Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale

A Novel by Kristin Hannah | Summary & Analysis This book has two main characters, although a number of other characters feature quite significantly. Time spans l939 to l995 and place switches back and forth between wartime France and Oregon, USA in l995. Vianne and Isabelle are two French sisters, one in her late twenties and the other aged l8 years old in 1939 at the very beginning of World War II in Europe. "The Nightingale" is both of their stories, as they describe in turn how they each found out, during the course of World War II, who they wanted to be, as well as who they were and what they would do to survive. The two sisters have had a very up and down relationship prior to l939. Julien, their father, came back from World War I a changed man, and the premature death of his wife and their Maman did not help his recovery. After his wife's death he deposits the two girls, l4 year old Vianne and 4 year old Isabelle with the housekeeper at Le Jardin, his family's anecestral home in the French countryside. He returns to Paris to another family owned apartment where he continues to mourns his loss alone, whilst running an intellectual bookshop. He shuts the two girls out of his life. Vianne meets Antoine, her one true love, marries early and is a mother by l7, ever since running Le Jardin as its mistress. Isabelle is sent to boarding school at 7 and she copes with her mother's loss and rejection by her father, by rebelling and being thrown out of many schools. The book is also about love in all its forms: the love of parents for their children, the love between sisters, the love between friends and the love between two lovers. The two sisters both contribute in their own way, to help fight against the oppression of the Nazis - Isabelle becomes a member of the Free France resistance and Vianne helps hide Jewish children in a Cathoic orphanage from the Nazis. Both of them find unexpected inner strengths in order to deal with the challenges they face in order to survive during World War II. They also discover people are not always black and white, and unexpected goodness is found, even in wartime. Or maybe because of wartime.