The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Genre: Historical
Pages: 468
Published By: Pan Macmillan on 4th August, 2022
Format: Paperback
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Book Synopsis:
This story is about what it was like to be a woman during World War II, when women’s stories were all too often forgotten or overlooked . . .
Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac are two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals and passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path towards survival, love and freedom in war-torn France.
It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
Book Review
I’ve always been interested in books set during World War II… I’ve had this one on my radar for a long time. I decided to pick it up after hearing what my sister thought about it and seeing reviews on social media. This review will be quite short as I think this book speaks for itself…
I’ll start with my only few criticisms I have for this book… The first half of this book was quite slow to get through. The chapters are nice and short with lots of action going on to keep you reading. I found some parts a bit of a slog to get through. However, once I passed the halfway mark, the book captivated me. The next criticism is purely personal opinion… I have never been a reader to love overly descriptive books. I will say that Hannah does a beautiful job with her descriptions and the language she uses is almost poetic. However, there were times when it felt a little overkill and unnecessary.
Woven across the awful environment/situation was a story of two very different sisters. The third-person POV for Vianne and Isabelle’s story works really well. It allows us as readers to see their thoughts and feelings whilst keeping a distance between the narrator. I also like how the author included some chapters set years after the war as well. The author told these in the first person, and I enjoyed the mystery of trying to figure out who the older woman was. Is she Vianne or Isabelle? Very cleverly done.
This book is devastating, heart-breaking, powerful, courageous and compelling! There were a lot of moments throughout this book where I was tearing up–not crying like I thought I would–but definitely tear-jerking. I think the only reason that I didn’t cry is because I could tell when emotional things were going to happen. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but these moments felt predictable and sometimes glossed over. They still pulled on my heartstrings nonetheless. Can honestly say this will be a story that will stay with me forever and I’m so glad I finally got around to reading it.
I definitely think this is an important read because it offers deeper insight into what life was like for women during the war. It’s hard to say whether I would recommend this book due to the nature of it. However, if you find books set during WWII interesting then I’d suggest giving this one a read.
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