Review: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is set in France during World War II and tells the story of two sisters - Viann and Isabelle and their lives during this period. Viann Mauriac says goodbye to her husband as he heads to the front to fight for France and she settles into their countryside home in Carriveau with their young daughter to endure wartime and wait for her husband's return. Meanwhile, Isabelle, always a rebel, finds herself working for the Resistance and  risking her life to fight the enemy. Through each of their stories, the reader is transported to France during the war and witnesses the sacrifice and endurance of French women during WWII. Sacrifice and endurance are wrapped in a love story and family drama which captivates the reader.

Viann and Isabelle have a fractured relationship; after the death of their mother when they were both young girls, they were left with their father who was ill-equipped emotionally following the death of his wife to deal with raising his young daughters. Viann, ten years older than Isabelle, was left to care for her younger sister but when Viann marries Antoine, Isabelle is shipped off to boarding school. Feeling abandoned, Isabelle resents Viann and acts out at boarding school and is expelled from school after school. Early on in the war, Isabelle arrives at Viann's home in Carriveau and they must work on their relationship in order to coexist and face the difficulties of Nazi occupation of their town.

Isabelle's rebellious streak persists and she is disgusted by Viann's inclination to do as she is told and to follow the orders of the occupiers. When German Captian Beck "billets" in Viann's home and lives side by side with her, Isabelle and Viann's young daughter, Viann is accommodating in an effort to keep from angering the soldier and in the hope that he will assist in contacting her husband who has been captured by the enemy.  Her approach to the war is to stoically accept the hardships and to try to endure; Isabelle, meanwhile joins the Resistance and distributes Anti-Nazi materials undercover throughout the town. This evolves into her shepherding British and American soldiers that have been shot down across the Pyrenees into Spain - her code name is Nightingale. Two sisters take very different paths during the war but ultimately gain an understanding and a respect for each other.

My Thoughts
This book captured my attention and had me hungrily reading for more - beyond the story of the sister's relationship, I was drawn into the hardship endured by those in the French countryside during the war. The author expertly describes the effects of draconian food rationing and intimidation meted out by the occupying German forces.  There were scenes, reminiscent of those in another Hannah novel, Winter Garden, where Viann broke down furniture to  burn and provide a little heat for her and her daughter through the long, cold winter. I cried twice during this novel - both times during scenes which involved children facing the atrocities of war while their parents plead for mercy for them. Hannah perfectly crafted these scenes  - she made them moving without being overly sentimental.

Ultimately, the appeal of this book lies in how humanity triumphed over the unthinkable horrors of war.

Isabelle's character is based on a Belgian woman, Andree de Jongh who set up an escape route for captured Allied soldiers during WWII.

The Girl You Left Behind by Jo Jo Moyes

The Girl You Left Behind by Jo Jo Moyes: Sophie LeFevre's husband, Edouard, is fighting for France at the front of World War I; Sophie has been left behind in the small town of St. Peronne which has been occupied by the Germans. A Kommandant is taken by Sophie and the painting the artist  Edouard had made of her which hangs in her home and reminds her of life before the War. When that painting surfaces almost one hundred years later in the home of Liv Halston, an international scandal erupts and thrusts everyone into the limelight. Although long since deceased, Sophie also takes center stage and her story is told.

 Liv Halston was given the painting "The Girl You Left Behind" by her husband, David. When he dies suddenly, Liv is left as a young widow and she clutches everything that connects her to her late husband. She lives in the fantastic "Glass House" that was custom built by David, an architect. Each feature in the home reminds her of David, his brilliance and what she has lost. "The Girl You Left Behind" also reminds her of happy times with David and she develops a connection with its subject, Sophie. When the LeFevre family engages the services of a firm to recover the painting missing from Edouard's collection, they contact Liv and inform her she is in possession of a painting that was illegitimately obtained during the War. The family wants restitution but Liv cannot let go of one of her last connections to David - or to Sophie.

My Thoughts
I found this book completely engrossing. It is told alternately from Sophie and then Liv's point of view and I think the movement between contemporary and historical fiction was well balanced and served to keep the story moving. The author successfully creates two very sypathetic characters in Sophie and Liv - they are both dealing with tremendous grief and loss but they are also complicated and don't always make predictable, stereotypical choices. They are linked by the painting and they both hold on to it in an effort to connect to what they have lost.

The story extends much beyond just Liv and Sophie - each of their storylines are filled with interesting characters and subplots to make this a multilayered novel which pulls you in. In addition, there is the controversy over works of art with questionable provenace and what the current owners owe the descendants of the true owners. All of this together makes for a story I won't soon forget.

I received an e-ARC via netgalley. Shereads.org is currently offering a giveaway for a book bundle from the author - enter here. 

Review: The Reeducation of Cherry Truong by Aimee Phan

In The Reeducation of Cherry Truong, Aimee Phan presents two arms of a large Vietnamese family who left Vietnam after the Communists left nothing behind in their homeland. The Vo's and the Truong's, connected by marriage, part ways in Vietnam - the Vo's head to France while the Truong's head to the US and end up in Southern California.  Each branch of the family, however, is marred by what they saw in Vietnam, the journey away from their home and loved ones, and the betrayal that happened just before they left. When Cherry's brother leaves Southern California to go live in Vietnam after having lived in the US for more than fifteen years, Cherry follows him and discovers secrets about her family and understands how those secrets have chipped away at every member of the family.

Cherry has a close, but difficult, relationship with her large Vietnamese family in Southern California. With the family's matriarch, Cherry's grandmother at its center, the extended family all work in businesses together and come together often for family "celebrations" although there seems to be little celebrating being done. Instead, they spend a lot of time snapping at each other and fueling their resentments.

Cherry finds it hard to appreciate her family when they seem so plagued by unhappiness.  In addition, she struggles to fit in to US with parents with values which are often very different from those of her friends.  She is constantly reminded of all that her family sacrificed for the life she now enjoys in the US and as a result much is expected of her. In this quote, the difficult relationship Cherry has with her mother is evident:

Improve: her mother's favorite word when they were growing up, because in America, you get anything you want. So the only problem her mother could see was that Cherry didn't want it enough. What as it? . . . It could be a stellar report card, a tidier bedroom, better manners . . . Once the complaining started, Cherry had long since learned to stop listening

When Cherry travels to Vietnam, however, she learns things about her family, including her mother, which shed a new light on what drives her mother and why their relationships with each other are so fraught. Her reeducation begins and is furthered when she goes to France to see the other arm of the family.  Although her family in California often reference how much they suffered and sacrificed, Cherry reads letters while visiting Vietnam and France which reveal pain and a history never articulated by her family at home.

My thoughts
This novel spans through three generations and three countries - US, Vietnam and France.  It moves back and forward in time and among these countries and the stories of the Vo and Truong families. Once I learned the characters and how they connected, I moved easily between the families' stories and the different time periods and locations (I highly recommended leveraging the family tree in the front of the book to help with the navigation!)  As a result, I felt as if I was discovering family history alongside Cherry and was moved by each revelation.

This is an excellent immigrant story and those themes abound in the book - from the parents worrying that their children are moving too far from the values of the "old country" to this first generation who want their parents to be just like their friends' American parents.  The author expertly explores those common themes but not in a trite or cliche way. The pain felt in both generations and that tension between old and new was palpable.

The Reeducation of Cherry Truong has much to offer - an immigrant story, historical fiction set in post war Vietnam but also France and the US - but above all, it is a well-written, compelling family drama.  Highly recommend.