The Nightingale

     Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale is my latest read, and newest obsession. In her newest book, Hannah introduces her readers to the strength that two sisters survived off of in France during WWII. The book starts of with an elderly mother rummaging around in her attic, and then takes readers into France during wartime.
    Personally, I hadn't had the slightest interest in reading about a war anymore than I had in high school. That being said, I definitely do not regret reading Hannah's take on this time. While reading this entrancing novel, I found myself wanting to know more about the history of WWII - meaning more than what my underpaid high school teachers had to say.
    Lets talk about the main characters - Isabelle Rossignol and Vianne Mauriac. These two sisters both experienced destitution during wartime, but overcame their famine by rebelling against the customs set in place for white Christians in France. Isabelle's demeanor first comes across as a 19 year old girl who thinks she's smarter than the average woman - she's sassy, rebellious, and has a hard time with rules / laws. Her older sister, Vianne,  as well as myself, find Isabelle's improper behavior to be an appending danger to Vianne's young daughter Sophie. Isabelle, being a women with strong beliefs and an agenda all of her own, takes her seemingly unachievable dreams and makes them a reality.
    Meanwhile, Vianne is in her home working trying her best to have enough rations to feed herself and Sophie for the winter. Vianne, the more passive sister, seems to be level headed throughout the first half of the novel - doing only what is needed to survive. Behaving as any single mother would during wartime, Vianne thinks only of her daughter and what she needs in order to survive the unimaginable winter ahead of them.
   This is just the beginning for these two sisters. In the end of the novel, both women are unsung heroes fighting for what they believe is right. The Rossignol sisters are an inspiration to me, and the other characters in Hannah's novel. Based around two true stories, Kristin Hannah creates two leading women who fight the battle of being a women during WWII. Like many others, I had very little knowledge of the "other side" of the war - the side that doesn't involve fighting at the front line. Instead, it's a battle of survival while Nazi's billet in your home and rations become so scarce that a mother does the unthinkable to feed her child(ren).
    Hannah introduces her readers to the terrifying world of France during WWII, and creates characters that inspire hope within readers hearts. With details that make me feel as if I am in France with the sisters, Hannah's novel took my breath away on numerous pages. The character development that lives in these chapters is astonishing, often times going unnoticed until you remember how the two sisters started out in the book. Subtle changes create a realistic environment in which the Rossignol sisters live. Though the start of the novel didn't grasp my attention from page one, by page 15-20 I was hooked, and needed to know everything I could about the actions this duo would take in order to live sanely in wartime.

Hannah's 20th novel started a spark in me that wants to know as much as I can about WWII for people all over the world, especially in Europe. This novel earns a 9.5/10 in my book. Pick up a copy at your local bookstore and learn why it only took me three days to read all about Vianne and Isabelle!