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In the Fall They Leave: A Novel of the First World War
After failing at a prestigious music AcadÉmie, nineteen-year-old Marie-ThÉrÈse is finally meeting with success at a Brussels nursing school. But in August 1914, just as her third and final year begins, German armies invade Belgium, swiftly overcome the Allies, and press on toward France, leaving behind an occupying force. This upends everything in Brussels and in Marie-ThÉrÈse's world. There are reports of ongoing brutalities which fuel burgeoning resentment on the part of the citizenry. Although the occupiers must be treated with respect, nothing prevents citizens from venting their anger on fellow citizens of German descent, including Marie-ThÉrÈse's family. At the clinic and nursing school, a newly installed director orders students and staff to spy on one another. In this perilous environment, the matron of the school—a character based on the historical Edith Cavell—makes a fateful decision. Soon, so does Marie-ThÉrÈse. Both have far-reaching consequences. IN THE FALL THEY LEAVE is a wartime story of moral courage, resilience, and endurance.
300 pages, Paperback
Published February 21, 2023
About the author
Joanna Higgins
12 books7 followersJoanna Higgins is the author of A Soldier's Book, Dead Center, and The Importance of High Places, a collection of short stories. She received her PhD from SUNY-Binghamton, where she studied under John Gardner. An adoptive mother of two children, Higgins lives with her family in upstate New York. Waiting for the Queen is her fist book for young readers.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 8, 2023
A great hero of WWI was the English nurse, Edith Cavell. She directed a medical clinic in German occupied Belgium where, in addition to treating German soldiers, she secretly provided health care to wounded British and French combatants. When they became well enough to travel, she helped them escape to England. These were crimes under German law and punishable by death. When the Germans discovered what she was doing, they arrested her, and her arrest became a cause célèbre for protests throughout much of the world.
“In the Fall They Leave” portrays Edith Cavell through the eyes of fictional character Marie Thérèse, a nursing student at the clinic. Clavell, or the matron, as she is called throughout the novel, recruits Marie Thèrése to help care for the allied soldiers when they arrive at her clinic. Up to this point, the young nurse has simply been trying to lead a normal life under the unpleasant presence of the German occupiers. Now she has the harrowing burden of living under the constant fear that she could be caught and executed.
When Marie Thérèse discovers spies and informers among the people at the clinic, she realizes what a dangerous business they are all engaged in. She begs the matron to stop. But the matron is dedicated to the cause of providing aid to any needy person, regardless of nationality, and she refuses to stop helping the Allied soldiers. Finally, the Germans arrest her, and, on October 12, 1915, they stand her before a firing squad.
The execution of the matron seems to end the nursing career of Marie Thérèse. She is also arrested, but she somehow manages to escape and make her way to Holland which is a neutral country. There, she picks up the pieces of her life in a manner just as engaging as her struggles under the occupying army.
My only quibbles with this story are stylistic. Marie Thérèse engages in much more introspection than I would prefer. However, a lot of readers will like this. While the dialog is engaging for the most part, some of it takes place in long paragraphs that don’t resemble the way people actually converse. And there are occasional uses of current day jargon that sound strange in the language of 1915. Talk therapy, for example. Psychotherapists at the time did indeed refer to “the talking cure.” But the term talk therapy probably did not exist, and most of what is considered talk therapy today goes far beyond anything that would have been practiced at the time.
But these are minor quibbles for a great story. It portrays for us how dismal life is under an occupying army. It shows us a great deal about the practice of nursing a century ago. And it renews our faith in the survival of human decency under the worst conditions. Marie Thérèse is a rich and sympathetic character whose story is definitely worth a look.
“In the Fall They Leave” portrays Edith Cavell through the eyes of fictional character Marie Thérèse, a nursing student at the clinic. Clavell, or the matron, as she is called throughout the novel, recruits Marie Thèrése to help care for the allied soldiers when they arrive at her clinic. Up to this point, the young nurse has simply been trying to lead a normal life under the unpleasant presence of the German occupiers. Now she has the harrowing burden of living under the constant fear that she could be caught and executed.
When Marie Thérèse discovers spies and informers among the people at the clinic, she realizes what a dangerous business they are all engaged in. She begs the matron to stop. But the matron is dedicated to the cause of providing aid to any needy person, regardless of nationality, and she refuses to stop helping the Allied soldiers. Finally, the Germans arrest her, and, on October 12, 1915, they stand her before a firing squad.
The execution of the matron seems to end the nursing career of Marie Thérèse. She is also arrested, but she somehow manages to escape and make her way to Holland which is a neutral country. There, she picks up the pieces of her life in a manner just as engaging as her struggles under the occupying army.
