
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer – no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.


The Nightingale: A Novel Paperback – April 25 2017
Kristin Hannah (Author) Find all the books, read about the author and more. See search results for this author |
Amazon Price | New from | Used from |
Kindle Edition
"Please retry" | — | — |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial |
Mass Market Paperback
"Please retry" | $64.91 | — |
Audio CD, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $33.61 | $16.18 |
- Kindle Edition
$12.99 Read with Our Free App -
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial - Hardcover
$32.50 - Paperback
$17.02 - Mass Market Paperback
$96.50 - Audio CD
$47.29
Enhance your purchase
A #1 New York Times bestseller, Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year, and soon to be a major motion picture, this unforgettable novel of love and strength in the face of war has enthralled a generation.
With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France―a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
Goodreads Best Historical Novel of the Year • People's Choice Favorite Fiction Winner • #1 Indie Next Selection • A Buzzfeed and The Week Best Book of the Year
Praise for The Nightingale:
"Haunting, action-packed, and compelling." ―Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Absolutely riveting!...Read this book." ―Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff, Director of the University of Miami Holocaust Teacher Institute
"Beautifully written and richly evocative." ―Sara Gruen, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A hauntingly rich WWII novel about courage, brutality, love, survival―and the essence of what makes us human.” ―Family Circle
“A heart-pounding story.” ―USA Today
"An enormous story. Richly satisfying. I loved it." ―Anne Rice
"A respectful and absorbing page-turner." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Tender, compelling...a satisfying slice of life in Nazi-occupied France." ―Jewish Book Council
“Expect to devour The Nightingale in as few sittings as possible; the high-stakes plot and lovable characters won’t allow any rest until all of their fates are known.” ―Shelf Awareness
"I loved The Nightingale." ―Lisa See, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Powerful...an unforgettable portrait of love and war." ―People
- Print length608 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSt. Martin's Griffin
- Publication dateApril 25 2017
- Dimensions13.97 x 4.95 x 20.96 cm
- ISBN-101250080401
- ISBN-13978-1250080400
- Lexile measureHL740L
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Product description
Review
Praise for The Nightingale:
"Haunting, action-packed, and compelling." ―Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Absolutely riveting!...Read this book." ―Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff, Director of the University of Miami Holocaust Teacher Institute
"Beautifully written and richly evocative." ―Sara Gruen, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A hauntingly rich WWII novel about courage, brutality, love, survival―and the essence of what makes us human.” ―Family Circle
“A heart-pounding story.” ―USA Today
"An enormous story. Richly satisfying. I loved it." ―Anne Rice
"A respectful and absorbing page-turner." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Tender, compelling...a satisfying slice of life in Nazi-occupied France." ―Jewish Book Council
“Expect to devour The Nightingale in as few sittings as possible; the high-stakes plot and lovable characters won’t allow any rest until all of their fates are known.” ―Shelf Awareness
"I loved The Nightingale." ―Lisa See, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Powerful...an unforgettable portrait of love and war." ―People
About the Author
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Product details
- Publisher : St. Martin's Griffin; Reprint edition (April 25 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 608 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250080401
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250080400
- Item weight : 544 g
- Dimensions : 13.97 x 4.95 x 20.96 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: #687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in Stories of Sisters
- #77 in Historical Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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. It was also named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, Paste, and The Week. In 2018, The Great Alone became an instant New York Times #1 bestseller and was named the Best Historical Novel of the Year by Goodreads.
The Four Winds was published in February of 2021 and immediately hit #1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Indie bookstore's bestseller lists. Additionally, it was selected as a book club pick by the both Today Show and The Book Of the Month club.
The Nightingale is currently in production at Tri Star, with Dakota and Elle Fanning set to star. Tri Star has also optioned The Great Alone and it is in development. Firefly Lane, her novel about two best friends, was the #1 Netflix show around the world, in the week it came out. The popular tv show stars Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke and Season Two is currently being filmed.
www.kristinhannah.com
Customer reviews

