Another extraordinary historic novel from Kristin Hannah. I recently read [b:The Women|127305853|The Women|Kristin Hannah|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1689788358l/127305853.SY75.jpg|161751839] which is stunning, so went in search of her older titles.
The Nightingale is set in France during World War 2, told from the perspectives of two sisters. One stays in her small village with her daughter and the other joins the French resistance.
I listened to the audio book which was excellent - particularly with the French pronunciations!
The details that Hannah describes make this book an almost visceral experience. The choices these woman must make are heartbreaking. This may be fiction, but we know that many, many women faced similar circumstances during not only WW2 but all wars.
So many books about war celebrate men’s bravery; Hannah reveals the true bravery of women whose stories are not celebrated enough.
An unforgettable book, full of strong women who the reader will never forget.
Highly recommended.

Although this book is fiction, it doesn’t feel like it. Hannah has based her book on real women’s experiences in Vietnam and on their return to civilian life. It’s hard to read at times. The brutality of the war is hard, but harder still is the treatment meted out to those who returned from Vietnam to the States.

Frankie is a newly registered nurse, working night shift where she cares for a returned soldier who has tried to commit suicide. He mentions the care he received from a nurse at an Evac Hospital in Vietnam and how she got him through the loss of his leg. She ‘had never thought about nurses in Vietnam; the newspapers never mentioned any women. Certainly no one talked about any women at war’.

Her beloved brother Finlay enlisted 6 months ago, so she enlists too, believing that she will be kept far away from the actual fighting - how wrong she is! We journey with Frankie as she grows from a naive, patriotic girl to a woman who has seen way too much and loses her faith in her country. Friendships forged during war are fierce and strong-they can save your life, not only during the war, but on the return to ‘real life’ which proves to be as harrowing as Vietnam. As Frankie says ‘Thank God for girlfriends. In this crazy, chaotic, divided world that was run by men, you could count on the women’.

Frankie’s journey takes us through those turbulent years during the war, and the following years that it took for America to acknowledge the damage done to Veterans of the war: both physical and psychological. As she tries to access services for veterans, she is turned away again and again, told that ‘there were no women in Vietnam’. Finally in 1993 the Vietnam Women’s Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC, acknowledging over 10,000 women who served in various roles in the Vietnam War.

Unforgettable: Highly recommended.