In war we find out who we are.
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 France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another.
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 the compelling and mysterious 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. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real--and deadly--consequences.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah takes her talented pen to 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.
Summary and pic from goodreads.com
My Review: I don’t know if you saw it or not, but this year’s word
of the year was not a word. It was an emoji. An emoji! Seriously, people. What
are we coming to? In case you were wondering, this is the emoji that won:
. It is used to replace LOL. So. For all you old skoolers out there still texting LOL when something particularly funny comes up, you need to stop. STOP! Instead, you can be like all the kool kids and start using emojis.
. It is used to replace LOL. So. For all you old skoolers out there still texting LOL when something particularly funny comes up, you need to stop. STOP! Instead, you can be like all the kool kids and start using emojis.
Speaking of which, since this is a review (and a review
of an excellent book, by the way), if I were to describe this book I would use
this emoji:
I promise
you that you will find yourself like this in this book—mouth open, tears
streaming down, face round and Fitzpatrick Scale default yellow. Okay, maybe
not that. But I’m telling you that this book is sad.
One of my favorite genres right now is historical
fiction. I love me some historical fiction. I feel like I can learn and
experience history while reading about people who experienced it (even if they
are just fictional). Really good historical fiction puts you right in the
moment—you understand the culture, you feel like you’re part of it, and all of
a sudden these parts of the past come alive. This is a book that does this
beautifully. The story itself is really touching. It’s heartbreaking, actually
(see above emoji), and that alone is enough to trigger steady streams of
digital tears. However, one of the things I loved most about this book is that
it is World War II on the home front (and in this case, the home front is
France), and that home front was basically fought by women. Although these
women were not necessarily out traipsing around in uniform and carrying guns,
they were fighting the real fight—how do you feed your children with no food?
How do you deal with an occupying army? How do you make due with the little
that is left? How do you pick up the pieces from your broken men and survivors
of the front-line atrocities? This book addresses these situations in a way I
haven’t felt since two of my favorite books Code
Name Verity and Rose Under Fire.
I loved this book because it exposed me to heroism in
WWII I didn’t know much about. The story itself is incredible. Hannah is a good
writer, too, which makes it all the better. But be warned—as with the war
itself, although the Allies won, it was not without loss and sadness. This book
explores that (cue emoji).
I rarely give five stars, but I think this book is
deserving. It has to be more than just well-written or a good, exciting read. I
don’t just hand out five stars because I laughed or cried to an emoji-like state.
To get five stars, a book needs to mean something—to change my life in some
way. I would say that this book is completely worth the read. I highly
recommend it. It also recently won the best historical fiction of 2015 by
goodreads.com. If you’re working your way down that reading list, be sure to
add this one to it.
My Rating: 5
Stars
4 comments:
I totally agree. This book was a amazing on so many levels. The bravery and heartache that the women showed left me in awe. I rarely give out 5 stars as well, but, this book was definitely worthy of that coveted fifth star.
Very glad to hear you loved it too. I loved this book so much and it's definitely my favorite read this year.
What an excellent review. I remember hearing about this book when it first came out, but I never got around to reading it. Now that I know it has Ashley's stamp of approval, I NEED to read it [insert happy emoji here].
I just finished the audio book. And I did cry - in two different parking lots when running errands/commuting. But the book was also redemptive. Some people lived to tell. The story was engrossing and sucked me in quickly. I needed a good page-turner, and this one did it.
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