It is February 1942. Amid the turmoil of World War II, a group of Australian Army nurses, among them Nesta James and Vivian Bullwinkel, have just arrived in Singapore. The women have fled there from Malaya, where they had been stationed to care for Allied troops – and they are reluctant to move on again. Their hope is to remain in the beleaguered British colony to continue their mission of treating the sick and wounded.

Norah Chambers, an English musician, has also fled to Singapore from Malaya, where she had been living with her husband and her eight-year-old daughter, Sally. Two months earlier she had sent her child away on a ship bound for Australia, desperate to keep her safe from invading Japanese forces.

As the Japanese military overruns the city, Nesta and Vivian reluctantly join a terrified cargo of people – including the heartbroken Norah – crammed aboard the merchant ship Vyner Brooke. Only two days later, they are bombarded from the air off the coast of Indonesia, and in a matter of hours, the Vyner Brooke has sunk. After surviving 24 hours in the sea, Nesta and Norah reach the beaches of a remote island, only to be captured and held in a succession of Japanese POW camps, places of starvation and brutality, where disease runs rampant.

But even here, joy can be found by those with the will to defy their desperate circumstances. When Norah forms a ‘vocal orchestra’, with the women’s voices taking the place of instruments, their music has the power to bring hope into the midst of despair.

Sisters in arms, Norah and Nesta fight side by side, discovering in themselves extraordinary reserves of courage, resourcefulness, humour and hope in their determination to retain their humanity by caring for others.

Drawing upon their real-life experiences, Heather Morris chronicles the powerful bonds of sisterhood among the 500 Australian, English, Dutch and New Zealand women who struggled and survived together for nearly four years. The result of Heather’s passionate commitment to ensuring that the bravery of these nurses, mothers and daughters is recognised, Sisters under the Rising Sun has all the elements loved by her millions of readers: strong women, courage against the odds and the power of friendship and community.