Set in Australia in the late 1920s and early 1930s, “Bittersweet” is a novel about the four Latimer sisters –two sets of twins. Edda and Grace and Heather and Kitty are half sisters. Edda and Grace’s mother died when they were very young. Their father, a Church of England priest, remarried very soon after the death of his first wife. Heather and Kitty were born soon afterward. Even though they are half sisters, all four girls are devoted to each other, especially when it comes to defending themselves against Maude Latimer, the reverend’s second wife.
All four women are intelligent and ambitious, but are hampered by the fact that society expects very little of them. In spite of the odds, all four girls, with their father’s blessings, enroll in a new nursing program, one of the first of its kind in New South Wales.
Colleen McCullough, a native Australian who worked for ten years as a researcher at the Yale Medical School, has written a novel about a place she obviously loves and a profession she highly esteems. The vastness of the continent and the politics of the local state governments and the federal government in Canberra are important to the plot.
The lives of each of the sisters develop very differently. Grace marries, has two children, and is widowed very early. Heather remains single and devotes herself to running the local hospital, eventually becoming the chief superintendent. Edna, through a marriage of convenience to a very wealthy man, is able to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. Kitty, the most beautiful of the four, marries but finds no happiness with her husband.
Through the support of each other, the four sisters survive the sadness and tragedies of their lives, and each attains what each values the most. “Bittersweet” is a good read about four strong women.