The Four Winds is a powerful heart wrenching story of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and more than that, the strength and tenacity of men , women and children that lived , suffered but never gave up during those times.

I can not imagine having the grit and determination to survive.

I simply did not want the book to end.

I cheered them on, I cried for them and I sometimes laughed with them all.

Elsa is my hero as she fights to provide and care for her two children in this horrific time. Her daughter learns from her mom's strength though she does not know it at the time.

Please take time to read the author's notes at the end of the book.

The Four Winds will stay with me for a very long time and I can't wait to get my hard copy of this book that has to be in the top 10 of 2020.

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press for allowing me to go on Elsa's journey.

I am a big fan of Kristin Hannah's, but this book just didn't do it for me. Her writing style was just as good as always, but the story itself had too many unfinished concepts. I kept waiting for something else to happen, or for people to come back into the story who had been important. Instead, when they left the story they were never heard from again. Without giving anything away, let me give you an example (this did not happen in this book): let's say that there was a brother and sister who were very close, and for one reason or another, the brother decides to leave home. If the brother was in this story, you don't know where he went, what happened to him, if the sister ever heard from him again, etc. He's just "poof", gone. Although this was not something that happened in this book, this situation did happen with several characters in this story. I just completed the book with the feeling that there was too much unfinished business. The plot is great...it was just never developed to my satisfaction. This definitely won't prevent me from reading this author's books again, though.

Another major winner from Kristin Hannah, mainly for these reasons:

•I could not put the book down and didn’t want it to end. Definitely one of my favorites this year.

•The story was filled with unexpected yet believable plot twists.

•This book inspired me to do further research into the history of the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and the California agricultural strikes.

Enthusiastically recommended for fans of this author, and for all readers of historical fiction. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As with Kristen Hannah"s previous books, this started with so much promise....until the female protagonist had sex and predictably became pregnant...same old, same old, so I abandoned the book very early on.

I have been a big fan of Kristin Hannah for years. This book was just another wonderful novel to add to her list of fantastic storytelling. I was immediately drawn into the character of Else and her life. Her perseverance throughout the book is awe inspiring. This is a wonderful book about keeping faith and having hope even when life seems bleak. Cried and laughed, read all night.

I don’t usually read historical novels, but this one had me at the first page! Hannah has written a stunning, fascinating work of art that is all about a very strong woman and the power of love to get through even the most difficult and dangerous at times.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

A Great Depression story told movingly through the experience of a young Texas mother and her two children as they are forced to find a living away from the dust bowl Texan farm they had lived on until there was no living to be made from the cracked earth.
This story describes the extreme hardships endured by the migrants who headed to "the land of milk and honey" seeking something better than what they experienced in their home states.
Our introduction to the main female character portrays a young woman seriously deprived of parental love and support, but taken in by an Italian family who embraces her after being abandoned. Not too many happy moments along this road, but growth and strength do come to her.

Thanks to St Martin's Press through Net Galley for this ARC.

Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite authors and her newest book The Four Winds was everything I hoped it would be. Truth be told, I started Four Winds synopsis unread, because I love every Kristin Hannah book. While I don’t usually reads historical fiction, this story is a must read. The writing is superb and the character development exceptional.

Following the lives of the Martinellis through the Great Depression and the years that followed, was absolutely heart wrenching. The struggles they faced and the injustices they experienced were unbearable. When it seemed it couldn’t get worse, it did. The hardships they faced and the courage they showed was inspiring. The epilogue made the entire story and will resonate with every mother or daughter reading the story. 5 stars.

Kristin Hannah has been a favorite author of mine since middle school. She has a way of transporting the reader to different eras that is unmatched, and "The Four Winds" is no different. The characters are struggling through the Depression, and I felt the weight of that burden throughout the novel. It was tough to move through at times because the emotional load is full, but that also made the reading a real experience. I would recommend this book for older students -- 12th, possibly advanced 11th grade or elective -- for a historical fiction unit or as a companion novel when studying the Great Depression.

I always know I'm going to love a Kristin Hannah book, no matter the subject matter. Her newest novel is contemporary take on The Grapes of Wrath with a feminist angle. The main character, Elsa Martinelli, is strong, smart and so easy to root for. We follow Elsa and her two children from a small town in the Texas dustbowl east to California where she is forced to live in a tent city Hooverville. I loved Elsa's no nonsense attitude and refusal to take no for an answer and I learned a lot about the hardships of the era along the way. My favorite kind of historical fiction.

