Kristin Hannah has evolved as a writer in recent years. She used to write romance novels like Firefly Lane, which were good novels but nowhere near the quality she has achieved with The Nightengale, The Great Alone, and now The Four Winds. Her novels have become epics almost; historical novels with amazing characters.
In The Four Winds, The setting is the dust bowl in the Texas panhandle in which the main character, Elsa, lives a desperate life of censure by her parents and then forced into a shotgun marriage. Elsa learns to love her new family, and as a city-girl turned farmer, learns to love her new life. Then the dust bowl comes, her life and her children's life is destroyed, and they flee to California to find a better life.
At first, I thought this book was treading on the ground of The Grapes of Wrath, but as I read on I realized that this story is about Elsa and her courage. Hannah throws the book at Elsa, giving her an incredibly hard life to overcome. Elsa triumphs and I became attached to her as the indomitable heroine of a cruel and uncaring world.
This book is so realistic that I felt at times like there was dust in my mouth as I read. Later, Elsa's struggle in the central valley of California equally felt real to me. This is a great novel and a pleasure to read. 5/5 stars, very highly recommended.
This book will not be commercially available until February 2021.
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