There are books I enjoy and there are books that touch my soul, books that I find my thoughts returning to weeks after I reached the last pages The  Four Winds by by Kristin Hannah falls into the latter.  This novel is harrowing, beautifully written, and has to be one of the best novels I’ve had the pleasure to read this year. It’s rarely a book moves me to tears, but this book made for such an emotional read as I followed Elsa heartbreaking journey from The Great Plains of Texas to California.  Elsa makes the difficult and life-changing decision to chase the American dream and head to California hoping to find a better life for her children, Loreda and Ant. 

Elsa never felt loved as a child, tolerated by her oppressive family she finds her life stifling. Until one day she meets the boy of her dreams and soon begins a new life, one that she has yearned for. A family, a home and a livelihood on her husbands farm on the Great Plains. But then one of American history’s darkest periods, the Great Depression and drought threatens all she holds dear, Elsa’s world is destroyed. The Four Winds is a story of one women’s resilience as she battles against nature, prejudice, poverty, injustice and suffering. It’s a rich and compelling tale of the strength of a mother’s love and the sacrifices she makes to give her children a better life.

The author has described the Alaskan landscape so vividly you can feel the scorching heat, the cloying dust, imagine the barren landscape and sense the desperation as Elsa and her family try to battle nature’s ways. As you follow her journey, you experience the migrant camps in California first hand, the poverty, disease, the sense of frustration and heartbreak as Elsa attempts to make a new life for her children. But amid all this there is hope, friendships are formed. The Four Winds explores the strength and resilience of women in the most difficult and challenging times. Kristin Hannah has created multi dimensional characters, they are not without flaws, but their vulnerability and their courage make them such incredible characters. They are the characters that burrow their way into your heart; you feel their pain, cry alongside them, laugh when they find rare moments of happiness, you’re in awe of their resilience and courage. 

This book isn’t the easiest of reads, it’s bleak, and desperately sad, but when a book consumes your every waking moment, has you reaching for a box of tissues and leaves your heart shattered into a million pieces, then it’s worth it. I said at the beginning of this review this is one of my top reads this year and I would go as far to say “this is one of the best books I’ve ever read”. Highly recommended especially to those who love historical fiction.

What a wonderful book, I was completely hooked and read this in one day! Hannah has such a talent for writing stories about strong women, weaving them into deep, complex characters that you root for throughout. Before reading this, I wouldn’t have said I would find a book on the great depression and the effects of drought in Texas particularly interesting, but this book was fascinating. As with all of Hannah’s books you will feel hope, despair, triumph and sadness as you journey with Elsa Martinelli throughout the Great Depression, watching her try to escape extreme poverty and make a better life for herself and her children. This is a definite must read, then (if you haven’t already) you should go back and read all of her other novels too.
Thanks so much to netgalley, the author and the publishers for this arc in exchange for an honest unbiased review.

The Four Winds is my fourth novel by Kristin Hannah, The Great Alone and The Nightingale being two of my favourite ever books, so I was ecstatic to be accepted to read an advanced copy by St Martins Press on Netgalley.

Beginning in 1930s Texas we meet our protagonist, Elsa, unloved and unacknowledged by her family, she doesn’t have much hope for her future until a short, secret fling results in pregnancy. She is then dropped on the doorstep of the fathers house and subsequently disowned by her family.

Over the years she becomes rooted with her in-laws, showing her dedication and hard work ethics however her now husband, Rafe, becomes distant and once again, Elsa fears rejection.

Adding in the onset of the destructive droughts in the Dust Bowl era of the Great Depression, Elsa and her family experience the toughest conditions with the land so dry it cracks and no wheat harvests for years.

Elsa has to make the heartbreaking decision whether to chase the American dream and head to California, the land of hope and milk and honey or stay on the land she loves and calls home.

Hannah uses a combination of in depth research and her natural gift of beautiful writing to create an engrossing, emotional and often harrowing story. She weaves in issues surrounding the drought, poverty, politics and feminism.

The reason I didn’t give it the full 5 stars is because it is incredibly bleak. I appreciate the book is reminiscent of the time however I personally needed a few more highs rather than constant lows. I was envious of Elsa for getting back up every time she was knocked down and wonder what I would have done if it was me in that situation. I just felt it lacked the vibrancy and pace of her other books.

That being said, it is an epic book and I will continue to be a huge Kristin Hannah fan!

A remarkable tale of courage and determination passed from mother to daughter. Beautifully written, backed up by evident research and a heartfelt retelling of the times as they were. Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book.

kristin hannah has written another bestseller !! A wonderful account of life in the midwest and the hundreds who left for california to find their fortune .Life was no better for elsa and her kids when they arrived ,picking cotton and paid very little we follow their story and feel their pain .

This is epic historical fiction from Kristin Hannah, a harrowing, tough and painful read of one of American history's darkest period, the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the tragedies, poverty, starvation, unemployment, the sacrifices made, set in Texas and California from the early 1920s up to WW2. It is impeccably well researched with all its excruciating details, an era seen through the eyes of a woman, a mother, and her family. The tall Elsinore or 'Elsa' has suffered poor health, is from a wealthy family who make her feel she is never as good as her sisters, never loved, that results in her poor self esteem. So when she receives attention from a younger man, Rafe Martinelli, she ends up pregnant, and despite him being already engaged, they find themselves married.

Elsa finds herself living on a farm, loved and thriving, despite it being a hard life of challenges, getting on well with her in-laws, Tony and Rosa, particularly close to Rosa, with two children, Loreda and Ant. However, living conditions become unbearable, particularly for the farming communities with the Depression, the lack of rain, the never ending drought, the failing crops and the devastating dust storms and their dreadful impact, leading to people scattering in the winds. Despite everything, for obvious reasons Elsa is reluctant to leave until the life threatening conditions worsen considerably, and they move to where it is said is the land of milk and honey, California. In a relentlessly downbeat and bleak narrative, California is far from the promised land, instead they face endless prejudice and injustice.

Elsa is a mother, a strong, courageous and indomitable woman, there is nothing she will not do for her children, the hardest of workers, in a California that exploits, with terrible working conditions and pay. Despite everything, despite the horrors, what shines through is the underlying power of the human spirit, its astonishing capacity to endure the worst of times, the despair, and survive, against all the odds. Hannah's novel speaks to, parallels, and echoes our contemporary realities, the pandemic and its crushing impact, men in power that cannot be trusted, a divided nation, and a future that looks so bleak, offering hope by illustrating people's resilience from the past. As you might well have gathered, this is clearly not the easiest of reads, so heartbreaking, but it is nevertheless compelling and riveting, of women and their relationships, a book for our times, and a historical education too. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.