Set during the time of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, THE FOUR WINDS is a historical fiction novel about resilience and love. It is a bit reminiscent of The Grapes of Wrath. The heroine of the story, Elsa, considers herself plain and unmarriageable; after all, that’s what she’s always been told. At twenty-five, she is already considered a spinster. When the handsome eighteen-year-old Raffaello Martinelli notices her and then asks her permission to kiss her, she doesn’t hesitate for a second. Neither does she resist when he wants to take the kiss further. When she turns up pregnant, her father promptly takes her to his family home and abandons her there. Rafe agrees to marry her, and he tries to be a good husband. However, his heart has bigger dreams and they call out to him. The birth of their daughter, Loreda, seems to ground them. Elsa grows to love her in-laws and the land they live upon. However, when the drought persists, everything is tested. Will love alone be enough to hold them together?
THE FOUR WINDS was a bit slow-moving for me at the beginning, but I am so glad I stuck with it because it is an amazing story. Above all, this is a story about love: the love of a parent, the love of a child, the love of the land, romantic love, love between friends, and love of an idea. It is also a story about resilience. This time period was difficult for so many. It was a time when life and death decisions had to be made often. It was a time when people discovered what really mattered. It was a time that brought out the best in some and the worst in others. It was a time that those who lived through it never forgot.
Rarely has a book affected me so emotionally as THE FOUR WINDS. I found myself saddened, heartbroken, sympathetic, angry, joyful, hopeful, and so much more during this story. I have been moved to tears by a book before, but the tears I shed with this story were more heartfelt and deeper than any previous book has ever evoked. I found Kristin Hannah's clever use of the book’s first line later in the story to be especially moving.
Because of the adult nature of many scenes and themes of this book, I would not recommend this to young readers. However, I highly recommend this to mature adult readers who enjoy historical fiction.
From Kristin Hannah, 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.
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.
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