Frankie grew up on Coronado Island, San Diego in the 1960s with her parents and brother. She had an idyllic life, but when her brother goes off to war she is determined to follow. Unfortunately for Frankie, her brother dies in a helicopter bombing before she can get there. She convinces her parents that she'll be fine. She's only going to be a nurse after all, and won't be anywhere near the fighting. Frankie boards the plane looking forward to the adventure and saving lives but when she gets there all she wants to do is come home. Vietnam is like nothing Frankie has ever seen. The bombs go off constantly and all she smells is putrid in her hanger which she shares with two other nurses. Frankie is one of my favorite MCs ever. She’s a badass and flawed and tough and inspiring and emotional and an absolutely beautiful woman. She does some bad things but again, she is human and flawed and she is suffering. The female friendships portrayed in this book will make your heart so happy. I cannot get over the research Kristin Hannah must have done for this book...so INSANE. Like so many other historical fiction novels, THE WOMEN is incredibly eye-opening and educational. It shows you sides of the Vietnam War you probably have never seen or heard of before and also brings things you have heard of to light in a very real way. The ending will ruin you in the best way. The tears were flowing, but I wouldn’t have changed a single thing.
From master storyteller Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds, comes the story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s. The Women is that rarest of novels—at once an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics, of a generation both fueled by dreams and lost on the battlefield.
“Women can be heroes, too.”
When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyric beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation
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