The Four Winds

Kristin Hannah is one of my favourite writers, and reading her latest book, The Four Winds, was a compulsion, not a choice. And I am glad to tell you all that it didn’t disappoint. The only thing I regret is not reading it sooner.What I love about Hannah’s writing (and there is so much to love) is the vivid imagery she creates. Each line, each paragraph she has crafted, is like a photograph or a painting. Those pictures, they sear into you. I could not just see the hundreds of acres of the Martinelli farm with the golden stalks of wheat reaching for the sky, but I could also taste the fruit from their garden, smell the fecund earth, and when the drought hit, taste the dust on my lips. Feel the sun scorch my skin. The master craftsman that she is, Hannah, engages all your senses with her writing, which makes the reading experience so much more immersive.The Four Winds is a work of historical fiction set during the American depression.Even when times were good, they weren’t particularly great for Elsa. The middle daughter of a wealthy Texas family, she suffered the scorn of her parents and her siblings simply because they did not consider her beautiful or worthwhile. She craved for her parents’ love and approval, and their constant rejection of her needs shaped the woman she became. An illness during her teenage years kept her from completing high school and giving up on her dream of going to college someday. For twenty-five years, Elsa kept to her room and to herself, books being her only salvation. Then one day, she put on a red dress she had sewed with her own hands, cut off her limp blonde hair and made her way to a speakeasy. A single decision that would forever change the course of her life.Elsa is the heroine of this tale, and like so many of Hannah’s other heroines, she is strong (you have to be to live on a farm and then survive the drought years and the inhumane conditions of the migrant camps in California) and brave (even though she doesn’t believe it). Elsa is a survivor. A warrior. But perhaps what stands out most is her ability to love unconditionally: her children, her family. In essence, this is the story about motherhood.Even though their relationship does not begin on a pleasant note, Elsa and her mother-in-law, Rose, grow to form a deep, indelible bond over time. In Rose, Elsa finds the mother she always wanted.When the time came for Elsa and her children to say goodbye to Rose and Tony, her father-in-law, the quiet farmer, who treated her with nothing but kindness and respect from the day she landed on their farm, I was crying with them. It’s all about the family we make, after all.At the heart of this book, though, is the relationship between Elsa and her fiery daughter Loreda. Unlike her mother, Loreda has stars in her eyes. At thirteen, she dreams of seeing the world, going to college, becoming a writer. She knows there is a vast universe out there, and she isn’t going to experience it if she stays on their farm, losing herself to the labour of surviving each day, like her mother. When her beloved father leaves, abandons the family at the height of the depression, Loreda blames Elsa.Every insult, every horrid thing Loreda throws her way is compounded for Elsa by her deep-seated belief that she is unworthy of love, and yet, not even for a second does she stop loving her daughter. Mothers are simply the best, although, how my heart hurt for her.When the situation on the farm becomes untenable, Elsa packs her two children in their truck and drives them across the desert to California, leaving behind the land and the family she has grown to love. Home. The only one she has known. On hitting the San Juan valley, they spot the lush rolling hills and fields swelling with crops. The family thinks their hard days are behind them, only to realize the worse is yet to come.In great, painful detail, Hannah highlights their life in the migrant camp, every hardship, every humiliation they face. Throughout it all, Elsa puts on a brave face, even though she doesn’t feel courageous and does whatever she can for the survival of her children because that’s what mother’s do. And it is here that Loreda discovers the warrior her mother is.The book is powerful, gut-wrenching, with a climax that will make you reach for the tissues. I was straight up sobbing. The book is one emotional roller-coaster ride.There are other books written about the great depression, the most famous being Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. But few highlight the experience of women, their contribution towards creating a more equitable society, or simply all the silent work they did to just keep their families surviving. And it is through their actions that they speak the loudest.I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in historical fiction, loves a great story and is a sucker for gorgeous prose. Just be prepared to cry your eyes out.

Great narration.

This is the story of Elsa Martnilli who lived in the Dust Bowl, troubled by the drought, in a period of the Great Depression. She was brave, courageous, knew how to fight for her rights and believed that love is what remains…It made heave a melancholic sigh. There were parts of the book that made me chant ‘this is unfair’. It gave me goosebumps to read about atrocities of those Americans, how they survived.Life is full of hardships, the only thing that keeps you going, is courage to do the right thing.

Poignant and powerful.