A beautiful story about courage and being true to yourself. Set during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, we follow Elsa from awkward, ostracized daughter of wealthy parents to farmer to migrant worker. Her tale is heart-breaking and heart-warming. Hannah's characterization was amazing and I felt like I was right there with Elsa through all her tragedies and triumphs. Definitely recommend for fans of Hannah's other works as well as those who like historical fiction and strong female protagonists. I would have read it in one sitting if I didn't have to go to work!

I Love Kristen Hannah's books, admire her strong women characters. The Four Winds is a story of how life was challenging for the working class of America during the stressful times of the Great Depression, and the Dust Bowl, A story about California during the migration of farmers from the Midwest and California's violent struggles between labor and employers. It's a story of Elsa, one woman's tenacity to survive and provide for her children. I was drawn to Elsa from the beginning. This was a book I could not put down, it moved me as if the wind was behind me pushing me forward. Forward to California, forward to the injustice of the American people during this migration to the city of gold during this time period.
Elsa's life was a struggle from the time she fell ill as a child and her parents over protected her to a point of abuse. Elsa's untimely affair leads her to a different family and a much different life. Led by her loving in-laws she finds a home she longs for and deserves to be part of. Then disaster strikes the country and Elsa is forced to make decisions that scare the heck out of her but knows this is what her children need to survive. During her migration to California Elsa meets bright and dark people, high and low, honest and dishonest. Most of all Elsa met Elsa and learned what path to she needed to follow. Learning and teaching her children all along, what the meaning to life was and how to follow it. Big Fan of Kristen Hannah can not wait to book talk this book, and read it in my book club. 3 stars***

“Love is what remains when everything else is gone.”

At 25, a very lonely Elsa meets Rafe Martinelli. She gets pregnant and disowned by her parents, When she marries into the Martinelli family, she finally finds the love and acceptance she has always wanted from Rafe’s parents Tony and Rose, The Great Depression and drought force Elsa to make the difficult decision to leave the only place she has ever loved and head west in search of a better life.

Elsa is a very strong woman who will do anything to take care of the people she loves. The characters are well developed, complicated and easy to relate to. Kristin Hannah does such a great job describing the farm, dust storms, and the ditch side camps that I feel like I traveled alongside Elsa and her children. I even found myself considering the benefits of Communism.

This is a beautifully written story about very difficult topics. It will break your heart and bring you to tears. It will also be one of the best books you read all year!

Thank you Kristin Hannah, St, Martins’s Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

The story of a young women who learns to survive against the odds: whether it be dust storms, floods, low paying landowners, or love. The binding ties of family and love will get you through the toughest times.

Only in 2020 would a Kristin Hannah novel inspire me to re-read The Grapes of Wrath. I'm always excited about historical fiction that touches on an area of our nation's story that deserves more attention. The Great Depression is a tough topic but the characters were inspiring and I learned something new.

I have been holding on to this book, waiting for a long weekend when I could read it and savor it, without interruption. Just as expected, it did not disappoint. Let it suffice to say that today is Sunday and I could not put it down. I was captured from the first page and enjoyed every page.

This is the story of a family struggling during the dust bowl and the Great Depression. Elsa is a very unhappy young woman, kept captive by her family in a small Texas town. She breaks away and is disowned after her shotgun marriage to Rafe Martinelli. Despite the difficult start, she is happy farming with her in-laws and children until the impossible years of drought and depression force her to take her children to California in search of work.

Hannah describes life in a migrant shantytown in California. The descriptions are riveting. Watching Elsa struggle against nature, disease and poverty is shocking. She symbolizes human endurance. Elsa, the warrior, and her daughter, Lareda, become involved in the turbulent politics of the era.

This novel is written so beautifully and with so much depth that it is both engaging and educational. I learned a great deal about the people struggling against the Dust Bowl and utter poverty, I know that reading groups will love this.

Thank you Netgalley for this very special book.

Sometimes, too often, a book starts out strong and then fizzles out...this one was different. I initially found the writing a bit stunted and tedious and I wondered if I would be able to finish it but the story kept me just curious enough to keep reading. I think the fact that I had read the author's prior books and enjoyed them also kept me reading. And then just as I was seriously thinking about putting the book down it the story really took off. The characters are complex and courageous and I enjoyed rooting for them as their situation evolved. I'm so glad I kept reading and I look forward to this author's future books.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A story about a courageous woman who made a very tough decision to save her family and move away from home. Her strength, perseverance, and kindness was inspiring throughout the book. This book will make you feel love, anger, sadness, desperation, and empowerment. I really enjoyed this novel.

’If I close my eyes sometimes, I swear I can still taste the dust…

Born into a family who lived a comfortable life, if only financially, Elsa feels like an outsider inside these walls where words are spent only to diminish her, to tell her what she will never be - good enough, healthy enough, pretty enough, wanted enough. Any attempt to live a normal life is met with words of disapproval, disdain and disregard for what she wants, let alone needs – someone to show her that she has value, someone to love, and to be loved by in return.

