Best historical fiction-
I had always wanted to read this book that was published in February 2021. One of my colleagues had recommended it to me, saying that it was great. Finally, I found the book while browsing in the library, and I decided to take it home with me and read it.
To be honest, while the book was quite depressing, it was also very well written and displayed how hope and courage can win in the end.
Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a 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. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation. -Author: Kristen Hannah
Here are some quotes I gathered from her book:
“It wasn’t the fear that mattered in life. It was the choices made when you were afraid. You were brave because of your fear, not in spite of it.”
“Courage is fear you ignore.”
“Love is what remains when everything else is gone.”
“Books had always been her solace; novels gave her the space to be bold, brave, beautiful, if only in her own imagination.”
“Don’t worry about dying, Elsa. Worry about not living. Be brave.” – Grandpa Wolcott”
“As we know, there are lessons to be learned from history. Hope to be derived from hardships faced before. We’ve gone through bad times before and survived, even thrived. History has shown us the strength and durability of the human spirit, In the end, it is our idealism and our courage and our commitment to one another–what we have in common–that will save us.”
“You are of me, Loreda, in a way that can never be broken. Not by words or anger or actions or time. I love you. I will always love you.” Loreda is Elsa’s daughter.
“I say folks who hang on to the past miss their chance for a future.”
“Apparently you couldn’t stop loving some people, or needing their love, even when you knew better.”
“There was a pain that came with constant disapproval; a sense of having lost something unnamed, unknown. Elsa had survived it by being quiet, by not demanding or seeking attention, by accepting that she was loved, but unliked.”
“The four winds have blown us here, people from all across the country, to the very end of this great land. And now, at last, we make our stand, fight for what we know to be right. We fight for our American dream, that it will be possible again.”
“Passion is a thunderstorm, there and gone. It nourishes, si, but it drowns, too.”
“There was something she hadn’t known when she went into marriage and became a mother that she knew now: it was only possible to live without love when you’d never known it.”
I recommend this book for anyone who loves historical fiction books.
Carolina Mom 