The Red Tunic
1910 Cambridge, England: Twins Alfie and Nina are the products of an unhappy home, with a distant and unloving father, and they find comfort in cross-dressing play. Alfie is timid and tends to be the nurturing sort, while Nina is wild and brave, but protective of Alfie, as when he is forced into a boxing match at school. Alfie impersonates Nina at a family wedding when she balks at being a bridesmaid. When the twins come of age during the Great War, Nina gets the idea that they should switch roles, wanting to protect Alfie, whom she believes would never survive on the front. After Alfie passes his army physical, the night before he must leave, Nina steals his uniform and reports in his place, leaving him a letter telling him to take her place at nurses’ training instead.
Nina soon learns to swear and drink like the other soldiers, and how to survive in the trenches. She manages to overcome a bayonet wound without having the medics find out she is a woman, which could lead to Alfie being shot as a deserter. But Liam, one of her comrades in the unit, discovers her secret, as does Lacey, the unit’s bully, who intends to blackmail her into giving him sexual favors.
I was a bit exasperated at first when the story kept jumping between the twins’ childhood and Nina’s experiences in the trenches, but was soon caught up in the tale and eager to know how it would turn out. Short chapters keep the story moving. Narrator Nina is an intriguing gender-nonconforming character, wanting the freedom of male attire and gender role, but still interested as a woman in romancing Liam. Alfie and the twins’ aunt Julia, a fervent suffragette, are also engaging, non-conforming characters. A thoroughly enjoyable novel.
