Kristin Hannah is one of those authors whose book you know you will love no matter the subject or genre. She’s that good at bringing character, time and place to life. Her research is dependable which lets the reader “live” in times too hard to fantasize, while appreciating the beauty along the way.
She’s done that again with Four Winds. Here more than ever, Hannah gives us a glimpse of the lives and expectations of women in the pre depression era, then raises the stakes by putting her underestimated character, Elsa, on a Texas panhandle farm immediately before, and then during, the dust bowl. Elsa and her children keep descending the societal ladder and eventually find themselves as homeless migrant workers in California.
I don’t want to spoil the story but must elaborate on the brilliant descriptions of the time and place. I could FEEL the dust in my nostrils. The cold wet nights of homelessness. The despair of hopelessness. And most importantly, the strength that Elsa finds within herself.
If you’ve missed Hannah’s other historical novels, you owe it to your hungry reader self to pick them up. Four Winds is the most recent, but only the beginning. Brava, Kristin Hannah!
I was granted access to this book by Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press. Four Winds releases today, February 2, 2021.
