I have done several book reviews lately. Many of them have been on adult books. Honestly, this is a new thing for me. While homeschooling is my heart, and I LOVE writing about teaching my children, I also love reading. Lately I began to remember just how much I love reading, after a tough season where I had stopped reading all the delicious stories that used to fuel my heart. Then, as I began to read once again, I realized that I am not the only homeschooling mama that loves to read for herself, for fun, for learning and growing, and not only for educating her children.
Hence, I began to include book reviews about books I am reading that aren't simply about homeschooling. I even began to list the books I am reading in the Book List page of this blog.
It took me a few days to read through The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I listened to the novel on audiobook through my library. We are in the last few days of school for the year, so having the book on a Playaway was very convenient.
The Nightingale is the story of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, in occupied France in World War II. Very different from each other, the sisters are thrust into a world at war, and they handle things very differently. Vianne, married with a young daughter, stays in the home that has been in her family for generations. With her husband fighting in Germany, we see Vianne struggle with Nazi occupation as a Nazi soldier moves into her home. We see the town and friends she loves changed and scarred by the Nazi occupation. We see how Vianne must make tough decisions, even though she isn't in the midst of a battlefield, simply wanting survival for her and those she loves. We learn that tough decisions, even for a simple housewife, save lives and cost dearly.
We also meet Isabelle. Impetuous and naive, she wants to make a difference. As a single, young eighteen year old girl, Isabelle jumps into a resistance movement that is both dangerous and foolish. We see this young girl grow up and push limits and take chances that often bear a high cost.
The Nightingale was a powerful story. I love the powerful Christian biographies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Brother Andrew, and Corrie Ten Boom. The Nightingale added a heart-wrenching shade to the tragedy and horror that existed for those that lived through such times. My heart was pounding in some of the scenes, with fear and anger.
I wondered, while reading, what different decisions would the character have made if they were Christians? The book brings into the story that Vianne is Catholic, and I see how that influences her decisions at times. But what of Isabelle? Would her decisions have been different if she had decided, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to fight the Nazis and still live by faith?
Of course, the Nightingale is fiction. It is raw and gritty and shows the deep pain that accompanied watching friends and neighbors be rounded up and taken away to concentration camps. It showed the desperation, the hunger, the violence. Christian authors often shy away from such realities, even in fiction, because it can be offensive. I have no doubt that the horrors witnessed by Corrie Ten Boom in the concentration camp were similar to what Isabelle endured. I am certain that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, filled with love for Jesus, saw atrocities that were indescribable, as both Vianne and Isabelle also saw.
I am reminded of brothers and sisters in Christ around the world that are enduring and suffering persecution. The trauma and violence and terror is real. And yet, many still preach Jesus, and they do so because they know that evil will only triumph temporarily. Reading something as emotionally challenging as The Nightingale reminded me of that fact. Evil may wage war, and may kill, but the Lord wins in the end.
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