Two Great Reads

 

"It literally takes a village of dedicated, tireless, type A-personality people to make a single book live up to its potential and find an audience."

-Kristin Hannah, in her acknowledgements at the end of The Nightingale.

I finished two great novels this week and both were very emotional and gut-wrenching at times. The first one, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, is about two sisters who live in France during World War II. The other book, And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini,  (author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns) is akin to a family epic that takes place in and around Afghanistan beginning in the 1950s. Both of these books are good novels because they tell amazing stories, comment on true-to-life historical events, and their language is fluid, magnetic, and beautifully written.

The Nightingale was published last year and it became Hannah's twenty-second book, which is no small achievement. I cannot imagine writing that many books, although I know there are authors who have written many more than this. Nevertheless, Hannah's story begins in the small village of Carriveau, France in 1939, a turbulent time throughout Europe and the entire world. The two sisters are the main characters, and we follow them through the many hurdles of their war-time lives. Vianne, the married sister, has a daughter named Sophie. The mother and daughter are left alone when Antoine, Vianne's husband, must leave to join the fight against Hitler. Although Vianne is a teacher, her money soon runs out and she and her daughter face daily struggles to find a little bit of food so that they can survive just one more day. Meanwhile, Isabelle, the younger sister who is only 18 years old, is a drop-out of several boarding schools and feels abandoned by their father who turned to drinking when his wife died. After you read several chapters you learn the significance of "the nightingale," but I don't want to spoil that for you here. Isabelle becomes an underground secret agent who helps airmen find safety when they've had to eject from their airplanes. She is fearless and manages to evade the Nazis for quite some time due to her false identification papers. She is part of a large network of people who oppose Hitler and the Nazis, so the help of her co-workers was a large part of her success. Both sisters endure severe persecution when the Nazis take over France and do anything they wish to the French people. Vianne had to let two German officers reside at her house at different times, one of which was a good man but the other was pure evil. Also, she lost her best friend, Rachel, when the Nazis arrested her because she was Jewish. Her feelings of loss and guilt tore at her for a very long time. Similarly, Isabelle suffered greatly during the war, yet she found love and happiness along the way. She got to do something courageous and meaningful with her life, and this is what she wanted more than anything. The Nightingale is a very popular book right now, and if you haven't read it, I encourage you to do so. You won't be disappointed.

And the Mountains Echoed is a story that follows a family through several generations. The characters live in Kabul, Afghanistan as well as in Paris and San Francisco. The heart of the story is the sale of a poor man's three-year-old daughter, Pari, to a wealthy couple. The little girl is taken by her step-uncle, Nabi, to Nila and Suleiman Wahdati, the couple that Nabi works for in the city of Kabul. This is a story about love, redemption, dishonesty, and the power that draws families together even after many years apart. It's a story of forgiveness and gratitude in the simple things. To say this novel is emotional would not be fair to Hosseini because "emotional" is not a strong enough word. This book will cause you to examine yourself, particularly in the area of family loyalty.  How far would you go for your family? How much do you really love them, and how do you show it? These are questions that you will ask yourself when you are reading this book. You will also examine yourself in the area of materialism as you think about what really matters in life. Does it really matter that we get a bigger and better television? Does it matter that we have the newest and nicest car on the block? If you read And the Mountains Echoed you will realize that you have many wonderful simple things to be thankful for, and you will see that unconditional love is the most powerful and important thing that you can fill your life up with. This story is so powerful that you will not want to put it down. At times you will feel pain and sorrow, but the joy and love will bring you to a better place.

I'm almost finished with my tenth year of teaching English as a Second Language, and now I'm looking forward to some rest and relaxation this summer. Later this month I will travel to Alabama to visit a friend. We plan to visit the hometowns of Harper Lee and Helen Keller, so I'm looking forward to feeling like a tourist again - I can't wait! After that I'll go to Kentucky to visit my family there for my mom's birthday. I'll be on the road for a full week, but I'm looking forward to it. I hope to see Sharon, Sherry, Cindy, Elizabeth, and others while I'm in Georgetown, Kentucky too.

Have a great weekend,

Melissa Hill
Book Blogger
ww.onegoodbookblog.blogspot.com