The Nightingale: A Novel
20th Century, Genre Fiction, Historical, World War II & Holocaust
With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II 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.
- Release Date
- 2015
- Length
- 440 pages
- Publisher
- St. Martin's Press
We may earn a commission if you buy through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Our Review
About the book
Two French sisters take very different paths through the German occupation of France in World War II. Vianne stays in her village and tries to protect her daughter while an enemy officer is billeted in her home, while the younger, headstrong Isabelle joins the Resistance. The novel follows how each woman finds her own form of courage.
Our review
Two sisters, one occupied country, and two very different definitions of bravery: the novel that turned an already bestselling Kristin Hannah into a global phenomenon.
Hannah’s great insight here is that wartime heroism does not only look like sabotage and escape routes. Vianne’s quiet, compromised survival at home is given as much weight as Isabelle’s daring, and the contrast between the sisters drives the book’s tension. Their prickly, unresolved relationship feels true, full of old resentments and loyalty neither of them knows how to say out loud.
This is unabashedly emotional storytelling, built to make you cry, and it usually succeeds. The pacing is propulsive, the period detail of rationing, requisitions and fear is vivid without being a history lecture, and the framing chapters add a layer of mystery. The prose is more functional than lyrical, and some secondary characters exist mainly to serve the plot, but the book’s sweep is hard to resist.
What we loved
- Two sisters whose differences feel lived-in, not schematic
- Gives domestic endurance the same dignity as frontline resistance
- Relentless momentum across a long page count
Keep in mind
- Openly manipulative at times; the tearjerking is never subtle
- Prose and some supporting characters are workmanlike
Read it if you like
All the Light We Cannot See, The Alice Network, readers who want an emotional WWII saga
The verdict
A sweeping, tear-soaked WWII epic that earns its reputation through two unforgettable sisters, even when it leans hard on melodrama.
