The Four winds from Kirsten Hannah is my first book from the author I have read, and it won’t be my last.
The Four winds relate to Texas in the 1930’s during the ‘dust bowl’ era through to the great depression. Where farmers fought to keep their lands alive in the drought and many left for California to make a new life but then had obstacles to overcome when they worked for plantation owners who exploited their workers and they left them half starved and others died of starvation because they didn’t pay their workers enough money to pay for food to feed their families. They also died of Typhoid and dysentery for the bad conditions that they lived in.
The female protagonist Elsa’s family never loved her. She was always ill as a child and when she grew up, she just felt like a burden. Her family didn’t allow her to do anything new. So, one night she defied her family and decided to escape, and, on her travels, she met Rafe an Italian immigrant. Where she gets pregnant by him. Her family are horrified and forces her to marry him and goes and lives on the family farm. Rafe’s parents treat her like one of their own and welcome her with open arms. But after a few years and now they have two children, and the dust arrives covering the whole town. He tells Elsa he can’t stay at the farm he wants to start a new life in California, but Elsa disagrees, Rafe leaves to never be seen again. The drought continues, there is no crops and by being persuaded by the Martinelli’s and her daughter Loreda they decide to go to California thinking that they will be better off there but that’s when the real hardships start.
This is a harrowing story of one family’s journey through the great depression. This is such emotional story, and the author writes beautifully what happen in this time. Your can feel the tension, the hope, and the despair of the people on their journey, on the search for a better life. I really enjoyed this immensely and I can’t wait to delve into the other books from this author that I have heard so much good things about.

In 2015, when I revived my reading habit after a gap of 7-8 years, one of the books I discovered, and fell hopelessly in love with, was The Nightingale which remains an oft-recommended title in my virtual library. This ARC of the author’s latest, due to be published early next year, was impossible to pass up.

It is 1934 in Texas. Elsa Martinelli has finally found the life she’d yearned for. A family, a home, and a livelihood on a wheat farm on the Great Plains. But when drought threatens all she and her community hold dear, Elsa’s world is shattered to the winds.

Fearful of the future, when Elsa wakes to find her husband has fled, she is forced to make the most agonizing decision of her life. Fight for the land she loves or take her beloved children, Loreda and Ant, west to California in search of a better life. Will it be the land of milk and honey? Or will their experience challenge every ounce of strength they possess?

An unwaveringly feminist novel, The Four Winds is the journey of one woman as carried forward in heartbreak, friendship and love. It is a mother’s struggle to stand with courage and sacrifice. It is a story of hope and survival when all the odds are stacked against you.

As addictive as this was, it physically hurt to peel myself away from the book for a single moment. By the time I neared the end, I simply couldn't breathe. I had tears brimming my eyes, threatening to run down my cheeks, and I was barely holding myself together. When I slept that night, I dreamt of expansive fields of wheat, parched earth and blinding dust storms.

I can’t explain what it is about Hannah's writing that overwhelmed me with such intense emotion. I do believe this has all the makings of being bigger than the global success that The Nightingale was. The impact is so powerful that I'm blown away, like a dry leaf in the wind, prone to crack and fall to pieces amid its force.

This ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Pan Macmillan.

What a wonderful story this is it’s one of those books that you just know that you are never going to forget. I knew little about the Great Depression but this book brought it to life for me filling my head and thoughts even when I wasn’t reading with agonising pictures of hunger and deprivation seeing children and adults in my mind with dust pneumonia not being able to breathe it was heartbreaking.
This is a story about a family trying to survive without government handouts a mother desperately trying to find work to feed her two children and ending up living in a filthy squatters camp with practically nothing but hope.. willing things to give them just a glint of light in the darkness that had become their life. The book really got to me and I cared deeply for the characters and I hated the unfairness of all their lives when all they and others were trying to do was survive in a world that was shunning them, time after time suffering over and over again just trying to survive.
It’s one of the most beautifully written I have ever read it’s impossible to describe but please don’t miss out on reading it it may break your heart a little bit it did mine but it’s well worth it, a book I loved and one that will stay with me for a long long time. Many many thanks to Kristin Hannah for an amazing reading experience it was so so special.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A beautiful and harrowing story set during The Great Depression, and one woman's fight to give her children a better future during this devastating era. A story that touches the heart and makes you feel grateful for the small things, big things and everything in between.

