The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Title: The Nightingale


Author: Kristin Hannah

Type: Novel
Genre: Historical Fiction

Series: No

Pages: 440
Copyright:  2015

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Rating: 4 out of 5


Cover Rating: 4 out of 5
The cover of the book that I designed was of the apple tree in Vianne's yard. She tied fabric to the tree to remember each person that the war took from her. I thought having that as the cover would be interesting because it would be from the period of the war but not as dark as a war. The actual cover is simple, which I think was good. It was from the present time and showed the Eiffel tower through a rainy window with a rose bush and a nightingale in gold laid over the top. I thought it was elegant but dark.

 
Summary: from Good Reads
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.

Feelings:
It took me a while to get into the book. It starts out in 1995 with a woman remembering the past and thinking about what we loose. She doesn't relish remembering but remembering becomes central to the story in a way that is heartbreaking. Once I got to Isabelle's point of view I found the story more engaging.

The back and forth between two time periods, 1995 (where the story is from a first person narrator) and WWII (where the story is told in third person)  gave the story an interesting feeling. I wasn't sure which sister was remember the war in 1995.

The novel was not one that I would consider uplifting but it had moments of happiness during the war even mixed in with the horrors. I would recomend this novel. Many novels I think that the cover adds something to the story but after seeing the cover on this I don't think it added anything to the story and I didn't feel like I was missing part of the story seeing it after finishing the novel.

I recommend this novel to readers who enjoy historical fiction and who like strong female characters.