Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 440
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis
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 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.
My Thoughts
Wow, y'all, wow. That is about all I can say about this book. There is a reason this won Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction. It was a sweeping journey through occupied France that really captivated me right away. There was a lot of love mentioned in the synopsis which didn't scare me away because I love love stories but this book is not a love story. It is about the women left behind and the love they have for their families and their country.
The main characters are two very different sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, who are trying to get through the war - Vianne by keeping her head down and waiting for her husband to come home and Isabelle by joining the Free French Movement and helping smuggle Allied forces out of occupied France. Both Vianne and Isabelle grow and change during the war, which for me was one of the best parts of the story. Isabelle begins as a naive, rebellious, 18 year old girl who falls in love with Gaetan on the spot. She later grows and becomes wiser. Vianne spends most of the book keeping her daughter safe by bowing to the will of the Nazis in her home and in the town. With time, she gains courage and begins to secretly hide Jewish orphaned children. The characterization was perfect and the growth was really natural.
Even though Isabelle does fall in love with Gaetan, it is not the central plot. When they first met, I kind of felt like "oh, here we go..." but, it's so not like that. Isabelle grows up and their romance is not in the forefront of her mind. There are a lot of layers to this plot and nothing is straightforward or what you think it is.
What I most enjoyed learning about was how the Nazis really took over France and controlled the French people. It started slowly and they gradually took over control through fear and betrayal. This isn't what you typically learn about in school, so it was interesting to see how it all happened and how the French reacted.
There are about 3 chapters in the book that were a flash forward. I kept going back and forth between whose perspective I thought it was from. The ending took me by surprise and left me speechless and crying. I would highly, highly recommend!
My Favorite Line
I know what matters, and it is not what I have lost. It is my memories. Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain.
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