Blog Tour: An Extract from The Lotus House by Ann Bennett

Posted on December 10, 2024 inBlog Tour

Today as a part of the blog tour, I am sharing an extract from The Lotus House by Ann Bennett. This is a recent release and it is described as a gripping, emotional drama of love and courage set in the Philippines during WW2.

Book Description:

1960: Nancy Drayton, an American nurse living on Lake Sebu, is visited by a stranger who hands her some faded letters, given to her by a dying man. Reading them transports Nancy back to the terror of the war years.

1941: When Nancy’s world is blown apart by the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, she volunteers to travel to the Philippines to serve at the front. She soon finds herself working in a field hospital on the Bataan Peninsula in the thick of the fighting, experiencing the horrors of war first hand.

When tending to some wounded men, she meets Captain Robert Lambert, and they become close. But the Japanese are closing in on Bataan, and when the US surrenders, they are driven apart.

As Robert struggles to survive the horrors of the Bataan Death March and the brutality of captivity in a prison camp, Nancy too finds herself a captive, fighting for her life. Will they survive to find one another again or will the forces of war keep them apart?

If you enjoy compelling historical fiction, you’ll love this sweeping story of love and war. Perfect for fans of Kristen Hannah, Dinah Jeffries and Victoria Hislop.

Buy Your Copy of The Lotus House here.

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Note from the author:
These are the opening words from Chapter 20 of The Lotus House. Nancy Drayton, an American nurse has been serving in a field hospital on the Bataan peninsula when the Japanese break through American lines. The nurses are evacuated to Corregidor Island on the tip of the Peninsula.
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It took many hot, dusty, uncomfortable hours for the battered old bus with its cargo of nurses to reach the city of Mariveles at the tip of the Bataan Peninsula. The route south that ran along the coast was clogged with Filipino refugees. Queues of them swarming the road made it hard for any vehicle to make progress. Everyone was heading to Mariveles under the relentless sun; on foot, on bicycle, on horseback, on bullock cart, carrying or pushing their babies and children and all their worldly possessions along with them. Amongst them marched ragged US soldiers on their retreat south. They trudged along the dusty road, heads bowed. To Nancy they looked like a beaten army; sick, emaciated and defeated.

Everyone was fleeing the fighting, terrified of the Japanese, trying to get away to some sort of safety while there was still time. But time was running out for them, Nancy thought, staring out of the open bus window at the desperate crowds trudging along. The end would surely come soon, and then what would happen to them?

It reminded her of the journey to Bataan from Manila only a few months before, and the thousands of refugees they’d passed on the way. So much had happened since that day, she reflected. In those short months she’d experienced and seen so much; the horrific wounds inflicted on men during the fighting, the trauma of holding dying men in her arms, seeing so often the ravages that hunger and tropical disease could wreak on healthy men. But she had nursed many more men back to health again, she reminded herself, despite the desperate conditions they’d worked in. She knew she should try to hold onto that thought rather than dwell on the horrors.

The interior of the bus was as hot as an oven, and sweat was trickling down the inside of Nancy’s uniform. Looking around at her fellow nurses, sweating away like her as they bumped and rattled along, fanning themselves furiously with whatever they had to hand, they all looked as exhausted and skinny as she knew she did l. They’d all been through so much together, they felt like family now.

She counted herself luckier than most. In those few short, terrible months, she’d been fortunate enough not to fall prey to any tropical illnesses. And she’d been blessed to get to know and to love Robert. Thinking about him provoked a mixture of emotions in her heart, both pain and delight. Delight at the memory of what they’d shared together, but pain at the knowledge that Robert was probably at that moment fighting for his life, and that if the US surrendered, he would either be shot or taken prisoner. All the time, in the back of Nancy’s mind, was the niggling worry that she might never see him again. She closed her eyes and tried to push it away. The thought was unbearable. But they’d managed to say goodbye, she reminded herself. She was thankful for that at least.

At last, the bus reached the city of Mariveles and rumbled through the outskirts of the town. Here, the road was lined with shabby houses on stilts, built of patched wood or rusting corrugated iron. Soon the houses gave way to warehouses, and finally they were driving through the city centre between rows of shops and office blocks. Even here there were refugees at every turn, sitting on the sidewalk or the steps of buildings, sheltering from the sun under trees or tarpaulins stretched from fences. They had nowhere left to go. They had reached the end of the road. Nancy’s heart went out to those poor, stranded, homeless people as the bus rattled past them. They were innocent civilians, caught up in events completely beyond their control.

When the bus finally reached the port, the whole area was gridlocked with vehicles and yet more crowds of refugees, all trying to get into the docks. From where they sat on the stationary bus, the nurses could see through the crowds to the boats and launches lined up at the wharf. The driver turned around.

‘You want to walk to the boat?’ he asked them, and everyone chorused, ‘Yes!’

He jumped down, went to the back of the bus where the nurses had already begun to crowd around, and handed out their luggage from the trunk. Nancy picked up her suitcase and headed with Dorothy towards the wharf, shouldering their way through the surging crowds. Suddenly, came the boom of an explosion. The sound rocketed through the city and around the surrounding hills. People began to scream and push.

‘What was that?’ Nancy said. ‘The Japanese aren’t this far south already, are they?’

Dorothy shrugged, her eyes wide with fear as she struggled to stay upright, jostled by the panicking crowd. They carried on pushing their way through to the boats. It was hard to maintain a steady course, but eventually they reached the wharf where launches, fishing boats and small ships were docked.

An old Filipino stepped forward, his skin leathery from the sun. ‘You nurses from Hospital Number 1?’ he asked. ‘I am here to take you to Corregidor Island. Get into the boat. Luggage in the bottom. Hand it to me.’

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About the Author:

Ann Bennett is a British author of historical fiction. Her first book, Bamboo Heart: A Daughter’s Quest, was inspired by researching her father’s experience as a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma Railway and by her own travels in South-East Asia. Since then, that initial inspiration has led her to write more books about the second world war in SE Asia. Bamboo Island: The Planter’s Wife, A Daughter’s Promise, Bamboo Road: The Homecoming, The Tea Planter’s Club, The Amulet and her latest release The Fortune Teller of Kathmandu are also about WWII in South East Asia. All seven make up the Echoes of Empire Collection.

Ann is also the author of The Lake Pavilion, The Lake Palace, both set in British India during the 1930s and WWII, and The Lake Pagoda and The Lake Villa, both set in French Indochina. The Runaway Sisters, bestselling The Orphan House, The Child Without a Home and The Forgotten Children are set in Europe during the same era and are published by Bookouture.

Ann is married with three grown up sons and a granddaughter and lives in Surrey, UK. For more details please visit www.annbennettauthor.com

Contact Ann:
Website
X @annbennett71
Instagram @annbennettauthor

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