“We have been admonished to act as gentlemen. Faced with one hardship after another, they both do everything they can to survive, and pray for Antoine’s safe return. Months into her husband’s deployment, with no word still from him and with their already-dire situation getting worse and worse after France surrendered to Germany, Vianne and Sophie’s lives are once again changed when a young German officer requisitions their home, making it his own. “I love you, too,” she said but the words that always seemed so big felt small now. She wanted to bottle how safe she felt in this moment, so she could drink of it later when loneliness and fear left her parched…
He stood up slowly and took her in his arms. The postman became a soldier overnight, and the man she loved was sent to the front, leaving her behind not knowing what the future would bring. The flash back segments of the book are largely focused on two sisters: the older Vianne, the rule follower, and the younger Isabelle, the rebel. Vianne’s idealic life in the countryside with her husband, Antoine, who she’d been in love with since she was fourteen and their young daughter, Sophie, was changed when he was to be mobilized and called to duty to fight in WW2. Without much of a future ahead of her, she begins to look backward at her past, taking us with her through her life story beginning in France 1939, right before the war changed her peaceful life. We begin the story in 1995 with an old woman towards the end of her life, moving out of her house into a retirement home. Mothers, daughter, sisters, wives… this is the story of their strength, endurance, sacrifice, and courage during the darkest part of their lives. So many of them didn’t just wait for their men to return but took many grave risks to save as many other lives as they could.
This is the often-unspoken story of women’s war. While men endure great hardship during war, it affects everyone.
I will say upfront though that this book was a little different than the kinds I usually read and review though because it wasn’t solely focused on a love story, even though there were two love stories within it. The ending was so powerful that I read the last 10 pages with tears pouring down my face and days after finishing my read, I still can’t stop thinking about it. And I’m now adding my own 5 STAR rating to that list because this book owned my heart. The Nightingale has a 4.8/5 rating average on Amazon (which is HUGE!!) and what that basically means is that practically everyone who is reading it is loving it. HOLY WOW!!! This book was absolutely epic! A sweeping, breathtaking journey that captivated me from the first page with the strength and beauty of the writing.
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