"The Nightingale"

The Nightingale By Kristin Hannah

FIVE STARS!
January, 2023

This book was not the kind of book I usually read, although I enjoy period pieces and historical fiction, the subject matter is dark. One sister lives an idyllic life in a small French village with everything to lose, and the other sister struggles to find love and her place in the world with nothing to lose. One finds herself in a war-torn existence where the only goal is survival and the other finds her life's purpose amidst it all. I didn't want to put the book down, the characters challenges, struggles, triumphs were compelling. The intrigue and suspense created by Kristin Hannah was a plus, and how Hannah uses the reader's assumptions to her advantage to provide mystery even through the final pages. My heart was stomped on, my hope twisted. An important story of the realities of WW2, but a tough read too. I had tears when I finished the last page. The takeaway for me was to never forget the sacrifices made to live free. How blessed I am to enjoy life, liberty and to pursue happiness.
-Kim Luke

Book Blurb:

In love we find out who we want to be.

In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye 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, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, 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.

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