My only quibbles with this story are stylistic. Marie Thérèse engages in much more introspection than I would prefer. However, a lot of readers will like this. While the dialog is engaging for the most part, some of it takes place in long paragraphs that don’t resemble the way people actually converse. And there are occasional uses of current day jargon that sound strange in the language of 1915. Talk therapy, for example. Psychotherapists at the time did indeed refer to “the talking cure.” But the term talk therapy probably did not exist, and most of what is considered talk therapy today goes far beyond anything that would have been practiced at the time.
But these are minor quibbles for a great story. It portrays for us how dismal life is under an occupying army. It shows us a great deal about the practice of nursing a century ago. And it renews our faith in the survival of human decency under the worst conditions. Marie Thérèse is a rich and sympathetic character whose story is definitely worth a look.
February 22, 2025
If readers seek hope, inspiration and encouragement in our own turbulent and unsettling time, they are sure to find it in Joanna Higgins’ powerful and moving historical novel In the Fall They Leave.
Young Marie-Thérèse is the quietly compelling protagonist of this finely expressed work. She is heroine and survivor, risking her life in Brussels to care for the sick and wounded at a nursing school/clinic in the German-occupied Belgium of World War I. She did not seek heroism, but happened to be in the school, uncertain of her future, when Germany invaded, and there she found her calling.
She is a warrior for the good, but a reluctant one, which draws us near to her and her plight. Many if not most heroic souls in history similarly found themselves in dire situations which called for submission or resistance. Her character develops and shines in the forge of war in her simultaneous roles as nurse and wily resister against both occupiers and collaborators.
In the most harrowing of circumstances, Marie-Thérèse grows into the knowledge of both her young self and the art of healing those most torn by war. She is indeed a role model for us today in the face of the spreading tyranny in our world, a world in which we ourselves may be forced to choose between doing the right thing in the face of great personal risk, or doing wrong passively in submission and obedience. By acting from bravery as she does, Marie-Thérèse comes to know not only what the living need in a terrible time, but also what the dying need in their final moments.
One such bittersweet moment in the book which moved my soul, written with compassion and the elegance of simplicity, finds our heroine giving solace to a man shot and dying, and to the reader an antidote to the sorrow of the book’s title: “Papa,” she whispers near his ear, “in the spring they return, the birds.” Highly recommended.
Young Marie-Thérèse is the quietly compelling protagonist of this finely expressed work. She is heroine and survivor, risking her life in Brussels to care for the sick and wounded at a nursing school/clinic in the German-occupied Belgium of World War I. She did not seek heroism, but happened to be in the school, uncertain of her future, when Germany invaded, and there she found her calling.
She is a warrior for the good, but a reluctant one, which draws us near to her and her plight. Many if not most heroic souls in history similarly found themselves in dire situations which called for submission or resistance. Her character develops and shines in the forge of war in her simultaneous roles as nurse and wily resister against both occupiers and collaborators.
In the most harrowing of circumstances, Marie-Thérèse grows into the knowledge of both her young self and the art of healing those most torn by war. She is indeed a role model for us today in the face of the spreading tyranny in our world, a world in which we ourselves may be forced to choose between doing the right thing in the face of great personal risk, or doing wrong passively in submission and obedience. By acting from bravery as she does, Marie-Thérèse comes to know not only what the living need in a terrible time, but also what the dying need in their final moments.
One such bittersweet moment in the book which moved my soul, written with compassion and the elegance of simplicity, finds our heroine giving solace to a man shot and dying, and to the reader an antidote to the sorrow of the book’s title: “Papa,” she whispers near his ear, “in the spring they return, the birds.” Highly recommended.
February 21, 2023
It’s August 1914 at the start of WWI and 19-year-old Marie-Therese is in nursing school in Belgium. She’s plagued with self-doubt and disappointment, worried about making mistakes, and sure that she’s going to fail at nursing just like she failed at music. But Marie Therese turns out to be stronger than she could have ever thought possible.
I enjoyed reading this beautifully-written novel and I was honored to interview the author for the New Books Network - https://newbooksnetwork.com/in-the-fa...
I enjoyed reading this beautifully-written novel and I was honored to interview the author for the New Books Network - https://newbooksnetwork.com/in-the-fa...
August 13, 2023
Very interesting especially as I know little about WWI. Engaging because I wasn't sure who to trust. Enlightening as it's based on a real-life heroine, both in nursing and in resistance in WWI. And, captivating as it knits together music, history and a great love story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews