The Four Winds

First of all, I have to say that I really enjoyed the narrator for the audiobook version. She did a great job with the southern accents and differentiating between the characters' voices. I'm generally a book “reader” not a “listener” but I've started listening to an audiobook during my evening commute to take my mind off the traffic and am really enjoying it.

Now that I've got my audiobook review out of the way, on to the book itself. Kristin Hannah is a great writer and you can tell she did an immense amount of research on the time period and the various difficulties the characters encounter. But it's one of the most depressing books I've ever read. It's the Depression in the Dust Bowl. The hardships are numerous, even more so for the main character, it seems. I got so sick of the dirt, heat, deprivation, and starvation. I also found myself crying in my car on several occasions while listening to a particularly sad part. I'm glad I read it, but I'm glad it's over too. Honestly, if it hadn't been for book club I may not have stuck it out and finished it because of how depressing it was.

Oh wow, this book made me cry!

I've never been so emotional about a book before, and to think that people actually went through this is awful. The world can seem like such a terrible place.

Oh, how happy I am that I finally read this book after hearing so many good things. This book is something. Set in the great depression and exploring these issues in a light that doesn't set to trivialize and clearly has been well-researched, this book explores female power and endurance during an agonizing time period. Truly a beauty to read, wow wow.

Wow!! Many tears were shed with this book.

Elsa who was disowned by her family after getting pregnant by teenage Rafe, makes a life for herself on the farm during the dustbowl era in Texas.

Then she ends up in California with her children picking cotton, and rising up against the crooked land owners.

But it's so much more than that. It's the the love she has for her children, it's the strength she has to do this all on her own. It's the length women go to to protect and provide.

It's a beautiful book. One that will stay with for a long time.

I was nervous to read another Kristin Hannah book after not loving The Great Alone, but I found myself very invested in the characters and the story. I would definitely recommend this book, especially to anyone interested in learning a little bit about the Dust Bowl and Great Depression.

Wow - I felt like I was there! The dust storms, drought and flash flood! I was sad that Elsa never really found the new life she was looking for before she died!

DNF at 177 pages. Dull, one dimensional characters. Hated Loreda and felt like the way she spoke sounded too modern for 1934.

The publisher provided me with the opportunity to read this in exchange for providing feedback. (via NetGalley)

4.5 stars. I was super excited to get approved for this on Netgalley.. I figured if the writing and story were done half as well as The Nightingale I was in for another great read and I was not disappointed! While not a light read, it was hard to put down and I finished it in one afternoon.

It's heart-breaking. It hurts. It's hard to keep listening but at the same time harder to not to continue. I didn't know much about the Great Depression. It made me want to read more about it. The way locals treated migrant workers during the hard time resembles the migrant issues now happening almost everywhere in the world.

I really enjoyed this audio book. Although it is 15 hours long, the richness of the prose and the narrator was simply superb. You felt like you were on the farm, getting dusty and hot. This author has a gift and she uses it well. Highly recommend this book.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah was my February 2021 Book of the Month choice. I also purchased the audiobook via my monthly Kobo audiobook subscription. I read the physical book while simultaneously listening to the audiobook. This is a remarkable historical novel that tells the story of a modest, quiet woman who was stronger, braver, and more beautiful than she truly realized. The audiobook was narrated by actor/author/narrator Julia Whelan (one of my top 5 favorites). I've listened to over 400 audiobooks and this was one of the best book narrations I've had the pleasure of listening to. I guarantee this will be one of my most recommended books of 2021, and I'm sure I'll be suggesting it to my friends, family and colleagues for years to come. WARNING: Have tissues handy!*** 5 + STARS ***

In her book The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah has written another heartbreaking historical fiction novel that educates as well as entertains. The story of Elsa Martinelli's journey from unloved daughter to underappreciated wife and mother to brave warrior standing up for justice is beautifully told. While the story is difficult to read at times, it is worth it.

Elsa Martinelli and her children can no longer survive in the dust storms of Texas, so she packs them up and heads west in the hopes of finding work and a home in California. What she finds instead is discrimination, unfair wages, unlivable conditions, and back-breaking labor. Add to all this an angry daughter who challenges her constantly, and you end up with a woman almost completely beaten by life. However, Elsa finds the strength to keep working in an attempt to provide for her children.

This book is hard to read, not because it is poorly written or boring but because it is so incredibly sad. It contains one sorrowful event after another. Injustice is followed by more injustice. After surviving hardship in Texas, the characters face worse hardships in California. While reading, I kept hoping to see something good for these characters, but instead there was just more sadness. Honestly, I almost stopped reading it because it was depressing me. I kept reading, though, because I was invested in the characters.

Kristin Hannah is talented at developing characters. Each main character in this book (Elsa, Loreda, Jack) is vividly depicted. Elsa and Loreda's emotions are believable and understandable in their circumstances. The reader develops real sympathy for them.

This story is one of survival, bravery, and love. The characters persevere through the worst of circumstances, and they do so without losing sight of who they are. They stumble at times and almost give up or stop believing in themselves, but they fight their way back and find a way to keep going. Love is the one constant that helps them through it all. As Elsa states in her journal, “Love is what remains when everything else is gone.” Love for her children is what makes Elsa a warrior in this book, fighting for a better life for them. She “believes in an end she can't see and fights for it.”

I did not love every second of this read because of the sadness, but in the end I recognize the beauty of this book. This tale is well-crafted and teaches some valuable lessons. It also educates the reader about a very grim time in history. I would recommend this book to all Kristin Hannah fans and any historical fiction reader that appreciates a well-researched and well-constructed story. Just be prepared to be emotionally impacted.

The first few chapters were agonizingly slow. I found a hundred reasons to criticize the book, including some things as small as the ability of the family to eat Italian dishes during the Great Depression and the use of the words “kids” and “mom.” The people in the story just didn't sound as if they were true to the time, and that was one thing that bothered me a lot. I wanted to DNF this one.

The story picked up a lot mid-book. The setting seemed more true-to-life, and the struggles were more real.

Still, I had oodles of problems with the story. The sarcasm of the daughter would not have been tolerated among the people I knew who lived at that time (and I knew many). And was Elsa pretty? Or not? Why did Elsa's parents coddle her and then shut her out?

I gave the book generous points for the California pages, but this is, nevertheless, not a book I'd recommend. I do love reading about these times, and I'd love to read a strong novel set in the Dust Bowl. But it's not this one.

The Four Winds follows a broken family as they migrate from drought-ridden Texas to the green “promised land” of California during the Great Depression.

The main character, Elsa, is a downtrodden woman, which is at least a step up from the previous Kristen Hannah book I read (“The Great Alone”) where the main character was downtrodden and abused. I'm not the biggest fan of her weak characters but maybe it's more realistic that way, I dunno.

I haven't read very many female authors but Hannah might be the best one I've read with the exception of Rowlings. Every character she writes you have some type of understanding for how they feel, regardless if you like them or not. She writes a story following the lives of a Texan panhandle farming family that survives through the Great Crash of ‘29 and then has to deal with the Dust Bowl of the 30's. Years of tilling the soil has ruined the land and a long drought and high winds takes away their top soil and constantly pelts them with sand storms making it virtually impossible to survive. Even to eat livestock their full of dirt. They then must go to California to look for work but it's nothing like they expected. The family struggles and later fights to survive and for the hope that they might one day find happiness and peace. The story didn't have the ending I desired but it sure was an interesting. 100% suggest reading this to, at the very least, learn about more of the dark side of American history you probably don't know.

