Publisher: Little Brown,  May 30, 2023

Format: ebook

Pages: 407

Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary (Goodreads):

In the tradition of The Nightingale and Transcription, an exhilarating World War II epic that chronicles an extraordinary young woman’s heroic frontline service in the Red Cross

“Urrea’s touch is sure, his exuberance carries you through . . . He is a generous writer, not just in his approach to his craft but in the broader sense of what he feels necessary to capture about life itself.” —Financial Times

In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military buses called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle.

After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a gallant American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact.

Taking as inspiration his mother’s own Red Cross service, Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women’s heroism in World War II. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea’s “gifts as a storyteller are prodigious” (NPR).

My Review:

Read if you like: WW2 history
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The book follows Irene as she volunteers with the Red Cross to run a donut and coffee truck to boost morale of the soldiers.
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Overall, the story was fine and I became invested at the end. But the journey dragged a but to get there and I found myself skimming some passages. If you have read a lot of WW2 books, this might be one to skip.
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Thank you Little Brown for the copy of this book.