The Nightingale

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah   440 pages

In love we find out who we want to be.

In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

These are the first words on the dust jacket and truly sum up this marvelous novel.

Vianne Mauric lives in a quiet village outside Paris with her husband, Antoine, and their eight-year-old daughter. Antoine has been called into service, but no one in the village believes that the Nazis will invade. Well, we know how that turned out.

Vianne’s younger sister, Isabelle, is eighteen, rebellious and searching for passion. When the young man she falls head-over-heels in love with betrays her, she vows to take an active part in freeing France from the Nazis.

In this incredible story, readers have a chance to witness “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.”

Author Hannah made me feel like I was in France, both trying to eek out a living as Vianne was doing or joining the Resistance with Isabelle. I had trouble putting this book and was sad when it ended.

I give The Nightingale six out of five stars. Of the 65 books I’ve read this year, The Nightingale is one of the best.