I adored The Nightingale and Firefly Lane, both gut-wrenching and tear-inducing, and after reading the synopsis to The Four Winds, I had no doubts there would be more ugly crying to come! So this time, I was prepared with tissues at the ready!

In 1930s Texas, Elsa and her two children, Loreda and Ant, must make a life-changing decision. Stay in the 'dust bowl': drought-stricken southern plains enduring high winds and choking dust, or leave along with hundreds of thousands of other migrants in search of the American Dream in California.

My summary is short, so as not to spoil the narrative, but you can expect themes of women's friendships, a complicated mother-daughter relationship, bravery, courage, resilience and love.

I knew very little about this era in history and appreciated the research and historical details the author brought to her writing. Although fiction, I love that I come away from a great historical read wanting to know more! As well as reading online about the economic downturn and 'Hoovervilles', the primitive living conditions migrants endured, I also watched an insightful YouTube video, on channel CrashCourse, about The Great Depression hosted by author John Green.

Kristin Hannah is becoming one of my absolute favourite authors! I look forward to reading her other novels in my TBR pile: Winter Garden, The Great Alone, Fly Away and Night Road and Wild. After writing this post,

Thank you @netgalley and @panmacmillan for my gifted copy of the advanced reading copy in return for my honest review.

I don’t think Kristin Hannah can do a single thing wrong in my eyes. I think she may be my new favourite writer.

She has the ability to craft the most wonderful characters in the most horrible of situations. To make me simultaneously fall in love with them and root for them, and pity and sympathise with them, then shatters my heart to pieces with the heartbreak they suffer.

This story completely broke me. What I knew of the Dust Bowl Era stemmed from reading The Grapes of Wrath when I was in college, or anything I’ve picked up over the years from film of TV, but nothing truly prepared me for how harrowing and devastating a picture this novel creates about such a tragic and ruinous time in American History.

This was a superbly written piece of historical fiction, and I would recommend this to anyone. I cannot wait to see what Kristin Hannah does next!

Full review can be found on my blog: http://www.thatbookishgem.com

Thank you to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan and Kristin Hannah for this ARC in return for my review. I'm a big fan of Kristin Hannah, I absolutely loved and would wholeheartedly recommend this powerful and compelling novel. I've literally just pulled an all-nighter to finish this book. Emotionally and beautifully written, it's definitely a page-turner. Very strongly written characters and descriptions so well crafted, I found myself gasping back the tears so many times at Elsa's plight. Stunning book, my favourite that I've read this year.

Kristin Hannah creates such wonderful characters- I loved “The Nightingale” which I read a few years ago as it contained strong female protagonists and “The Four Winds”is similar in that it is about brave women who have to use all their courage just to survive.
Elsa and her daughter, Loreda are the main characters in this incredible story which is set at the time of the Great Depression in America.
Elsa and her family live on a farm in the middle of the “Dust Bowl” in Texas. There has been a terrible drought for several years and people are suffering, both financially and from the dust storms which cause pneumonia as the dust enters the lungs. The land and the people on it are dying.
Elsa is forced to leave her home to save her children and embarks on a long journey across America to find a better life in California. However this is 1930s America and things do not work out as she hopes.
This is a family story which examines the relationship between mothers and daughters- we see events from 13 year old Loreda’s point of view as well.
It is a story of heartbreak and sadness, there were several moments when I had tears in my eyes. The period detail was excellent- I was humbled by how much research Kristin Hannah must have done and I learned a lot about the Great Depression, a subject I knew little about.
This is a beautiful novel and I highly recommend it as a compelling five star read which I couldn’t put down.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the best books that I have read this year. It is the story of Elsa and her children set during the 1930's first in Texas and then California. It is a story of survival that has love at it's heart. I found this book utterly compelling and a real page turner which for me is the best thing that I can say about a book. Loved it.

There is a reason why Kristin Hannah stars as one of my favourites authors. Her books shoot me straight into her vividly sketched settings and I feel like I live the story as I read. The characters won my heart with their resilience and bravery as they struggled through the Great Depression in Texas, and later in California.

They battled the elements, the horrendous assault from nature that made everyday life an endurance test. The scary dust bowl days. Then the injustice of working from dawn till dusk cotton picking for a pittance. And everyday getting deeper and deeper in debt to the cotton owners company store. I was raging reading it, and cheered when the workers fought back.