I won't reveal anything since I don't want to ruin your reading experience, but I must let you know that this will not be an easy or straightforward journey for you. It will break you, damage you, shake you, smack you, and crash you. It is so intensely painful because it is so real and honest. Tragedies, along with the despair, sadness, famine, and helplessness they endure, test people's mental and physical fortitude.

I rarely write book reviews, but this book made me write one.May be at least one person who need this book in their life would read it.Our protagonist Elsa(I would love to meet her in person, that's how much I fell in love with her. ) who from childhood is made to believe that she is just a underdog and believe that she is not capable of anyone's love.Raff was 18 and Elsa was 25 then. They get married under circumstances in which Elsa conceives a child before their marriage.Elsa's parents abandon them and she discovers her life's truth(No spoilers here)The place were Elsa lives is affected serious drought and famine also followed by great depression.Raff fed up their situation abandons Elsa and their two kids - Loreda and Ant.A beautiful journey unfolds exploring the mother-daughter, mother-son relationship.Did Elsa stood in the resilient times and got through it. READ IT.IN A SINGLE STRETCH."YOU WOULD LOVE THE JOURNEY IN THIS FAT AND FLUFFY BOOK."

Realistic, tragic with hardly any respite from the misfortunes. But then that’s history and reality..

Kristin Hannah never fails. She's a phenomenal writer, and at this point, she's also become an auto-buy author for me.The story follows the trials of a young girl who is forced into marriage out of sheer cruelty. It hurts to see how much damage families can inflict on their children at times, and reminds you that if you are from a good home, you're one of the lucky ones.The strength of the protagonist, her ability to keep going in the face of so much hurt, and most of all, her relationship with her children, at once human and beautiful- it's a pleasure to read. I read the Nightingale last year and took a month to recover from it, this will be the same.Lovers of historical fiction, give this book a chance. It will touch your soul and break you and mend you all over again. Absolutely beautiful.

I gave this novel a try after all the positive accolades. I wasn’t expecting much, but was hoping it would be better than the Nightgale, which was a generous 4/5 for me. This met and exceeded my expectations. It’s much better written, very gripping, with flawed characters that you want to root for. There is so much history and I loved learning what I wasn’t taught in school. The daily hardships of life at that time and in that region were brought to life in such a moving way. The struggles of a single mother were so eloquently developed and described. The dialogues felt real and human. This kind of book makes you appreciate life in the 21st century, and be grateful for all the things we take for granted.To those giving this book a low rating because of the ending: 1) grow up; 2) perhaps you should stick to the Hallmark channel; 3) what better ending than your child achieving what you wished them to be when they were born?You won’t regret reading this one.

No puedo creer que me salga mas barato un libro importado! y en inglés!!!

Was hooked on this book from the start and it's the only one, out of hundreds I have read, that made me cry. The sheer humanity, love, strength of character and goodness of people, tempered by the greed and wickedness of others. Extremely well written, bringing to life the awfulness of millions of Americans suddenly losing literally everything they had and worked for, including family members, due to the famine caused by years of drought in the early 1930s in the USA. Scarily shows how our lives as we know them can suddenly be ripped from us.

Excelente romance ambientado no período da grande depressão Americana e do Dust Bowl na região do Texas panhandle, abordando o sofrimento e as mudanças dos aspectos sociais, econômicos, educacionais, migratório e de sáude, vivenciados por uma família de moradores daquele local

