A satisfying historical tale of second chances perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Jennifer Donnelly.
A British woman who survives the sinking of the Titanic uses the opportunity to assume a false identity and start a new life in America.
When Elinor Hayward, daughter of Britain’s ultra-wealthy, self-made “cotton king,” meets the charming Frederick Coombes, she’s instantly smitten. A marriage proposal follows in short order, and Elinor’s doting father is quick to consent, as Frederick is heir to a highly respected earldom. They’ve barely left the altar before Elinor realizes what a horrible mistake she’s made. Frederick and his family have duped the Haywards, roping them in simply to extract the enormous dowry that will follow. Frederick’s mother, Lady Storton, is quick to tell Elinor all the ways in which she’s lacking, from her inferior table manners to her abysmal accent. After Elinor does her duty by birthing a son, life only gets worse: The family prevents Elinor from spending more than a few minutes a day with her baby, Teddy, threatening to have her committed if she protests. When Elinor’s father secures tickets for the whole family—but no nanny—for the Titanic’s maiden voyage, Elinor seizes the opportunity to spend time with her child. It will be a short respite in an otherwise miserable existence. Then, when the ship sinks and no one knows what’s become of Elinor or Teddy, she realizes this might be her one chance to escape the life in which she’s landed. Narrated by Elinor, the book is enchanting from the opening scene, when Elinor finds an unexpected invitation to a ball. An Austen-esque novel of manners at the start, the story also hits notes from The Yellow Wallpaper, aptly illustrating the ways in which emotional displays have been used to punish and disenfranchise women. The author manages to keep suspense high during the inevitable sinking of the ship, offering readers a different perspective on the same incident so many have watched in the famous movie. Even better, the storyline that follows the rescue of the lifeboats and moves on to describe life in New York is entirely fresh and engaging. This is an impressively well-executed and fast-paced take on an oft-told story, chock full of drama and emotional heft.
A satisfying historical tale of second chances perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Jennifer Donnelly.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593973035
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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