2021 has been the year for myself on expanding my reading and trying new genres out. I'm a typical scifi/fantasy reader but I have been diving into historical fiction and other genres. This historical fiction based in the dust bowl era was incredible. As a single mother myself I was rooting for her the whole way through as a mothers love conquers all. I normally don't cry with books but this one wrecked me. I haven't read anything of Kristin Hannah's and I'm glad my book club selected this one.

I didn't think I'd care for this book, but I was pleasantly surprised! Very glad my wife suggested it to me, as it is one of the best I've read in quite a while.

The Four Winds is a story about The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. If you're thinking, “oof, sounds heavy!” you'd be right. I mean, how does one write a happy and uplifting story about the Great Depression? And yet, this is written beautifully, with so much hope and growth and human goodness that it is well worth the read.

As a fun side note - I brought this book along recently to a doctor appointment where I knew I'd be spending a chunk of time in a waiting room. The nurse behind the desk saw what I was reading and said, “Oh, I've read that book! It's so good. Brave of you to read it in a public place, though - be sure to sit next to the Kleenex!”

4.5 Rounded to 5

I love this author. The imagery her writing brings to life is phenomenal and has you feeling ... we'll everything. I always know to have a box of tissues close by when I grab one of this author's books because I just know...

My favorite part of this book was how motherhood is shown. It's definitely not easy being a parent, let alone a single parent. I couldn't imagine having to fight through that type of poverty, especially during a time when women weren't SEEN and barely even acknowledged.

My heart broken open at the end and I couldn't stop the tears flowing. Whew ...

I listened to the audio version of The Four Winds and loved it. Although the novel focuses on the hardships of the Great Depression and specifically the Dust Bowl era, somehow, the adversities don't overshadow the heart and spirit. The lead characters will remain in your heart and mind long after you finished reading the novel.

I'm tempting to read everyone else's reviews before I write mine. I have to say, this book isn't what I expected. I'm attempting to read all of Kristin Hannah's books, though not in chronological order. I can see her progression as an author from some of her earlier, more fanciful works, to some of her later, more literary works, such as Nightingale.I'll have to say, [b:The Four Winds 53138081 The Four Winds Kristin Hannah https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594925043l/53138081.SY75.jpg 79888572] blew my socks off. I'm stunned. Her detailed knowledge of the Dust Bowl era surprised me. From the number of days a dust storm would last to the need to wear gloves to pump water because the handle had been out in the sun, I felt like I was in Texas during the drought of the early - mid-1930s. . . and I needed a drink of water.The main character, Elsa, ignored by her own family, has a severe inferiority complex that predicates everything she does for 3/4ths of the book. Her ill-advised affair with Rafe, sets in motion a destiny that seems out of her control. She reacts more in life than most. She believes in God, good people, and her duties as a mother above all else. The ending floored me. I don't want to give it away. What I thought would happen is that Rafe would come back into her life. That would have been a typical, early Hannah novel, but this is not your mother's Kristin Hannah. When reading this book, it wasn't hard to believe she wrote it during a pandemic. In an author's note at the end of the book, she says: “As I write this note, it is May 2020, and the world is battling the coronavirus pandemic. My husband's best friend, Tom, who was one of the earliest of our friends to encourage my writing and who was our son's godfather, caught the virus last week and has just passed away. We cannot be with his widow, Lori, and his family to mourn.”Like the Dust Bowl era, this are trying times for America. This book fits now. I grew up in Steinbeck's home town and thought I understood the trials of “Okies” who migrated to California. Hannah tells us this story from a single mother's point of view and boy, is it an eye-opener. Be prepared.

Good book... another take on the “Great Depression”. Kind of like the Grapes of Wrath. Frustrated with some of the storyline and some of the characters. Things left undone and unsaid.

Overall enjoyed it.

Ever since I read the book Pachinko, by Min Lee Jin, I have been looking for another historical fiction book that has a heart-wrenching and warming character-driven plot. I officially found it!

