In war, heroic action stands shoulder to shoulder with atrocity both on the battlefield and at home. While war stories often focus on combat deeds, civilians also fight for their countries. In The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah (Home Front) envisions the stories of two French sisters who take different paths to heroism in World War II, one plunging into the war effort as a French Resistance operative and the other trying desperately to survive and protect her daughter.
In post-World War I France, sisters Vianne and Isabelle Rossignol have nothing in common but blood. Vianne, the elder by a decade, enjoys a simple life in Carriveau. When World War II breaks out, the men of her town are called to the front lines, and her husband is no exception. Isabelle, expelled from finishing school, flees from Paris to Vianne's house, where the sisters immediately clash, Isabelle galvanized against the Germans by her experiences, Vianne determined to keep her head down and try to maintain as normal a life as possible.
Hannah delves unflinchingly into a time and place "when the world was at war and everything was scarce and your husband was gone." With her instinct for capturing family dynamics and female relationships, Hannah offers her fans everything they've come to love and expect in her writing. She shows how war creates circumstances that bring out the best and the worst in humanity. Spanning the entire war, Hannah's epic is an emotional powerhouse that lays bare the human heart's capacity for courage, compassion and resilience. --Jaclyn Fulwood