The Four Winds
by Kristin Hannah
Published by St. Martin's Press
on February 2, 2021
Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction
Length: 464 pages
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Synopsis:
Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.
In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli--like so many of her neighbors--must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life.
My Thoughts:
Elsa is a tall and plain young woman that is deprived of love from her family but finds the love of a new family when she marries the young and handsome Rafael Martinelli. She learns to love the land and raises their children with the hopes that they would live there forever, but the Great Depression and the incessant storms of the Dust Bowl change their lives forever, making Elsa choose between staying at the dying wheat farm she has grown to love or moving on to greener pastures where her children might have a chance to survive.
This is my third Kristin Hannah novel and I've enjoyed all three and noticed a theme of strong, independent women trying to make it in tough times, situations, and locations. The Four Winds follows these themes as well and I fell in love with Elsa for her found strength and reserve as she stepped up and did what was needed for her family's survival.
There is a big focus on family dynamics in this novel with the mother-daughter relationship being the most prominent. Elsa raises a spirited daughter named Loreda who takes after her dreamer father and cares little for her mother. But after everything that happens, Loreda comes to see her mother--and the world--in a different light.
Kristin Hannah has woven a brilliant and emotionally evocative tale that takes us back to 'hard times' during the Great Depression and gives us a glimpse into the hardships and politics of that time.
I do think the end seemed rather rushed and was a little off-par with the rest of the book but the overall story was worth the read!
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