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The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
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The Nightingale (edition 2015)

by Kristin Hannah

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
9,660456787 (4.33)288
Viann and Isabelle have always been close despite their differences. Younger, bolder sister Isabelle lives in Paris while Viann lives a quiet and content life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. When World War II strikes and Antoine is sent off to fight, Viann and Isabelle's father sends Isabelle to help her older sister cope. As the war progresses, it's not only the sisters' relationship that is tested, but also their strength and their individual senses of right and wrong. With life as they know it changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Viann and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions. Vivid and exquiste in its illumination of a time and place that was filled with great monstrosities, but also great humanity and strength, Kristin Hannah's novel will provoke thought and discussion that will have readers talking long after they turn the last page.… (more)
Member:bookgirljen
Title:The Nightingale
Authors:Kristin Hannah
Info:St. Martin's Press (2015), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 448 pages
Collections:Read but unowned, WW II
Rating:****1/2
Tags:None

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The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

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» See also 288 mentions

English (444)  German (3)  Spanish (3)  Catalan (1)  All languages (451)
Showing 1-5 of 444 (next | show all)
Too boring
  Jenniferforjoy | Jan 29, 2024 |
Excellent story of survival of two sisters in WW II France under German control.KIRKUS REVIEWHannah?s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie?s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann?s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone¥food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le JardinÂ¥Isabelle?s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann?s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah?s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
  bentstoker | Jan 26, 2024 |
An immensely moving story of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, and their challenges growing up after losing their mother and then the almost abandonment by their father. How they deal with those challenges is part of their story and leads in to the way they handle WW2 when it hits France.

They both faced incredible difficulties and survived when many did not.

The story is well written, although gut-wrenching and hard to read about the suffering of the people in France under Hitler’s reign. I have a better understanding of what life was like during this time period. ( )
  LuLibro | Jan 22, 2024 |
Whew this book is a hard read. The history is cruel and difficult to read. I cannot fathom how people survived such hardship. I love the for powerful stories and the sacrifices so many women and men made. This is a story about survival and resilience. There is redemption in the end of the book, thankfully. ( )
  ldyluck | Jan 6, 2024 |
I haven't read much in this genre but found this narrative enjoyable especially for it's length. A touching story with a great web of characters ( )
  hellokirsti | Jan 3, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 444 (next | show all)

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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Kristin Hannahprimary authorall editionscalculated
Stone, PollyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
The lights are going out all over Europe; We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. ---SIR EDWARD GREY, ON WORLD WAR I
Asking yourself a question, that's how resistance begins. And then ask that very question to someone else. ---REMCO CAMPERT
If you're going through hell, keep going. ---WINSTON CHURCHILL
Dedication
To Matthew Shear. Friend. Mentor. Champion. You are missed.
And to Kaylee Nova Hannah, the newest star in our world.
Welcome, baby girl.
First words
If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.
Quotations
I know that grief, like regret, settles into our DNA and remains forever a part of us.
The stairs unfold from the ceiling like a gentleman extending his hand.
"I think, as this war goes on, we will all have to look more deeply. These questions are not about them, but about us."
"We are all fragile, Isabelle. It's the thing we learn in war."
If I had told him the truth long ago, or had danced and drunk and sung more, maybe he would have seen me instead of a dependable, ordinary mother. He loves a version of me that is incomplete. I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I'd like to be known.
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Viann and Isabelle have always been close despite their differences. Younger, bolder sister Isabelle lives in Paris while Viann lives a quiet and content life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. When World War II strikes and Antoine is sent off to fight, Viann and Isabelle's father sends Isabelle to help her older sister cope. As the war progresses, it's not only the sisters' relationship that is tested, but also their strength and their individual senses of right and wrong. With life as they know it changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Viann and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions. Vivid and exquiste in its illumination of a time and place that was filled with great monstrosities, but also great humanity and strength, Kristin Hannah's novel will provoke thought and discussion that will have readers talking long after they turn the last page.

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Vianne and Isabelle have always been close despite their differences. Younger, bolder sister Isabelle lives in Paris while Vianne lives a quiet and content life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. When World War II strikes and Antoine is sent off to fight, Vianne and Isabelle's father sends Isabelle to help her older sister cope. As the war progresses, it's not only the sisters' relationship that is tested, but also their strength and their individual senses of right and wrong. With life as they know it changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Vianne and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.
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