Kristin Hannah's book, The Four Winds, immerses you into the Great Depression-era and follows the plights of the main character Elsa and her family. From growing up as a plain girl with no marriage prospects to becoming a mother of two children, it follows her migrating from a farm in Texas to the “greener land and prospects” of California. However, upon her and her children's arrival to California, they immediately face discrimination, poverty, and living in slums. It provides a vivid picture of worker camps, the fight to take part in the “American Dream,” and the power of a mother looking to provide a better life for her children.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It also brought me back to history class in high school with scenes about how the U.S. government came to educate farmers on better irrigation techniques and passing relief legislation. Each of the characters are beautifully built. Also, halfway through it shifts to focus the narrative around the Communist Party uprising, which was a large part of the '20s and '30s, and organized farmers, unemployed workers, and factory workers in light of the depression. I recommend this title for those looking for a great historical fiction book.

I had finished a nice-enough book and was looking for the next good read. My wife chose from my list for me and picked this one. She chose well.»Books had always been her solace; novels gave her the space to be bold, brave, beautiful, if only in her own imagination.«This book drew me in, chewed me up and spit me out. If a book really “speaks” to me, I step into it. I stop being a reader and become a silent, helpless bystander, a powerless observer.Give me a book that's well-written, serious and empathetic and I'm in trouble.Elsa lives in Texas during the Great Depression. Cast out by her own parents for “dishonoring” them (by conceiving a child without being married), she is forced to marry her child's father and live on his family's farm.»Elsa had discovered within herself a nearly bottomless capacity for love.«Against everyone's expectations - hers not the least - she not only settles in but learns to love her new life. Until the circumstances force her to flee - with now two children and without the father who has left the family - to an uncertain future in California.»I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.... The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. —FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT«We witness how Elsa, her parents-in-law (whom she comes to love more than her birth parents) and her children struggle. This book breathes life into history; almost a hundred years later it makes you see and feel how harsh life must have been.»A fifty-foot zigzagging crevasse opened in the yard. Dead roots stuck out from the crumbling dirt sides like skeletal hands.«In fact, the entire first quarter of the book was outright painful for me. Almost overwhelmingly so. “[b:The Four Winds 53138081 The Four Winds Kristin Hannah https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594925043l/53138081.SY75.jpg 79888572]” is so carefully, almost tenderly written, that Elsa's emotions, her pain, actually reached me. I felt those emotions and the experience was stunning. Especially when things turned from bleak to worse.I wanted to quit, to drop this book, to get away from all that and just before actually quitting things at least changed. No god, no fate, no destiny, not a light at the end of the tunnel but there is a certain turning point when things start growing instead of declining.That's when I realised those horrifying 25 percent had actually been worth it. There is no simple happily-ever-after for anyone in this book. There's simply no room for that but what we do get - in spite of a somewhat open ending - is closure.All the terror and horror we've witnessed; deep poverty, catastrophe, death, all kinds of loss, it's all worth it in the end. Elsa lives life as well as she manages to and rises far beyond her own expectations. Having been an observer of that was very, very exhausting but I still feel deeply affected and grateful for the unique experience.Kristin Hannah whose “[b:The Nightingale 21853621 The Nightingale Kristin Hannah https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1598993363l/21853621.SY75.jpg 41125521]” I loved and whose “[b:The Great Alone 34912895 The Great Alone Kristin Hannah https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501852423l/34912895.SY75.jpg 56275107]” was a great book has managed to write an instant classic. A unique masterpiece that lets you not only experience the Great Depression Era but allows you to draw your own conclusions with respect to even modern economic systems...And even if you - like me originally - don't care about the Great Depression (it's long gone, isn't it?); this book is worth reading on many levels.»Courage is fear you ignore.«“The Four Winds” is easily 2021's best book and has more than earned its place among my favourite books of all time.Thank you, [a:Kristin Hannah 54493 Kristin Hannah https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1517255843p2/54493.jpg], for being a literary force of nature. Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram

My first Kristin Hannah novel - is she always this bleak??