THE NIGHTINGALE.

Not always able to get hold of a copy of the book that they are reading, I was delighted that not only had I previously read last month's book, Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (see my post here, Kelly's, here) BUT that I was able to reserve a copy of this months book which actually came in plenty of time for me to read and review ...

THE NIGHTINGALE by KRISTIN HANNAH.

BACK COVER BLURB: Bravery, courage, fear and love in a time of war.

Despite their differences, sisters Vianne and Isabelle have always been close. Younger, bolder Isabelle lives in Paris while Vianne is content with life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their child. But when the Second World War breaks out and Antoine is conscripted to fight, Isabelle is sent to the country by their father to help Vianne.

As war develops, the strength of the sisters' relationship is tested. With life changing, and confronted by unbelievable horrors, Viann and Isabelle will find themselves responding in ways they never thought possible, as bravery and resistance take differing forms in each of the two sisters.

FIRST SENTENCE {ONE ~ APRIL 9, 1995, THE OREGON COAST}: If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are. 

MEMORABLE MOMENT {PAGE 267}: Rachel stood in the black, yawning entrance of a cattle car, her face and hands still smeared with her daughter's blood. She scanned the crowd, saw Vianne, and raised her bloody hand in the air, and then she was gone, shoved back by the women stumbling in around her. The door to the cattle car clanged shut.

SOURCE: A library book.

READ FOR: Not applicable.

MY THOUGHTS: First things first, why oh why the minute print?

Though I can't obviously comment on every edition, the size of print in this 2015 Pan edition was ridiculously small.

OK, so perhaps not ALL of the themes/situations covered in The Nightingale (it is after all an epic novel, its 400 plus pages packing in a lot of history) will have featured in every book of its kind but nevertheless I didn't find anything here that I hadn't read in countless other books. 

Set largely in the small French village in which Vianne resides, for such a rural village there did seemed to be an awful lot occurring, including a lot of SS 'top brass' stomping around - indeed, as a friend of mine who was reading the book at the same time commented, she was only surprised that Hitler himself wasn't billeted with Vianne and her daughter at some point.

In fact, all rather cliched. The author's writing cleverly if blatantly (I'd argue perhaps too blatantly) calculated to elicit certain responses (typically that of sadness or anger) rather than letting the author explore their own feelings.

Though told from the point of view of the two sisters (and therefore jumping around in both time and place) essentially the plot was easy enough to follow. The sisters, and in particular some of their actions, however didn't always ring true, at times seeming contrived merely as a way of manipulating the reader in much the same way the eliciting of certain emotions did.

Why then (to use GoodReads star rating system) my rating of 4 stars/'I really enjoyed it'?

A sucker for this genre. 

Despite my misgivings, there are no two ways about it, if not necessarily the best of writers of this kind of fiction, a good story-teller. I found myself totally caught up in Vianne's and Isabelle's world, moved by their plight, as well as that, of course, of their family, friends and co-conspirators. 

PLEASE NOTE ... As always please be sure to look out for Kelly's review which she typically posts the day after the group meets which is tonight.