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Emma Pearson wants to be a doctor, not an easy task for a woman in 1914. William Dunlop wants Emma as his wife, but he supports her dream. They both imagine a future together. When the conflict in Europe boils over, dragging Canada into the longest, bloodiest war in history, Will does his part in the muddy trenches of the Western Front. Emma is forced to face her own obstacles as a woman in a man's world of medicine. From the blood-soaked ground of Ypres, the Somme and Vimy to the devastating 1917 Halifax explosion, each of them are tested in ways they never could have imagined. Can they find a way back to each other or will they too be victims of the Great War? A sweeping novel of the Canadian experience in the First World War, Amid the Splintered Trees is loosely based on author Heather McBriarty's own family history.