Book Club July Pick (Sorry it's Late!): The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Okay- I may be a month late sharing but, our book club read for July 2020 was The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. It is a great addition to historical fiction, regarding the Nazi occupations. The novel takes place in France from when the Nazi’s move in, during and when they leave. It is a long book and covers a lot of ground. We follow the interweaving stories of two sisters living very different and dangerous lives during this time.

From the opening, the reader is hearing the history of this time from one of the sisters. It is not until later that we can figure out which sister is narrating. For me, this was the mysterious angle to keep me drawn to the story to figure out who was telling the tale and kept me reading. By the time I figured it out, I wanted to keep reading to see how it all ends up and how the author will close the story. Kinda like the movie Titanic did for people, having the older lady telling her tale but you don’t know how she’s a part of the story and want to know more.

There are history and heroics shared throughout the story that I have never learned about. Kristin Hannah has a gorgeous style of writing that gives you everything you could want to sink into the world she is creating, yet it’s not overwhelming and so depressing you want to stop reading. As we know, during this time in history, there was not a lot of goodness. For me, my biggest takeaway from this book was that the true essence of the story is the power of love. The love of mothers, fathers, lovers, children, friends, family, of county and religion. It’s heartbreaking, brutal, leaves you vulnerable, but also beautiful and the greatest gift and blessing of all. I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Stay tuned for our August 2020 book club pick!