This is the very definition of a slow burn book. You really have to give it a chance as not only is the pacing very slow but the story itself is also really depressing as we are following a family who are constantly hit by a series of tragic misfortunes. The characters themselves also start off to be quite unlikeable. For those reasons, I almost ended up DNFing this book, but something made me carry on and I'm really glad I did because I ended up really loving it.

The author does an incredible job of sucking the reader into the setting and time period, as she tells the story of a family of farmers in Texas during the period of the Great Depression, specifically told through the eyes of a young woman, Elsa, and her daughter, Loreda. I can't say I've ever read any books on this period (well, aside from Of Mice and Men) so I found it incredibly interesting (and so, so heartbreaking) to read about. Huge credit has to go to the author's writing style, which managed to have me so enthralled in what was essentially page after page of descriptions of poverty, misfortune, illness, and grueling work (don't let this description put you off reading the book though!). You probably want to avoid doing what I did, which was sit and read this book for a few hours before going to bed, because you really feel the exhaustion of the characters and their building frustration at what feels like a never-ending, awful situation (although once you get sucked into the story, it's really hard to put the book down, so maybe keep that in mind before you pick it up!)

At the start, I think one of the reasons why I came close to DNFing was because I found the characters, especially the two main characters whose eyes the story is told through, really irritating. However, they do gradually start to show some growth and you'll find yourself really rooting for them and for things to get better for them.

The pacing of the story also starts to pick up towards the end, and I'm honestly still reeling from the ending. No spoilers, but if you've finished the book I'm sure you'll understand when I say it hit me hard!

This is the first book I've read by Kristin Hannah (although I've heard a lot about The Nightingale and how much people love it) and I will definitely be checking out the rest of her books now. Even towards the start when I wasn't enjoying this book so much, I really liked Hannah's writing style and knew it was something I needed more of. I really can't recommend this book enough, especially if you're a fan of historical fiction, or even just slow but satisfying books.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Set during the The American Dust Bowl and The Great Depression, this novel will make your eyes as dry as the environment there. Kristin writes a novel that is very moving and insightful. What a character Elsa was! The poor woman! She left Texas to California in an attempt to give her children a better life. She suffers one hardship after another and it's heartbreaking. What a moving story - and you know that this must be true on some level as there must have been so many Elsa's at that time.

An enjoyable 'woman against the odds' tale set in the American Dust Bowl. Whilst stuck in what feels like a never ending cycle of lockdowns reading about other peoples' hardships was surprisingly therapeutic, I had not appreciated the horrendous knock on impact of the drought.

A bit of history, a bit of loving, tears, laughter, gritty determination - Kristin Hannah pulls her tools of the trade out of her pencil case and has delivered a cracking read.

Can an author keep on writing amazing books? If you’re Kristin Hannah, the answer is YES!!

Set during the The American Dust Bowl and The Great Depression in the 1930’s, we follow Elsa’s journey from Texas to California in a bid to give her children a better life. Could a mother’s love overcome every hardship life threw at her?

Unloved as a child and then by her husband, down trodden and invisible, we watch her grow, gain courage, find friendship, love and her voice, whilst enduring setback after setback.

It wasn’t the ending I wanted and I sobbed throughout. What a wonderful book and thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Four Winds is an epic tale set the American depression, an era I knew little about. We follow the life of Elsa who is born into a respectable family but cast aside and unloved. As the story moves forward, her perceived standing is pulled out from under her but her wider family relationships provide her bedrock and her ‘warrior focus’.

The novel is sweeping and beautifully told. However, it lacks in the hope of other Kristen Hannah books I have hugely enjoyed. I would go so far as to say it verges on bleak and the characters don’t sufficiently engage to take the reader on such a lengthy journey. Overall a rounded up 3.5*

With thanks to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for and ARC in consideration of an honest review.

A wonderful, wonderful read. Read in one sitting. Utterly compelling with strong characters with deep hearts and brutal wisdom. Opened my eyes to some of the darker parts of the great migration. I knew it was bad, but a fascinating insight into the hardship and pain thousands of people endured through no fault of their own.
Highly recommend.

I have read 76 books so far this year and this is by far the best one I’ve read. It is a grim story about a time in American history I knew nothing about. The depth of desperation and courage in this story is outstanding. I could not stop thinking about Elsa & her children and about her bravery. It begins in Texas where farmers struggled during the Great Depression and through droughts and wind storms. It then moves to California where workers from all corners of the USA struggled to create better lives for themselves and their families. They met obstacle after obstacle and fought human cruelty along the way. Honestly this period it is a dark stain in America’s history. Kristin Hannah is a terrific writer. I have read almost all of her books having picked up my first Kristin Hannah book in a NY airport in 2006. I predict this book will be as loved as her previous two smashing books.. Thank you NetGalley for this amazing book.

