The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

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The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Author: کریستین هانا (Kristin Hannah)

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.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America’s most defining eras—the Great Depression.

[highlight color=”green”]Goodreads users review :[/highlight]

whenever i think of the dust bowl era, i have traumatic flashbacks of reading ‘the grapes of wrath’ in high school. not the best experience, so ive kind of unintentionally avoided the topic ever since. but im so glad i decided to give this a chance. i definitely connected more with the writing, the characters, and the overall story in this book. what really got me was how much i empathised with elsa. im not a mother, but i found it remarkable just how fully i could understand the love she felt for her children and the lengths she would go to provide for them. i even found my eyes misting up on a few occasions. its definitely the great writing and characterisation which made that possible. this is one more story KH can add to her list of ‘books that will make my readers feel something.’ Jessica                                                                                                  rated it: 5.0 from 5.0 

THE FOUR WINDS, by Kristin Hannah, is a book we’ve all been waiting for. It gives you the intensity and emotional punch that only Hannah can deliver. Have lots of tissues nearby. Kristin has taken the story of the Great Migration of the Dust Bowl and, unlike The Grapes of Wrath, put women at its very heart. This is a book of its time, and one you’ll remember long after. Susan Phillips                                                                                         rated it: 5.0 from 5.0 

Kristin Hannah is one of the best authors alive. My review could probably stop there, but good golly, what a book! What a book! As with what is perhaps my favorite book of all time—The Nightingale—The Four Winds is a story of survival against the odds. Starting in 1930, Elsa Martinelli was doing well enough, despite a marriage she didn’t particularly want. But she finds a sense of family with her in-laws. Then comes the Dust Bowl, the stock market crash and the Depression come crashing into her world, and Elsa must choose between staying and striking out for California to carve a better life for her children, facing incredible hardship, bleak poverty and sickness. The Four Winds, which came out this past spring, is also oddly prescient of today’s struggles in America. A pandemic in the form of “dust pneumonia,” a divided nation suspicious of outsiders, unemployment, poverty…this is not an easy read. But it’s a magnificent read, a story of resilience, endurance and friendship and the amazing, indomitable power of a woman on a mission. Kristan Higgins                                                                                       rated it: 5.0 from 5.0