A compelling, fast-paced work of historical fiction, well-researched, set during World War I.
Philadelphian Ruby Wagner is in her early 20s and works as a switchboard operator for Pennsylvania Bell, over the objections of her socially conscious mother. The family is newly arrived to the elite suburbs of the Main Line, just beyond the city limits. Ruby is engaged to Nathaniel, the only son of a prestigious family, but while she is cares for him, she is not "in love" and is following the wishes of her parents, her mother in particular, who are pushing her to marry him. Her brother, Francis, is killed during a battle in France, where he was sent with his army battalion.
The Army recruits young women telephone operators to join the Signal Corps in Europe, in order to free up soldiers who are working those jobs when they could be fighting. After a series of skill and other tests, Ruby is selected and, despite her parents' disapproval, she departs for France.
She becomes a supervisor, and then head of the group. The work is challenging, potentially dangerous, and requires the operators to constantly learn new sets of code words to prevent the Germans from learning details of troop movements and offensives.
Ruby becomes more confident and develops as a leader. She also meets Andrew Carrigan, a medic who aspires to become a doctor, and their fictional story becomes the backdrop to many of the actual events that transpire as the war comes to a close and the Germans surrender.
Author Aimie K. Runyan has done an excellent job of researching the real life story of the women who became known as the "Hello Girls", and of conditions confronting the working women of the era. Women did not yet have the vote, and any woman who joined the Army was denied the discharge money and medical benefits that men received when they left the service. This addressed in the Afterword and is a very significant story in itself.
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