The Four Winds is a poignant and heart-wrenching historical fiction novel set in the North American Great Plains against the backdrop of the Great Depression. It portrays the misfortune and hardship of Martinelli family from Texas who have no choice but to leave everything behind and set on a journey to the west in a vision of a better life in California.

This is only my second book by Kristin Hannah but also my second 5 star rating for her. She sure knows how to write a moving story and pull at her readers' heartstrings. Kristin Hannah doesn't spare her readers and describes the poverty, despair and misery in great detail based on historic facts. I haven't appreciated how badly people in some states were affected by the Great Depression and how their migration to California under false promises was mishandled. This was an outstanding read, in my top 3 in 2020.

Many thanks to the publisher for my review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Five fabulous stars hardly seem sufficient for this wonderful book. Once again Kristen Hannah takes the reader on an epic journey into history and shows us the best and worst of human nature. The hardships and love within the pages broke me and uplifted me. The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and through it all the courage of one woman and her family shine through. Simply wonderful.

I’m a fan of the nightingale and I couldn’t put that down. So I was thrilled to be accepted to read this and this was a joy to read.

As an English teacher, teaching ‘Of Mice and Men’ a story set during the Great Depression, I thought I had some contextual knowledge on what truly happened to people during the dust bowls but Hannah has captured something here that strikes to your very core. It’s spellbinding and once again, I was hooked.

What a story. What depth! We follow a mother who was abandoned and unloved and watch her grow into a dedicated and determined mother. The effects of the dust bowl are intricately entwined into the story and shape the progression of the novel.

Honestly, this has left me speechless. The realism of such a devastating era is brought to life and accompanied by a story that is filled with love, sacrifice, friendships and determination.

The story of the men, women and children who endured the heartbreaking conditions in Texas in the 1930’s during the Great Depression.
Elsa’s family are affluent and a pillar of the community. She marries the son of an Italian immigrant and goes to live and work on his family’s farm.
Several years later they are crippled with drought and dust storms. Every day is a struggle to survive and feed her family.
This is a sad story but highlights the courage of the people and dedication to their families and each other in order to survive in the hope of better things to come.
I was hooked from the first page.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This is possibly the most emotional book I have ever read. It is the sort of book that makes you re-consider all of your previous five star reads because it is outstanding in comparison.

This novel is a family saga with Elsa as the central character. Initially Elsa lives with her parents in a strict and loveless household where she is told that she will never marry or find love. However, she does marry and goes on to live with the Martinelli family and she and her husband go on to have two children. She loves living on the farm but this way of life is not destined to continue. During the great depression, Elsa and her children travel from Texas to California to start a new life. But nothing is as they imagined it would be.

This is such an emotional roller coaster of a book. There are times when you are willing Elsa on, especially when she is willing herself to be brave. And there are other heartbreaking moments that are so desperately sad. This novel is an incredible piece of writing which reminds me a great deal of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I am sure it will be a memorable story and definitely a book I will recommend to other readers.

Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Having read The Nightingale by the same author, I was really interested in reading another of her novels. However, I wasn't sure if I would be able to love this one as much as The Nightingale. I was so wrong!

Set during The Great Depression in the U.S, this is a deeply emotional and highly poignant family saga, that will have you hooked from the very first page. Elsa comes from a loveless family who constantly make her feel worthless and unloved. Her life changes suddenly and unexpectedly, when at the age of 25, she finds herself living with the Martinelli family on their farm.

This story is about Elsa's life, and you will soon get to love her and all the other wonderful characters that make this book so very special. Her daughter Loreda, son Ant, Rose and Tony, all play a major part in how this story unfolds, and you will get to know, love and feel, each and every one of them.

To retell this story would be to do it an injustice.
I urge you to read it.
It is a story that will stay with me for a very long time, and has left me breathless with emotion and tears. The pain and suffering they all endured during this awful time was difficult to read in parts, but I am so grateful to have had the pleasure to read it. This really is a must read.

A huge thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley, for an early copy of this novel, in exchange for an honest review.

Wow..... there are not enough words to describe this book. It was just amazing! I had grit in my eyes and mouth, I felt every wind storm through my bones. I gasped, I cried and was left speechless so many times. Kristen Hannah, thank you so much for this amazing book, highlighting things I knew nothing about! You have excelled! The best one you’ve wrote!

This is the story of Elsinore (Elsa) Martinelli, her daughter Loreda, and mother in law Rosa. This is a fantastic saga which takes us on a heartbreaking journey from the Texas ‘Dust Bowl’ of the 1930’s to search for a better life in California. This is a story of survival, of clinging on by your fingertips, of being tough and resilient in the face of unbelievable hardship, they are indeed warrior women.