And she's done it again! Kristin Hannah has a way of taking me on a journey into the past and leaving me with feelings of shock, sadness, anger and more knowledge than I started with, but she's also a master at taking all of that and showing there are those who, with the courage, strength and resiliency to survive, can change their stories in history, even change history itself. Lift themselves up, carry on and show the strength of the pure human spirit when everything around them is in tatters.The Four Winds is not the book for you if you're looking for an easy read that you can just blow through (no pun intended) and say, "Yeah, that was great." No it's a real story of a horrible time in American history. I chose this one to read right away because it dealt with The Great Depression, it seemed especially relative to me right now. What I would call a timely book for these times. As we go through what's being labeled as the worst economic disaster since The Great Depression, I wanted to know what went on to the marginalized people of our nation in the 1930's. Historically it's the underserved, poor and devastated that suffer in times of crisis, we're seeing it happening again and I wonder will we ever learn? What's it going to take? When is enough enough?Elsa Martinelli hasn't had an easy life, her family shunned her, she just wasn't pretty enough to warrant attention from them. But it's her life after marriage that the book concentrates on. Elsa finds herself in a new town, living on a farm with her in-laws within the Great Plains of America, what will soon be called The Dust Bowl after years of drought and failing farms, hungry families, mountains of dust being blown and covering everything in it's wake and little hope for change. She's a farm girl now and calls the Plains her home, but after years of trying to live in a place where the dust is burying them more every year, crops will not grow without water and it's become dangerous for her to stay, Elsa decides to migrate West to California with her daughter and son. A feat that she never dreamed she'd be able to do. They suffer greatly trying to make it across the country in an old, broken down truck, just the three of them. I would think in the 1930's a woman alone, with only her two young children would have to have been the bravest of the brave, the determined few who would do anything to find the American dream!Once they reached the Golden State their hopes and dreams of a new home, friendly neighbors and jobs, soon becomes a real life disappointment. There are no jobs for the thousands and thousands who are like Elsa trying to escape their dire circumstances and continue with their hopes of the American dream. Soon they'll have to settle for a spot in one of the many immigrant tent cities, where Elsa is again challenged to provide for her children as best she can. She finds a job picking cotton, but then goes through the injustice of the greedy owner. Her soul is constantly being chipped away, but she persisted! The residents of California are nothing short of mean and nasty to these immigrants and won't even give them a chance. They are taunted with names, discriminated against at every turn, left to suffer on their own, but Elsa is not giving up. It's so important to her to teach her children what's important in life and try to keep them in school, education will further their dreams for a better future. This will not be an easy task for Elsa, but she's become a tougher than nails kinda gal and doesn't stop trying any more than she'd stop loving her children,After meeting up with an activist/communist who has a heart for the downtrodden and wants to help, she encounters the other side of greed. Someone finally understands the nightmare she and thousands of other families are living through. She's hesitant at first to get involved, after all he is a communist, and during the 30's that was not the label you wanted attached to your name. Elsa's daughter has grown up to be a smart, independent thinker with ideas of her own, I loved to read that teen girls in the 1930's were not that much different from the 1990's when I was going through the hell of a teenage daughter with a strong independent personality who thought she knew it all. Anyway, her daughter sees things as a simple right and wrong conversation, but the realities of surviving are left to her mom, the one whose been particular about how honest she is with her for fear of scaring the kids or allowing them to think they're less than. She's one heck of a mom in a time when trying to care for oneself is hard enough, but to raise strong, resilient children is almost impossible.This will be another book that doesn't leave me soon. Both my parents survived the Great Depression, but for personal reasons never talked much about it. Every once in a while when my dad would tell a story of his childhood I could detect from the settings he used that he was one of the very poor in the 1930's. Little food, torn and outgrown clothes, no jobs, no money and hardship at every turn, but then I listen to stories my mom told and she was of the upper class and didn't go through any of this. I've always wondered how can this be? They lived miles from one another as kids, both of their sets of parents were hard working and caring people, the difference was money. It angers me that those who have are always making the decisions for those who don't . Blame it on capitalism, racism, cronyism or any other ism you can think of, to me it all boils down to a lack of humanity towards your fellow man/woman. When does kindness, caring and assisting those less fortunate come into the conversation? Are we again going to argue over ism's and whose right or wrong, or are we going to say enough is enough and begin treating others like we'd like to be treated, you know the golden rule we all learned as kids!I love Kristin Hannah and the way she can take a story of horrible circumstances and people's struggles and turn them into a need to read novel. Her research is always impeccable and her characters are real people with real problems and desires. Their stories need to be told, even though these are fictional characters, there are millions of everyday people who can relate to Elsa's strength, determination and persistence in her quest to better themselves in a world that's never on their side. The everyman/woman we all want to see make it. Through Hannah's books we get the chance to go back in history, hear the stories and see the resiliency of the human spirit again and again. Some are saying this one is just too depressing, yes it is, but sometimes we need to be uncomfortable in our own skin to have our eyes opened. Maybe because this story is being retold all over the US right now. Greed over need, power over what's good and just. sound bytes over action. This is a timely read and one that needs to be told. I suggest also reading Hannah's acknowledgements in the back of the book, it gave me insight into how she decided to write this one, what her inspiration was and a bit about where she stands on this nation in pain. Yes folks she's done it to me again, I don't cry over books, but this really rocked me. The Four Winds will be blowing through my mind for some time to come. Happy Reading!