Review for The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

 

The Four Winds by  Kristin Hannah 

Hardcover, 464 pages

Published February 2nd 2021 by St. Martin's Press

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction, Literary Fiction, Dust Bowl, Great Depression

 

Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

My Thoughts…I picked up The Four Winds without having read much about the Great Depression.  I was intrigued by the dust bowls in Texas.  The Four Winds covers all that.   It also tells the story of Elsa.   Elsa is a strong, determined woman who was not loved enough by her family or her husband but when things got tough, she got tougher.  

The Four Winds is a story about working against the odds, making a difference in the world, and helping strangers.  Elsa moves her children across the country to find a better life and does not find exactly what she expects.   She finds a community of people living together in poverty, she makes friends, she works alongside her friends, and she makes a difference to her community.

Kristin Hannah is a must-read author.   If the Great Depression is not your thing find another of her books to read.   I recommend them all!

** I purchased this book and the review is entirely my own thoughts.

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Meet Kristin Hannah… Kristin Hannah is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels including the international blockbuster, The Nightingale, Winter Garden, Night Road, and Firefly Lane.

Her novel, The Nightingale, has been published in 43 languages and is currently in movie production at TriStar Pictures, which also optioned her novel, The Great Alone. Her novel, Home Front has been optioned for film by 1492 Films (produced the Oscar-nominated The Help) with Chris Columbus attached to direct.

Kristin is a former-lawyer-turned writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. Her novel, Firefly Lane, became a runaway bestseller in 2009, a touchstone novel that brought women together, and The Nightingale, in 2015 was voted a best book of the year by Amazon, Buzzfeed, iTunes, Library Journal, Paste, The Wall Street Journal and The Week.  Additionally, the novel won the coveted Goodreads and People’s Choice Awards. The audiobook of The Nightingale won the Audiobook of the Year Award in the fiction category.