Title: The Four Winds
Author: Kristin Hannah
Publication: February 2, 2021
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 450
SYNOPSIS (From Goodreads)
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.
REVIEW:
I know that Kristin Hannah is a hugely popular author. My book club picked her new book as our book of the month I was rather excited. I haven’t read any of her books yet and was happy for the chance to do so.
Elsa didn’t have a happy childhood. She was sick as a child and that left her parents being overly cautious with everything that she did. They also told her that she didn’t amount to much and said that she wasn’t attractive. Elsa sneaks out of her house and becomes “in a way” after sleeping with a boy she met in town. The events that happened after changed her life forever, both in good ways and bad. This book takes place during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl Era. It is really, really good. I binge-read the first 38% the first night I started it. Then last night I did the same and finished off the last 30% of the book. I just had to find out what happened. I ended up sobbing the last two chapters + epilogue. The author really got me with the ending.
This book is absolutely sweeping. The whole Dust Bowl that Elsa lived through was wild. I can see how her husband couldn’t take it anymore. The tenacity that Elsa had throughout the whole book was amazing. It made me want to be just like her. I want some of the inner strength that she possessed. She was a mamma bear when she needed to be and stood up for what she believed in, in the end. I am ashamed to say that I learned some things about the Dust Bowl and the treatment of people that fled for a better life in California. I like to think that I am well-read but apparently not that much. I didn’t realize how bad the treatment was in the camps and what they went through just trying to get by. I have already recommended this book to several people including my sister. It is that good. I have two more books by this author on my shelf and I think I will recommend them for my next book club book. I have to read more by this author.
STAR RATING: 5/5
Pick up your copy of The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and check your local bookstore. Also make sure to add it to your To Reads list on Goodreads and leave feedback for the author when you are finished. You can find more from author Kristin Hannah on her website HERE.
