The Nightingale

Remember The Heroines

History usually pays homage to the victors—the men who fight at the battlefront; how many care about the unsung heroism of the women they left behind?

Kristin Hannah’s bestselling novel, The Nightingale, set during World Ward II, pays homage to Frenchwomen who held the fort while the men were away. During the German occupation of France, there was an active underground Resistance, and many of those who risked imprisonment, torture and death were women. Sadly, when the War ended, they returned to normal life, looking after the wounded or mentally traumatised men who came back from the warfront, and, as it often happens, nobody asked about the women and their suffering. They themselves downplayed their courage, in the process of helping their country heal itself.

The book begins in 1995, when an elderly and terminally ill woman is being hustled by her well-meaning son,  Julien, into a nursing home. As she goes up to the attic of her home one last time, an old trunk revives the painful memories that had been buried. Her son knows nothing of her past, because she never told him stories about her family. She has been invited to Paris to attend   a ceremony to honour the passeurs—the people who helped fugitives—soldiers and Jews-- escape the Nazis.

In 1940, Vianne Mauriac, bids farewell to her husband Antoine who goes off to war. Left behind in the town of Carriveau, she looks after her small garden, teaches at the local village school and raises her daughter Sophie.

In Paris, her father Julien tries to reign in his rebellious daughter Isabelle, who is constantly expelled from schools, because of her behavior. When the unthinkable happens and the Germans invade Paris, there is an exodus from the city. Isabelle is also sent away to live with her sister, but by the time she reaches in a battered condition, she has met and fallen in love with the Resistance fighter Gaetan.

At Vianne’s home, she recovers from her bruises but not from her rage against the Nazis. She seeks ways of joining the Resistance, and her resolve is strengthened when a German, Captain Beck, is forcibly billeted in Vianne’s house. The Germans have looted every home in France, confiscated radios, taken charge of food distribution and made sure the French are starved, terrorized, broken in body and spirit. Women and children have to face bitter winters without wood for heating, adequate clothing or food—every morning they have to queue up for meager rations.  They can’t even share their troubles with friends and neighbors, because collaborators report real or imaginary infractions to the Nazis and anybody can be shot dead without a second thought.

Isabelle finally gets to join the Resistance—in the village, she distributes pamphlets, and on finding a way to get to Paris, she goes on to become the legendary Nightingale, who helps downed Allied pilots to escape over the Pyrenees into Spain.  The work is dangerous and the Nazis without mercy—it’s as if Isabelle has a death wish.

Captain Beck is a gentleman, but the Nazi who parks himself in Vianne’s house next is a savage. Still, under his nose, Vianne saves Jewish children whose parents are sent to concentration camps, by forging papers for them.

Isabelle is captured too, along with one of her Resistance friends, and sent to concentration camp, where the two endure unimaginable brutality.

Even though one picked up the book, without much enthusiasm, as yet another WW-II saga, it turned out to be a compelling read.  Kristin Hannah manages to grab the reader’s attention, evoking sympathy and admiration for the women who stood firm, while their lives were ripped apart during the War.

The Nightingale

By Kristin Hannah

Published by: St Martin’s Press

Pages: 448