Check It Out

The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah.
New York: St Martin’s Press, 2015.
Main Stacks: Call number: PS 3558 .A4763 N55 2015
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A novel has got to be something really special to actually bring me to tears! Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale is set in Paris and its surroundings just as World War II is spreading across Europe. Isabelle and Viann Rossignol (which means Nightingale in French) are two sisters with very different personalities, lives, and coping mechanisms. Part spy epic, part romance, part gut wrenching historical fiction this novel is hard to put down. As rations become scarce and German soldiers are billeted in family homes it becomes clear to everyone that the life has forever been changed. You will find yourself berating characters for choices they made without the benefit of our historical vantage point. Whichever sister you find yourself identifying with The Nightingale will have you asking yourself what you would risk to protect your child, your country, and humanity. 

Review by Sarah Way, SWC Librarian