The Face Painter

A failed art student forges a life-changing friendship with a wounded soldier and a young orderly, and discovers her true calling while creating masks for disfigured soldiers in a British hospital during the First World War.

 All Meg Bradshaw wants is to become an illustrator, but she faces opposition from family and teachers. Devastated when her brother disappears in battle during World War I, she abandons her dream and volunteers in a London military hospital. She soon realizes she’s a failure as a nursing aide, but before she is sent home in disgrace, a chance encounter leads her to the hospital’s Tin Noses Shop. It’s her chance to apply her artistic skills to create masks for disfigured soldiers—if she can convince the sculptor in charge to take her on. 

Her path collides with Sam Miller, a hospital orderly whose heart defect kept him out of the army. He’s tired of strangers calling him a coward for not being in uniform, and he’s willing to do anything to serve his country. 

Meg and Sam form an unlikely bond when they befriend Jack Kelley, an American patient struggling with his scars—both physical and emotional. Meg creates a mask for Jack, but when a child screams at his face, Jack runs away, convinced he’ll never have a normal life. What follows threatens Meg’s future as an artist and forces Sam to choose whether to risk his army ambitions to save his friend.

Read an excerpt from THE FACE PAINTER at Embark Literary Journal.