Rating: 5/5 

Goodreads link: The Nightingale 

Read in: Polish, physically

Dates read: 28/12/19 - 06/01/20

Pages:  555

I'm usually scared to pick up historical novels. I feel quite intimated by them, but also since I'm a big sucker for light, quick, teenage romance means I don't reach for historical fiction often enough.

I don't know what pushed me to start reading The Nightingale. I remember I just finished flying though two ya romance books and wanted something different.

The story is captivating but difficult. As it is set during World War 2, it captures how the lives of two French sisters change dramatically as they try to fight for what's important for them. 

Isabell from the very beginning devotes her life to fighting for her country. For Vianne, the most important thing is the wellbeing of her daughter.

Some of the descriptions of the landscape submerged in the war were difficult to get through. The image painted in my head by Hannah will probably haunt me for the days to come. I believe it is important to talk about those things and learn from them so we don't make the same mistakes. Books like that are important. 

I was fascinated by how even though the sisters' actions and thinking processes were completely different, I understood both of them. When reading from each of the perspectives, I was able to feel the emotions, the passions, their perceptions of what's right. It is almost as if I became them, stood and fought with them. 

A lot of times I closed the book to get lost in my thoughts about the storyline. I felt inspired, forced to analyse. On one hand, the process of reading was draining emotionally, but on the other, opened a new world for me. 

This book broke my heart. I was preparing for one thing, yet got something different in return. The beautiful writing style of Kristin Hannah grabbed my heart and did not let go until the last pages, and later when I cried thinking of the story of the two sisters. Even though the first few days I was unable to read more than 50 or so pages at a time, on Monday (06/01) when I was left with around 200 pages, I devoured them almost at once. I couldn't put the book down, I needed to know how it ends. 

My favourite quote and an amazing first sentence: 

If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.