Set in Texas, beginning in 1921, Elsa spends much of her time inside the pages of the books she has come to view as her friends. She dreams of a life outside these walls, a place that feels, to her, like a home where she is welcomed and loved. Soon she would be twenty-five, by the standards of the time, without a man, a husband, she would be considered a spinster. Too tall. Not pretty enough, too thin, too timid. Too much of the wrong things, as society dictated, and not enough of the right ones.

One night, Elsa goes out without her parent’s knowledge, looking for a night to experience life as others her age did, trying to imagine a life beyond this, a life that included love, a home, and children. A life with joy to balance out the sadness, a life with someone who loved her as she was, with all her faults. On her way to town, she meets Raffaello Martinelli, Rafe. Meeting him, her dalliance with this man will change her life forever. Soon after, she will be married and living on a farm, and working in the fields, cooking and learning much and finding a sense of freedom and love from her new family.

The Depression captured the attention and changed the life of everyone, and now drought is changing these small cities and towns dependent on farms, and farming. Farmers are losing the battle as the ground dries up and swirls away covering floors, cars, tables, windows – anything and everything in it’s path, crops are failing, and people are packing up what they can take with them, while others are holding on to the dreams that brought them to this land which is disappearing with the winds. In time, Rafe will begin to plea with Elsa to leave with him, to head west, but Elsa has never known love before becoming a part of this family, and is reluctant to leave, especially knowing his parents will never head west where Rafe wants to go. They own this land; it is the only life they have known since they arrived in America after leaving Italy.

Reluctantly, after the dust ends up creating life-threatening conditions, Elsa is forced into accepting that it is time to leave Texas with her two children and heads to California. Having been fed on the stories of the land of milk and honey, and the government claims of plentiful jobs that are waiting, they arrive to a life very different from the one they left, as well as the one they expected. While they are no longer inhaling dust, dirt with every breath, life here is far from the Promised Land they had envisioned. It’s hard, heartbreaking at times, and as outsiders, all those coming in from other states are looked down upon, and treated badly and told they are unwelcome, unwanted, called ‘worthless’ and told to go back to where they came from.

Kristin Hannah began writing this novel over three years ago, before the pandemic, before the skyrocketing unemployment that would follow. And yet, this story is so relevant to our current days, the isolation, dwindling funds, people, as she says in her note at the end, frightened for their future, men in power shushing voices in order to further their own desires, wanting us to pay attention to what they say and not what they really mean or what they show by their actions. Or, as the Wizard of Oz said: ’Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.’


Pub Date: 09 Feb 2021

Many thanks for the ARC provided by St. Martin’s Press

#TheFourWinds #NetGalley

Elsa Martinelli never expected to be the wife of a Texan farmer. She grew up in a wealthy family, but a childhood illness kept her isolated from her parents and siblings. Though she eventually made a full recovery, she was never allowed to socialize with other people and spent her teenage years feeling extremely alone. When charming, good-looking Rafe comes into her life and really seems to notice her, she can’t help falling for him. But an innocent summer of exploration leads to an unplanned pregnancy, and now Rafe and Elsa are tied to each other and to Rafe’s family land.

At first, it’s manageable. Elsa is a hard worker and finds a place in the family as a strong, reliable caretaker. But as the country heads into the Great Depression and the overworked farm land dries up with no rain in sight, Elsa and Rafe will have to decide if they should stay in Texas or head west to find jobs and, hopefully, a better life for their family.

MY THOUGHTS
It always takes me a minute to warm up to a Kristin Hannah novel. She’s a fan of the slow build, and I hate to say that I’m usually a bit bored at first. Elsa isn’t much of a character in the beginning—she’s extremely shy and demure, to the point of having almost no personality at all. But about 20% of the way in, the book really starts to come into it’s own—Elsa starts coming into her own—and I was hooked.

It’s crazy to think that Hannah began writing this three years ago because it is eerily relevant today. Watching the economic devastation and racial divisiveness unfold in the story feels painful and personal. We are living this. But I appreciated that, in the midst of so much despair, the focus is on love. And not just romantic love, though there’s some of that, too, but rather on love between women—between mothers and daughters, between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws, between friends. The women are the heroes of this story. They are the ones who keep families together, who keep food on the table. They are committed to their children and families. They support one another when all hope (like, truly, ALL hope) is gone. They are the glue, and their stories felt so right and real to me.

In short, The Four Winds is a lovely book. Probably my favorite from Hannah so far. There is no doubt in my mind that this will be another instant best seller.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for the ARC!