This is an amazing book which is so well written that the descriptions almost make you taste the dust, feel the searing heat on your back and ache in your bones with tiredness. The characters are excellent, I love the growing bond between Elsa and Rosa who becomes the mother Elsa never has as her own is a callous cold fish and how firebrand Loreda takes up the mantle of these ‘Joan of Arc’ heroes. The storytelling is firmly set in its historical context and this poignant, emotional and soaring tale seems especially relevant as we fight a different battle against the ravages of the Covid 19 pandemic. The story is shocking in places, the treatment of the dust bowl migrant workers shakes you to the core, it’s certainly a tear jerker but it also makes you angry at the prejudice and the card stacking against them. The novel is unrelenting and brutally hard, the dust bowl is a Saharan hell on earth and existence in California is hand to mouth soul crushing poverty. However, it’s also a story of deep love and that’s the message I will take from this superbly told story.

Overall, this story will stay with me for a long time. I love history and know a fair bit about the homesteader women and so this book resonates with me. It’s a powerful story which I highly recommend. I loved it and I’m certain this is a best seller.

With thanks to NetGalley and Pan McMillan for the much appreciated arc for an honest review.

Firstly I wish to thank netgalley and Kirsten Hannah for an early copy in return for an honest opinion.
Having read a number of books by this author I'm never disappointed.
Four winds is a tale of humanity hearbreak and changes we can make but sometimes frightened to do so.
Companionship, what are the chances of finding love a second time round.
Unless we try we will never know.
This book has been written so eloquently and with such Compassion.
I can't praise it enough.

I absolutely loved this book! Set in the American Dust Bowl in the 1930s, The Four Winds tells the story of Elsa and her family and their struggle to survive during the Great Depression. The novel was beautifully written and I felt so much for the hardship that the characters had to fight against. The ending was heartbreaking.

I would recommend this book if you are interested in historical fiction. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful, WONDERFUL book set in the dustbowl of 1930s in America, with amazing characters.
A compelling story with a heroine Elsa, whom I fell in love with, told she is useless and ugly and sick since she is a child, by parents I quickly loathed no wonder she is desperate to seize any chance to escape. As her father leaves her at the door of her future family I was appalled and with her every step of her completely unputdownable journey.
Oh she is so real, flawed and often scared but with an inner strength that makes her a real heroine.
Much of the story seemed familiar as the setting is very similar to the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, but told from a woman's point of view.

"Dust Pneumonia. That was what they called it, but it was really loss and poverty and man's mistakes."
What a heartbreaking story about the depths and strength of a mother's love. I adore Kirsten Hannah's writing, The Nightingale is one of my favourite books and The Four Winds is another example of her incredible ability to convey humanity through the written word.

I found her Author's Note very touching as it was hard reading this book as a pandemic cripples the globe. How painfully relevant the loss and hurt feels today. Despite it being an emotional rollercoaster, Hannah provides glimmers of hope and resilience through this story. History can teach us a lot and reading this story about the The Great Depression and Dust Bowl that swept through the USA was fascinating and educational. Despite the character of Elsa being fictional, I found that Hannah used her to represent all those that have fought for a better life for themselves but also for their communities. Elsa is the amalgamation of those brave enough to speak out. There is courage within the pages of this novel.

Hannah's ability to capture historic detail with out being weighed down by it is what propels the story along and draws you in. The pace of the novel suited the plot and the deafening crescendo simply highlights just how long Elsa and her family suffered. Just like The Nightingale, I know that I will be thinking about this novel in the days and weeks to come. Powerful and raw, A wonderful story.

Forgive my indulgence by starting this review on a personal note, but as a child, my parents had a saying - “Never judge a person’s life story by the chapter you find them in”. It was said with kindness and concern for others’ misfortunes, and never was this more pertinent than in The Four Winds!

1930’s Texas, the dust bowl, the stock market crash, and for the farmers across The Great Plains, came burning winds that destroyed everything in their path, and a drought so fierce that it left wheat fields so severely blasted by heat that they couldn’t be harvested, the collapse of the economy - everything that nature and life could throw at these poor unfortunate people was thrown, and life as they knew it was gone.

It is against this backdrop that we meet Elsa Martinelli, on the face of it an unremarkable woman, struggling with the question, should she stay on the home farm and keep struggling, waiting for the rains that never come, this is an area she has known her whole life, or should she take her two children and try her luck out West? Well, the decision Elsa takes, turns this unremarkable woman into one to be proud of, someone who shows us that in adversity, we can reveal the warrior who’s been hiding within.

The hardship, the sheer grinding poverty and its effects, are hard to witness here, in addition, the prejudice shown to these people who were just trying to put food on the table for their families, was shameful. Here we discovered others who were better off, who hadn’t known a day’s hardship in their lives, doing their best to grind these poor unfortunate people’s pride into the gutter - that’s if they still had any pride left to grind, after all that they’d suffered. However, the overriding message that comes across is that human beings can survive against all the odds, and that love for one’s family survives everything.

This is an epic read that is undoubtedly heartbreaking, but it’s stunning, and so beautifully written that I will take Elsa Martinelli with me in my heart for some time to come. Don’t miss this one!