2016 Silver Medal Winner
by Kristen Hannah
BACK COVER:
FRANCE, 1939
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France … but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.
Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can … completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
MY REVIEW:
This book was raw. Not like thawing hamburger left out on the counter. More like gritty, real, the kind of feeling you get when your shin drags across the carpet and burns. The Nightingale is the tale of two women during World War II.
And the ending will blow your mind.
This is the first Kristin Hannah book I've read but it won't be the last. Her writing is fresh, evocative, and totally pulls you into another world. Granted, war torn France isn't really where I'd like to hang out, but the emotion of this book grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go.
There is some violence, some sex, but all play into the story and make it what it is . . . a moving read.