...(book review) the nightingale by kristin hannah

This story is about what it's like to be a woman during the war when women's stories are too often forgotten or overlooked...

THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah
Published: 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, WWII Fiction
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

How I wish I'd finished reading this book in time for this review to coincide with International Women's Day last Monday - but, alas, life got in the way.

I did however finish reading it on International Women's Day, and my god it was a powerful feeling. To say this book was a pleasure to read would be inaccurate given it's content. But as a lover of literature and of history, it was a pleasure to be immersed in such a well written historical fiction. 

This is a tale of two sisters, Vianne, a teacher and a mother willing the war to be over with her head down and her eyes averted, until she's forced to confront it with newly open eyes; and Isabelle, a rebellious young woman seeking purpose in a world gone wrong.

Kristin Hannah has portrayed a woman's war so captivatingly and somehow managed to compress it into 438 thrilling pages. No detail has been spared. The lives of Vianne and Isabelle, in Nazi occupied France are filled we heartache, hunger, impossible love in an impossible time, the redefining of family loyalty, integrity; the strength of women in every sense.

Their struggles are unimaginable, but based on the experiences of so many women from this period in history. Their stories, running side by side and criss-crossing through the book, force you to evaluate your humanity. What would you do when faced with the decision between self-preservation and putting your life in danger to protect those who are powerless? I put myself in their place and wondered if I could put myself in that much danger with the eyes of the enemy literally in my home, watching my every move, patrolling the streets. I hope I'd find the strength to try, though my heart flutters at the thought of having to make such a weighty and consequential choice.

Although this novel is fiction, it's inspired by very real, incredibly strong women in history.

At the back of my edition, there's a few pages of reflections from the author, where she explains that the concept for this novel was sparked by research that led her to stories of the women of the French Resistance. Stories that were not well known and needed to be told.

There are so many stories from men in the war, from the front lines, of the horror and the fighting and the comradery. It was horrifying and there's know doubt about it. But those men returned as heroes in the public eye, celebrated alongside the end of the war.

Women in war are the silent survivors. We know of their struggles in terms of waiting for their men to return, saying goodbye to their children, enduring the rationing, surviving the blitz, working the land. But most of these stories are told from a British perspective, with the dismissive "keep calm and carry on" air about them. 

I've never read a book that so vividly and accurately bring to life the harrowing realities of women's lives in occupied France in this manor. 

A a lover of history, I was incredibly invested in this book. Even now, a week later, the tragedy, intimacy and reality of it are haunting me like a lingering ghost.

The war is still such a recent smear on history that I believe this will remain universal for many years to come. There are still so many families whose generations will remember and relate to many components.

Still, despite it's horrors, this book is touching beyond words and oh so empowering to read, speaking from a women's perspective. It highlights in bright revealing light what we are truly capable of, and how we have been, and perhaps still are, underestimated. It was because men believe women so docile and incapable that they were able to achieve all they did in the resistance. The Nazi's did not suspect women of political subterfuge.

I could rhapsodise on The Nightingale forever more, but I will end only by saying that this was the most solid 5 star read I've come across in a long time. I recommend it so highly and would love to know your thoughts if you've read it before.

Thanks as always for reading. You can find me across social media @zuzuspages for more book content.

Zuzu