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A review by mldavisreads
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
challenging
emotional
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
Adult historical fiction. Elsa lives with her parents and sisters in a small Texas town in the late 1920s. As women are chopping their hair and showing off their legs, Elsa is stuck at home because her parents see her as sickly and also as homely. When Elsa decides to make her own red silk dress and go out on the town one night, she can't imagine how much that choice changes the course of her life. She meets Rafe Martinelli, they hook up, and see each other a few more times until Elsa's mother realizes with her horror that her unmarried daughter is pregnant. Elsa gets unceremoniously dumped at the Martinelli farm, completely disowned from her parents. This is only the beginning of Elsa's story. As a Martinelli, she takes to the hard work involved in living on the farm. When the dust storms start in the 1930s, the family starts using up their food reserves. Eventually a health scare forces Elsa to make the difficult decision to head west with her children to the promised land of opportunity on the west coast. But life in California is not what they expect, and they become migrant workers living in a field. As the Martinelli family tries to stay fed, clothed, and healthy they face countless obstacles. But they also find friendship and community in the midst of their hardship.
Like so many of Kristin Hannah's other novels this book is hard to read. The situations are tough--listening to the narrator describe the dust storms was unbelievable. Seeing Elsa's situation on the cotton farm was infuriating. Knowing that so many of these issues that the country faces decades ago are still an issue was exasperating. But this book was so powerful, about simple acts of kindness, about a friend that would do anything for you, about a cause so dear to your heart that it's worth risking your life for. Don't pick this up for a light beach read, this is the antithesis of fluff. But if you're in the mood for a great female-centered family drama, this one is a winner.
Thank you to libro.fm and the publisher for an advanced listening copy of this book.
Like so many of Kristin Hannah's other novels this book is hard to read. The situations are tough--listening to the narrator describe the dust storms was unbelievable. Seeing Elsa's situation on the cotton farm was infuriating. Knowing that so many of these issues that the country faces decades ago are still an issue was exasperating. But this book was so powerful, about simple acts of kindness, about a friend that would do anything for you, about a cause so dear to your heart that it's worth risking your life for. Don't pick this up for a light beach read, this is the antithesis of fluff. But if you're in the mood for a great female-centered family drama, this one is a winner.
Thank you to libro.fm and the publisher for an advanced listening copy of this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Gun violence and Police brutality
Minor: Miscarriage