The Pacific, 1942. Japanese forces are attacking Singapore. 

After months of chaos, Australian Army nurse Lieutenant Vivian Bullwinkel and sixty-four colleagues find themselves ordered to abandon their hospitals and the wounded men in them. Singapore is lost, and their only hope of escape is aboard the SS Vyner Brooke and through the infamous strait known as Bomb Alley. 

The ship lasts for two days before it is sunk by Japanese bombers. 

Vivian and her best friend, Nancy Harris, are amongst the survivors who wash up on Radji Beach. There’s no food and precious little medical supplies, and they soon find they have little choice but to surrender themselves to the Japanese – whose soldiers are not known for their mercy. 

Based on the true story of the nurses of the Vyner Brooke, If Fish Had a Wishbone is a gripping and powerful novel of friendship, courage and fortitude in the face of unimaginable terror. For readers of When We Had Wings and Angels of the Pacific.