What’s it all about?:
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.
What did I think?:
It feels like everyone and their dog (well maybe not their dog, but you know what I mean?) has been talking about this novel in recent times. Why am I only now getting round to it? I’ve read The Night Road by Kristin Hannah before and thoroughly enjoyed it and I trust the reviews of both my sister and my fellow bloggers who have raved about The Nightingale, yet…something stopped me. Hype can be a terrible thing, sometimes it can make you MORE wary to pick up a book. What if you don’t like it as much as everyone else does and as a result, it’s just a bit of a let down? So it sits on the shelves and you might look at it from time to time and think: “I must get round to that!” and still it sits.
Dogs read – right?!
Thank God for Janel who blogs over at Keeper Of Pages. As one of my best blogger friends and buddy reader extraordinaire, when I found out The Nightingale was also on her TBR I immediately (and rather excitedly) suggested we should choose that as our third buddy read together. And so it was done. Now I see what all the fuss was about, now I understand the beauty and the heart-break of Kristin Hannah’s extraordinary words and NOW I can push it into the hands of every single person I meet as a “must-read” book. In all seriousness, this book was nothing short of spectacular and I’m so very grateful that it was a experience I got to share with someone else as they were reading the same passages as myself at the same time. (Note: my boyfriend was also pleased with this development as I didn’t have to keep bothering him all the time to talk about the story!!).
Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale
Our story is set in France in the late thirties and follows the lives of two very different sisters, Vianne Mauriac and her younger sister Isabelle. The two sisters had a tough time growing up and lost their mother when they were quite young. Their father, now single and with his own personal issues, found it difficult to raise them and both girls learned independence from a tenderly young age. Vianne, the responsible older sister, marries her childhood sweetheart Antoine and moves to a quiet village whilst Isabelle, more rebellious and fiery is sent off to boarding school. The Nightingale follows their lives as Vianne’s husband is sent off to war and she struggles to raise their small daughter as their village is besieged by the Nazi’s. With a German soldier stationed at her home watching everything she does, Vianne has little choice for the sake of her family but to comply and stay as invisible as possible.
Meanwhile, Isabelle is determined to fight back against the horrific regime, refusing to be subservient or quiet and desperate to help the Resistance in their quest to take back France for the French, by any means necessary. The Nightingale is the story of two very different sisters and the individual ways in which they cope and fight against the intense traumas of war. It also explores their relationship both in the past and in the present time, identifies the true nature of a family bond and what happens when this bond is threatened in the most unimaginable way.
French prisoner of war soldiers – World War II
I’ve been a bit worried about writing this review and I know exactly why. I want it to be eloquent and passionate and I want to persuade as many of you as possible who are reading and haven’t read The Nightingale yet as to the reasons why you simply must read this book. However, I don’t know if I can put it into words quite how this story made me feel. I can be quite critical generally when I’m reading a story, to be honest. There’s normally small niggles and parts of the narrative/characterisation that irk me and make me hesitate to recommend it unreservedly. That is definitely not the case with this novel. There is nothing negative I can say about this book at all – it’s wholly positive and if I sound like I’m gushing, well….I am and I can’t apologize for it – this book deserves it!
Is it the plot? The setting? The characterisation? It’s all these things and I think that’s what makes The Nightingale so special for me. You know when you like the setting but the plot is a bit wishy-washy and the characters could have been developed a bit more? Or you might really enjoy a character but the plot doesn’t feel as compelling as you would have hoped? I’ve had so many of these instances with novels, especially in the recent past but in The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah has pulled the big three together perfectly and there wasn’t a single point of the narrative where I thought: “Hmm, that could have been done better.” It was quite frankly, flawless.
Image from: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/591449363537969990/
The plot was compelling, exciting, horrifying and gut-wrenching. However, any of these adjectives could also apply to the sisters’ relationship and how this developed as the story continued. I was fully invested in this novel from a very early stage and this was initially due to a strong, meticulously planned plot but it was only accentuated by the creation of such intriguing, lovable and occasionally frustrating characters in both our female leads, Vianne and Isabelle. I think I can speak for both myself and Janel when I stress how much emotions we felt for these women, positively and at times, slightly negatively until quite near the end, when pieces begin to fall into place. My heart in particular felt obliterated at the twists and turns Hannah chose to include and the devastating consequences of some of our characters actions.
There were times when I almost felt I had to read it with one hand over my eyes. I desperately needed to know what happened to two women I had got to know and connected with so well but at the same time, I didn’t want to know either! It was the perfect/horrible dilemma to be placed in as a reader and although parts of the novel made for very difficult, hideous reading, it was necessary to illustrate the horrendous events that actually happened, in our not too distant history. Finally, I also adored the statement that Hannah was making about women in the war whose important and quite often life-threatening work is often forgotten or put aside in terms of what the men did. Her passion for the subject is completely evident in her writing along with the painstaking research she must have carried out to write this epic story. The Nightingale makes me so excited to read the rest of the author’s back catalogue, for me, she’s a one of a kind writer with a beautiful gift for making you feel so much in the creation of a simply unforgettable story.
Thank you so much once again to Janel for an amazing buddy read experience! Check our her amazing review of The Nightingale HERE.
Previous buddy reads with Janel @ Keeper Of Pages:
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