I literally didn’t want to put this book down, and I wanted it to go on and on. I’m far too attached to the characters, and the journey we travelled, to say goodbye. I need a follow up!

Compelling, heartbreaking and inspirational, I just loved it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a free Advanced Review Copy of this book.

I've read books by Kristin Hannah in the past, and she is a writer who never disappoints. This book is so powerful that I'm still choking on the dust. The narrative was that realistic. The world building and character development were done wonderfully.

As you can imagine, with this book being set from the 1930s onward in the Texas Dustbowl and through the Great Depression, this is no easy read. It's heart-wrenching, but in a good way. The courage, love, and hope shown are uplifting even while the events were so horrific for so many families. For sure, the author highlights both the exceptional cruelty and prejudice as well as the unprecedented compassion and generosity of strangers. And the bravery.

The main character, Elsa, is feminism personified. And in the midst of betrayal and anger and prejudice, she shows such strength of character, stamina, and love. As well as her bravery and steadfastness, she is also celver and patient. The character arc is excellent. And we live Elsa's journey right by her side as she finds her way from the depths of despair and zero self-esteem to finding and owning who she is at heart.

A couple of lines especially struck me:

'There was pain that came with constant disapproval; a sense of having lost something unnamed, unknown.'

and

'You know the thing about history, Elsa? It's over. Already dead and gone.'

Much love and research has gone into this novel, and in the current times of hardship from a global pandemic, many of us can relate to the loss and pain written with such care within these pages.

I heartily recommend both The Four Winds and the author Kristin Hannah. I give this book a solid 5 stars.

***

NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.

5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I have just started reading books from this author and I really enjoyed this one as well, great characters and a great storyline. Would recommend.

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 neighbours--must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life.

I adore Hannah's books but I have to be honest, I was not expecting to enjoy this one. The blurb just did not appeal to me but it was a novel by Hannah so read it I did and I am so pleased I did! Hannah has yet again written a gripping, beautiful read that perfectly captures the atmosphere and struggles of the time.

Hannah's characters are exceptional. We begin with Elsa struggling to find her place in the world and follow her as she finds that place and grows into an incredibly strong woman. Her story is full of despair, danger and uncertain times and I was hooked by all of it. The entire cast come together to form a very memorable read, I could imagine all of them and their anguish and desperation was plain to see.

I have already touched on the plot but I have to emphasise how interesting and unique it was. The plot was full of story as well as fact, I was completely taken in by it and gripped by the stunning story Hannah has crafted. Being based on true events means emotion is at the heart of this and I could feel every single piece. This was an exciting read, an interesting read and an emotional read.

'The Four Winds' is a beautiful read about a fierce less woman who is yet to discover how strong she is. I loved this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for an advance copy.

Elsa is feminism personified. She is all the things I strive to be as a women- brave, courageous, clever and yet still loving. This books is beautiful. I have never read a book by Kristin Hannah that doesn’t sweep you away to another world and this one is just as brilliant as her others. It feels like I’ve known Elsa my whole life. Her story is so powerful, the historical details so on point and the emotions she faces so raw. This book takes you on Elsa’s journey, one of true struggles which are faced with amazing strength and inspiring courage. A totally wonderful read.

Kristin Hannah is the type of author that you can pick up one of her books and know that you are in for an emotional rollercoaster of a ride - this book did not disappoint!

Set in America during the Great Depression, The Four Winds tells the story of Elsa and her family and their battle to survive. The scene descriptions are really vivid which allows you to believe you are right there with Elsa on the farm in the blistering Texan heat, or penned in at the overcrowded ditch camps.

I love how relatable the characters are in this book, and the relationships between the characters - Kristin Hannah has written a beautiful story of the love a mother has for her children.

I can’t give this less than 5 stars because it’s utterly heartbreaking 🤣 Set in 1930s America and the years of the Great Depression, the story is based around the real events of the terrible droughts and dust storms that occurred in Texas; and the migrants forced to flee to California in search of nothing less than their very survival. I didn’t know enough about what happened in this period so it was both enlightening and tragic to read from the point of view of Elsa. Her desperate struggle is to protect her kids, Loreda and Ant, as well as to give them a future that is better. Elsa is an extraordinary character that I couldn’t help but love, and her resilience throughout the story is a great portrayal of the lengths people had to go to survive and provide for their families in this period of history. You can’t read a book such as this without coming away feeling incredibly grateful for all we have now, even in hard times. The ending is gut wrenching but powerful!

