The Liberty Scarf: A Story of Three Women, One War, and a Scarf That Binds Them Together

The Liberty Scarf is a three-part novel by Aimie K. Runyan, J'nell Ciesielski, and Rachel McMillan set during World War I. A single scarf connects three women across different locations as each navigates societal expectations, the devastations of war, and personal growth. In London, Iris Braxton is an ambitious scarf maker who dreams of becoming Liberty's first female pattern designer. When Captain Rex Conrad, a soldier on leave, captures her heart, she begins stitching messages into her scarves hoping one will reach him. After learning he is wounded in Strasbourg, France, she travels to his side and encounters a woman wearing one of her scarves. In Maine, Geneviève Tremblay, a French-Canadian immigrant and telephone operator, enlists in the US Army Signal Corps as a bilingual operator to gain acceptance in her community. There she meets a French officer who makes her reconsider the cost of abandoning her identity. In Belgium, Clara Janssens, a Flemish nurse, and Roman Allaire, an Alsatian violinist, form a connection in a Brussels palace-turned-hospital. Their shared love of music creates a bond threatened by war's destruction, yet an unexpected gift of a treasured scarf offers them hope for a brighter future. The scarf serves as a symbol of hope, resilience, and unity binding the three women together.