BOOK REVIEW: We Meet Apart by Martha Conway

We Meet Apart by Martha Conway is a beautifully constructed novel combining historical fiction, speculative fiction, and magical realism.

During WWII, American sisters Gaby and Sabine are visiting their grandmother in France when Nazis invade. Before they can flee, the family is stricken with typhus. Everyone dies except for one of the sisters. But which one?

In the reality that we know, one where Ireland remains neutral, Gaby survives. She makes her way to Ireland, and eventually to the small town of Ballyream, to the home of wealthy family friends (really more just connections than friends). She is grateful to be welcomed there, until she learns she is to be a servant, a kitchen maid. She desperately wants to return to America, but ships are not sailing because of the war.

In another reality, Sabine is the one who lives. She is younger by a year, and has a congenitally absent hand, so she is used to being somewhat protected by Gaby. Now, she feels abandoned. In this universe, the Nazis have invaded Ireland, and it is extremely dangerous for the Irish (many of whom were not exactly anti-Nazi because of their understandable anti-British sentiments). But it’s even more dangerous for Sabine, an American with no papers. She, too, is drawn to Ballyream. And she is also taken into the home as a servant, though her experience is different.

The two live parallel existences in the midst of people who are the same, yet not the same. And then, one evening at twilight, the two sisters find one another. For an hour each evening, they are able to connect. 

Of course, this can’t last. The war, whether Ireland is neutral or invaded, intrudes.

The novel is a fascinating look at the possibilities of the multiverse, and how it interconnects with folklore. The characters are fully developed and the scenarios are equally credible in each of the realities. In the end, I found myself wishing, for the sisters’ sakes, that each of the realities could be true.