Play Book Tag discussion

Set in France just before the occupation begins, The Nightingale follows the lives of two sisters through the wars years to liberation in 1945. Vianne, a teacher at the village school, housewife, and mother to a young daughter, says goodbye to her husband, believing he will be home soon from the front and the Nazis will never invade. But invade they do, sweeping through her small town - and across France - in droves. When a Wehrmacht captain is billeted in her home, Vianne must use all her wits to survive, forced to make one impossible choice after another to protect her family.

Isabelle is a rebellious, impulsive 18 year-old when the invasion begins. Unable to contain her anger around the Germain captain in her sister’s home, she leaves for Paris. Eager to fight back, she joins the Resistance, risking her life daily to lead downed airmen to safety over the Pyrenees mountains.

As the occupation continues, and Europe descends deeper and deeper into moral darkness, both sisters must make increasingly difficult and dangerous choices, and question what kind of people they are or what they are willing to risk to save others.

I loved this book. The characters were vibrant and three-dimensional, believable in their actions and choices. I sympathised with them, felt their pain, while not always agreeing with their actions. Hannah also used excellent descriptive language. I could feel the cold of a winter night with no heat, or the pain of a blister from walking in too-small shoes, or the biting ache of hunger. Hannah totally transports the reader into the world of occupied France, bringing to life both the characters and the setting. And she doesn’t shy away from the difficult and the heartbreaking. This is no watered-down tale of the Second World War.

What I appreciated most about this novel was how Hannah highlighted the role that women played in the war. While their men were at the front, or later interned in work camps, the women of France were fighting a ’shadow war’, risking their lives - and often their families’ lives - in secret, uncelebrated ways.

Overall it is a beautifully written and moving story of the resilience of the human spirit, even in the darkest times. I read the whole thing in two days, and cried through the last fifty pages. Definitely a new favourite.

Really wonderful review Morgan. Beautifully written. You totally captured it and brought it back for me.