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher Pan Macmillan for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have read most of Kristin Hannah’s books and loved them all. This book is brilliant. It is sad and emotional but full of hope and love. This is a period of recent history that I knew very little about. The Great Depression in the 1930s is so hard to read about in places. There is so much detail packed into this story. The hardship and the determination to survive is really well written about. I was close to tears several times. It is hard to comprehend how people can treat others with contempt. This is a memorable read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Kristin Hannah is a delight to read, and this new novel is no exception.

The Four Winds relates the story of Texas in the 1930s, where the drought in the Dust Bowl decimated the landscape and tore the harvests from every farm. Elsa Martinelli lives on a farmstead with her husband Rafe, his parents Tony and Rosa and her two children Loreda and Anthony; with Rafe's departure, Elsa has a stark choice - to live on in the only place she's ever felt at home in, with the only people who have ever shown her love; or to become part of the mass migration to California, the land of milk and honey.

Capturing real historic events so vividly, amongst a population of believable characters for whom I cared so deeply, this is an outstanding read. Highly recommended.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for trusting me with an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

She will discover the best of herself in the worst of times …

Texas, 1934, Elsa Martinelli had finally found the life shed yearned for. A family, a home, and a livelihood on a farm on the Great Plains. But when drought threatens all she and her community hold dear; Elsa’s world is shattered to the winds.

Fearful of the future, when Elsa wakes to find her husband has fled, she is forced to make the most agonizing decision of her life. Fight for the land she loves or take her beloved children, Loreda and Ant, west to California in search of a better life. Will it be the land of milk and honey? Or will their experience challenge every ounce of strength they possess.

I am in absolute awe of this book and the introduction of all the strong, brave, and independent women held within its pages. I adored this book, and the story and writing were amazing. It is a story depicting from success to tragedy, triumph over despair, and, learning who you are despite the life you have been born into.
Elsa really had a bad start to her life and was ignored for most of it until she makes one decision that will change the entire course of her life, Being led to another family and being taught how to be loved and how to love others is such a beautiful thing. She is extraordinarily strong but also very vulnerable at the same time. I know such a paradox does not make sense but if you read this book you will see it everywhere.

All through this book the main characters are woman of all shapes and sizes from different walks of life, but they join and become strong as one independent voice. The stories of the children within this book are beautiful too. A little girl feeling so betrayed that her daddy walked away from the family without a second glance. This does almost break her, but she gains strength by learning from and watching her mum. They have a volatile relationship but Loreda does hold her on a pedestal.

I am going to finish my review now so that I do not spoil anything for the readers to come. I am also going to buy this book on the day it comes out. Absolutely beautiful.

5 stars

I’ve just spent the last two days in Dust Bowl America through the Great Depression. Kristin Hannah’s new novel is both so addictive and evocative it takes you there through Elsa and the Martinelli family.
Elsa, the main character is the toughest Mother, Woman and Fighter there is. Always unsure of herself having come from a family who didn’t love her and told her she wouldn’t ever be loved by anyone she questions herself.
However when her husband leaves her on a Dust ravaged farm in the Pan Handle of Texas with a starving she moves them off to the promised land of California. Which is so far from the promised land but a land of misery, hunger and second class citizenship.

Although this is written about the 1930s so many of themes are just so 2020. The rich somehow getting everyone to believe that immigrants are the problem and not them. That they continue to get richer and richer off the back of more and more desperate people.

This book is out on the 2nd February and here is a definite recommendation to Pre order it now. It’s such an emotional rollercoaster but Hannah once again makes historical fiction not only completely come alive, you can smell, touch and taste the hunger, dust, dirt and desperation, but makes something that happened nearly 80 years ago feel so relevant to today. I couldn’t put it down. Thanks to panmacmillan and netgalley for the advanced copy.

The Four Winds is the second book by Kristin Hannah I have read. The first being The Nightingale - so it had a lot to live up to! I should not have worried. This is a fantastic book set in the North American Great Plains against the backdrop of the Great Depression. The story takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster and you will fall in love with the characters of Elsa and her children.

I will have no hesitation recommending this wonderful book. Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan.