The Nightingale

Book reviews

17 Feb

Written By Anzhelika Li

“In love, we find out who we want to be; in war, we find out who we are.”

1. THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah

SYNOPSIS

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.

BOOK REVIEW

With courage, grace, and powerful insight, Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II 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.

PS. The Nightingale is currently in production at Tri Star, with award-winning director Melanie Laurent set to direct a cast led by Dakota and Elle Fanning.