Reviewed in Canada on January 6, 2021
Top reviews from Canada
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
I was plugging along gamely hoping for the best when it dawned on me around Page 90 that I didn't care about any of these characters. The writing is really bad - adolescent and cliched. I'm going to assume that was intentional - meant to appeal to a specific audience. "He grinned crookedly. It gave him a lopsided look, with one side of his smile hiking up farther than the other." Ah, glad she explained what lopsided means.
OK I'm just here to warn people who are expecting a good book that this isn't one. I don't know who is giving this thing 5 stars.
The book starts in 1995 from the POV of an older woman, her son a doctor, is about to put her in an assisted living facility, then it takes you to France in the 1940’s. As this woman is reminiscing about her life during WWII, you don’t know who she is until the very end of the book. I couldn’t put the book down because I had to know who the woman was at the end. Just brilliant!
This is the tale of the two very different sisters, Viviane, and her younger sister Isabelle - who are trying to survive during wartime. Vianne and Isabelle, different in so many ways, will both embark on separate journeys. Surrounded by danger, these sisters learn about love and loss.
Vianne feels responsible for keeping her younger sister, Isabelle, safe. When the occupation begins, Isabelle is sent to stay with Vianne, being cast out of Paris by her father. Vianne's husband, Antoine, has been called to report to the Army, leaving Vianne and their young daughter, Sophie, behind. As the Germans invade Paris, Isabelle begins the journey to her sister's home.
When Isabelle arrives on Vianne's home, she is determined to join the resistance and make a difference. Young and impulsive, Vianne is certain that her younger sister will get herself, if not all of them, killed.
I have to say that this is not my genre of choice, but after being invited by a Goodreads member to join their Buddy Read, and not making it in time, I still felt obliged to read this book now. All I can say is what an emotional and gut-wrenching novel this was to read. I couldn’t put the book down, once I started it. I had to know what was going to happen to my friends. This is one book where you will need to keep your Kleenex handy. This book had me in tears.
This is the story of two sisters, told through both POVs, of the bravery of Vianne who struggles at home to provide for her children, battling starvation and invasion by SS Officers, and Isabelle who joins the resistance passing secret messages day and night and smuggling downed pilots through the mountains.
The story covers not only the war, the holocaust, the suffering and starvation, death , the concentration camps , but more than that the will of people to survive.
My favourite quote:
“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”
A very emotional read!
This is an emotionally charged novel that strikes at your heart. A history book can give you the details of World War II and the statistics. However, a novel laced with history gives you the depths of courage, loss, despair, the struggle for survival that helps us to comprehend the magnitude of the strength of those who did survive endured...especially the women. Something I have been fortunate not to have gone through but know others who have. This is just such a novel. It held me in it's grip and didn't let go until the tears streaming down my face blurred the pages.
The book description gives a small hint of what is within the pages. To try and break it down here would take away from the impact of the story, both the horror and the beauty. Just put your faith in this author, as she peels away the layers of these characters as they struggle to survive against unbelievable odds.
Top reviews from other countries

The research for the book is lamentable. There are glaring historical, cultural and geographical inaccuracies that detract from the story. There are also plot errors and straightforward mistakes littering the text. It would be unfair to expose the main errors as it will spoil the plot for anyone wishing to read the book, but for example, the main town in which the story is set, the fictional Carriveau, starts in German occupied France not far from Orleans or Tours. Toward the end of the story it has moved a few hundred miles south to be near Oradour sur Glane, not far from Limoges. Members of the French resistance forget which are pseudonyms and which are real names. Laurence Olivier is considered an appropriate name to avoid attention. A giant steel wheel becomes a stone wheel in the course of just one paragraph.
The author appears to have cobbled together scenes from most of the famous second world war novels: Schindlers List, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Book Thief. At one point it appeared as if a Tale of Two Cities was going to make an appearance. The effect is of a massive cliché and a desperate lack of originality.
There is an obsession in making the two heroines stronger than the men. For example, a starved, weakened nineteen year old woman is made out to be stronger than young, fit, well trained airmen.
The writing itself varies in quality. At times, especially at the beginning, it isn’t bad, but it does become repetitive and sentimental. There are times it descends from an historical novel to become something of a farce like the TV series Allo Allo, and becomes something of an insult to the brave women in particular who fought with the resistance in the second world war.
However, what the book does have is an engaging story line, hook and pace. Although risible and sentimental in places, it is never boring and I read it to the end. The shame is that with a few more edits and better research, it could have been something special.

There were references to the smell of hay in April in France (wrong season!), hummingbirds on roses in a French garden (hummingbirds don’t live in France and don’t feed on roses!), misspelt German words, plenty of typos in English.
It just didn’t at all evoke France/continental Europe (I’m Swiss).
The success of this book flies in the face of the authors of historical novels who meticulously research their field.

First of all, Isabelle's code name, Anyone who has read even a single book about undercover work during the wars would know that the first rule in giving an agent a code name is that it does not even hint at the agent's real identity. Now Isabelle's surname is Rosignol. Her code name is The Nightingale. Rosignol means nightingale in French. I rest my case.
My second criticism has to do with Isabelle's character. We first get to know her as a wild, rebellious, hard-headed teenager who always gets her own way. We are supposed to believe that overnight, without any gradual coming-of-age moments, she turns into a mature and selfless heroine capable of leading grown men over mountains she has only navigated once in her life, risking life and limb to do so, obeying orders like a docile little lamb. Sorry, no!

