occasion and their vulnerabilities exposed as events isolate them as the story progresses.

The main antagonist in the book, Major Ali Khan, finds his origins in Bihar state in India and through the disaster that was Partition, finds himself in the Pakistan Army during the final months of East Pakistan before it became Bangladesh. It was inevitable that his encounters with Doctor Meena would provide all the necessary tension and drama to keep the reader captivated and unable to resist turning the pages to find out what happens next. The classic narrative formula of all war novels: the strong versus the weak and the ever-present tension experienced by the reader while constantly evaluating the most likely outcome of each encounter.

You will be introduced to Captain Singh and Shane Ryan. Captain Singh is part of the Indian Army forced to intervene in the internal struggle in East Pakistan to prevent further atrocities against the civilian population. Shane is caught up in the conflict as a foreign engineer assisting Doctor Meena in the repair of her hospital equipment. Both form alliances with Meena as she navigates the complexities of protecting her community from the ravages of war. Captain Singh’s experiences provide graphic descriptions of the ugliness of war; it is, after all, a war novel. Shane, as a foreign aid worker dispels the notion of first-world superiority overcoming third-world reliance. If the author’s experiences in India are anything to go by then the opposite is true. Foreigners in this situation are the beneficiaries of local expertise and knowledge and return home enriched and enlightened. As interesting asides, we delve into the intriguing personal journeys of both Shane and Captain Singh. Both Irish and Sikh backgrounds portray in detail the importance of, and stability provided by family.

Doctor Meena’s mentor throughout the story is Sister Gertrude, an elderly German nun who has experienced life on the frontline in a previous war as she faced soldiers of the Russian Army as it advanced into Germany at the end of the Second World War. She provides evidence that war never changes, the ingredients are always the same: Innocent suffering and evil triumphing until it is confronted by the forces of good. A slow and tedious process in every war.

Various other characters provide continuity in the narrative but probably the most significant is Mister Abdullah, a reluctant hero and leader in the Mukti Bahini freedom fighter movement, formed from the Bengali civilian population, police, and army personnel to confront the excesses of the Pakistani military which had transformed into a repressive army of occupation. Abdullah provides the face of restraint and compassion as he regulates the lust for revenge among his soldiers. He emerges as the conscience of the nation and in him we see the fate of the emerging country of Bangladesh. He provides hope for the future and a realisation that reconciliation and not retribution will form the foundation of any future government. Observe Bangladesh today to see if his hopes and aspirations have been realised and how Greater Bengal and the Bengali people exist in harmony with their neighbours in the region.

Ultimately, Niramaya A Female Medic’s War Journey, enforces the unique perspective of women as they confront a hostile army whose soldiers regard women as the spoils of war and just reward for their victory. The purpose of the story is to invite the reader to put themselves in the position of a woman and her daughters as an invading army descends upon them. How frightening it must be for them as rumours of unspeakable crimes against women circulate in their community. Death would be preferable, and many choose this option. Those who survive horrific assaults are left with mental scars and trauma that never abate. Trauma counselling is alluded to in the book, but the story is set in a time when counselling was in its infancy and women simply faced the psychological horrors alone and were encouraged to simply ‘get on with it’. Another passage in the book relates how women in poverty are forced to deal alone with the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy and the difficult, often fatal, choices they must make when all they can afford is the harrowing option of a backstreet abortion.

The book is fiction. Doctor Meena is a composite of many remarkable women encountered while working in India. Quite a few of the sequences in the book find their origin in actual events during that time. Each character reflects the personalities of actual people known to the author. It was a pleasure to introduce world readers to Doctor Meena who ultimately surpassed my intellectual capacity to contain her, as her character soared and developed a life of its own, challenging the world, and the author, to dare contain her aspirations and hopes for the future.