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The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah

The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah

I listened to this on Borrowbox, I found it strangely compelling.

Here’s the blurb …

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.

If you want to learn about America in the great depression, the drought (and the consequent dust bowl), and the start of unionisation, then this is the book for you. I had no idea it was such a terribly grim time with what essentially amounted to indentured servitude.

It is beautifully written, with a wonderful sense of place and truly alive characters. It is grim though with very few uplifting moments.

A review

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Filed under 3, Historical Fiction