The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah (2015)
The Nightingale is the story of two French
sisters who, each in her own way, survive the Nazi occupation of France during
World War II. The sisters are 10 years
apart in age, and are motherless with a cold father who was a changed man after
returning from World War I.
Vianne, the older sister, married young to the
love of her life. Her younger sister,
Isabelle, was impetuous, and had been expelled from several boarding schools
before the War began. After Vianne’s
husband goes off to war, Vianne is left at the family home with their young
daughter. Isabelle’s childhood heroine
was Edith Cavell, who was executed in World War I. Isabelle wants to follow in Cavell’s
footsteps and joins a Resistance group, leading downed British and American
soldiers cross the Pyrenees from France into Spain. Her code name is The Nightingale, which also
happens to be the English translation of their family surname ~ Rossignol.
This novel focuses on the lives of the women
during the war and the sacrifices they were forced to make while their fathers,
husbands and brothers were fighting. The
novel begins in 1939, just before Nazi occupation. As France is forced into War, the Nazis begin
rationing food and occupying homes. A
young German officer requisitions her home, although he is kind to Vianne and
her daughter. One day Vianne is asked to
provide the names of the Jews in her town.
Believing that it is simply a list of names, she complies, giving up the
name of her best friend and neighbor, Rachel.
Later, the Nazis begin rounding up all the Jews and communists. Rachel is taken away, but Vianne takes her
young son to raise as her own.
Later a brutal SS officer commanders her home and
brutally rapes her. Meanwhile, Isabelle
is risking her life in the Resistance.
She acquires false papers and becomes known as Juliette Gervaise. She doesn’t fully understand the risk she is
taking until after she is capture. She
is ultimately sent to a German concentration camp, where her mantra become “Stay
alive.”
This book gives the horrors of war and captures
the terror of the citizens of France. It
is one of the best novels of the Holocaust that I have read in a long time.
5 Stars
Read: February 14, 2016
