Book Review: The Nightingale

     

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.

I have to rave about my latest read.I just finished The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I read it in a couple of days because I absolutely could not put it down. I am so fascinated reading about wars and the different perspectives that each new (to me!) story brings to my eyes. This book is beautiful. It's beautifully written and the story is so captivating. It's centered on two sisters in occupied France during WWII and the different journeys they took during these cruel times.
Here is the iBooks description, which really sold me after I had heard others loving it. 

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 a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.
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 or war, she meets Gaetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures 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.

"Asking yourself a question, that's how resistance begins. And then ask that very question to someone else." -Remco Campert

I realize I say this a lot, but this book seriously changed me. 
I am so grateful that the ravages of war have not touched my life, but I appreciate stories of heroines however big or small, fiction or not. 
These women made it through this war with hope, daring, creativity, and the will to see their families and country survive. At one point, Vianne is worrying to her local Mother Superior, who says: "You're not alone, and you're not the one in charge. Ask for help when you need it, and give help when you can. I think that is how we serve God-and each other and ourselves- in times as dark as these." Wow. I love this so much, and I love that I can apply this to almost any part of my life. 

I didn't cry while I read this (let's be real: my eyes were wide open and I was turning pages as fast as I could so who had time to cry??), but when I finished the last page I just had a good, long, ugly cry. I felt so connected to the characters and their struggles to find courage. I am happy for them, sad for them, and proud of them.

This will definitely be a permanent fixture on my favorites list.

-Hilary