The Four Winds Review

My Review

None of my relatives are from the areas the Dust Bowl took place in. I have no first hand knowledge of it and have not had the privilege of hearing stories of this tragedy passed down from generation to generation so to gain knowledge of it I read fantastic and very highly researched books such as this one.

This book hits where it hurts, the heart. The characters are realistic and believable and you come to know them as though they are friends and they are in your corner.
These people could be your people, when they hurt you hurt as you become very invested in the character’s lives both good and bad.

The Dust Bowl in the 1930’s was a tragic time, many men were cowards and killed themselves or ran off to leave their women and children alone to fend for themselves.
The banks closed, everything did people didn’t have the money to buy anything .
Dust covered everything, filling people’s lungs ,killing off the livestock and making life an impossible hell!

Scraping together money for gas to make it to California they are in for a shock when they meet the land of broken dreams there.
Unfair wages for many hours of backbreaking work and having to live in tents where people carry diseases and total discrimination while trying to find and honest job are what they are met with.

The book was overall bleak but realistic for it’s time period and I can’t fault the book for that because I enjoy reading about realism.
There are pockets of sunshine and a renewed sense of hope along the way though.

I can’t recommend this book enough!

This is my first book by this author but you better believe it won’t be my last!

Pub Date 02 Feb 2021
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you.
All opinions expressed are my own.

GoodReads Summary

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.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America’s most defining eras—the Great Depression.

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About The Author

Kristin Hannah is the award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels including the international blockbuster, The Nightingale, which was named Goodreads Best Historical fiction novel for 2015 and won the coveted People’s Choice award for best fiction in the same year. Additionally, it was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, Paste, and The Week.

Kristin’s newest new release, The Great Alone, was published on February 6, 2018 (St. Martin’s Press) and became an instant New York Times #1 bestseller. The novel, an epic love story and intimate family drama set in Alaska in the turbulent 1970’s is a daring, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival and the wildness that lives in both nature and man. Like The Nightingale, The Great Alone was voted the best Historical novel of the year by Goodreads readers.

The Nightingale is currently in production at Tri Star, with director Melanie Laurent and Dakota and Elle Fanning to star. Tri Star has also optioned The Great Alone and is in development.

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