#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER #1 USA TODAY BESTSELLER#1 WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER#1 INDIE BESTSELLER”The Four Winds seems eerily prescient in 2021 . . . Its message is galvanizing and hopeful: We are a nation of scrappy survivors. We’ve been in dire straits before; we will be again. Hold your people close.”—The New York Times“A spectacular tour de force that shines a spotlight on the … close.”—The New York Times
“A spectacular tour de force that shines a spotlight on the indispensable but often overlooked role of Greatest Generation women.”—People
“Through one woman’s survival during the harsh and haunting Dust Bowl, master storyteller, Kristin Hannah, reminds us that the human heart and our Earth are as tough, yet as fragile, as a change in the wind.” —Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing
From the number-one bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes a powerful American epic about love and heroism and hope, set during the Great Depression, a time when the country was in crisis and at war with itself, when millions were out of work and even the land seemed to have turned against them.
“My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family.”
Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows.
By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail and water dries up and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive.
In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.
The Four Winds is a rich, sweeping novel that stunningly brings to life the Great Depression and the people who lived through it—the harsh realities that divided us as a nation and the enduring battle between the haves and the have-nots. A testament to hope, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit to survive adversity, 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.
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OMG my heart is broken and my eyes are sooo puffy! I stayed up til the wee hours just to see it through. The story begins in 1920’s Texas where twenty-five yr old Elsa Walcott struggles to be loved & dreams of going to college only to be crushed. Elsa rebels and heads to the speakeasy one night, she meets Raffaello Martinelli who also dreams of leaving Texas. Elsa becomes pregnant & dreams are shattered, Rafe accepts his new fate. Elsa born into wealth, learns to clean, cook and tends to the Martinelli’s farm never complaining. She earns her in-laws’ respect and love, but it’s not enough for Rafe. The Great Depression devastated lives & hopes. Elsa, single and with two kids, leaves the farm and her in-laws for California, (she thought) a better life. The characters are relatable & some likable, I especially adore Elsa, she’s resilient and a brave soul! This is an emotional, beautiful story one I highly recommend!
This was such a very good audiobook. It was so timely and relevant even for what we are going through as Americans today.
What hardships the nation faced in the dustbowl and great depression. It forced many to choose to travel out west in hopes of a better life. Unfortunately this was just not the case.
In the book Elsa and her children are forced to leave the home and farmland that Elsa loves. They head to California to make a new life. What awaits them there is only more suffering and hardship.
They pick cotton and the farmers do not even pay them enough to survive. They keep these immigrants down by giving them store credit they will never be able to pay back and therefore they never get ahead and are stuck working in very harsh conditions.
I loved Elsa’s character so much. Her resilient attitude to keep going for her kids was amazing. I loved watching her relationship with her daughter, Lareda, which started out tumultuously, grow and turn into something beautiful.
It was a story of loss, love, hope and the strength to keep going.
Four Winds is set in the 1930s; a time in history that has significant meaning to me as multiple generations of my family moved west in hopes of finding work after losing everything in the Great Depression. The details of the era are vibrant in my mind not just from fiction like Grapes of Wrath but also from first-hand stories from family members. That time in history is sad and depressing, and Ms. Hannah has captured the raw desperation of the wretched lives of children, parents and grandparents whose already meager lives were disrupted by the one-two-punch of the depression and the dust bowl.
Ms. Hannah’s lead characters reflect the type of grit and courage we want to have, the type of person we wish to be. I love that she promotes the underestimated strength and determination of women. The author’s descriptive writing brings her readers along for the journey.
Fans of Ms. Hannah’s writing have come to expect the high drama in her stories, and while it might be unlikely that her characters not only come across but are triumphant in all the situations presented, those life hurdles are representative of the era in which the story is set. I have a love-hate relationship with the author’s books. In many ways her books are formulaic, but each draws deeply on my emotional well. Four Winds is an emotional read that fairly depicts the struggles of the Great Depression and the impact of the Dust Bowl. A recommended read for most age groups.
Lindas Book Obsession Reviews “The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah, February 2021, St. Martin’s Press
Kudos to Kristin Hannah, the author of “The Four Winds” for writing such a powerful, poignant, captivating, dramatic, thought-provoking, and memorable novel. The genres for this novel are historical fiction, family drama, and women’s fiction. The timeline for this story is between 1921 and around 1934. The author describes the dramatic characters as complex and complicated. There are a comparison and symbolic relationship between the land, the family, and the people. I love that Kristin Hannah shows courageous and brave women, and mothers, who show love to their families and the land.
In 1921, just after World War One, the authors describe the wonderful bounty of the land and how farmers are doing well. Elsa Martinelli is constantly reminded by her parents that she and her ideas are not good enough. When Elsa is thrown out, she is welcomed by her lover’s family and gets married. Elsa loves her two children more than anything and works and respects the land that provided food and money for them.
As the dust storms, and the land doesn’t provide sustenance or life anymore there is much anger and frustration. Elsa’s husband no longer can deal with anything and leaves. Elsa stays with her in-laws and children. The draught and the sand storms bring illness and financial ruin. The Dust Bowl era joins the Great Depression. People leave going to California for a better life. Elsa is shocked that they aren’t welcome. Picking cotton and fruit seem to be a way to barely survive.
Elsa has tried to find a better life for her children and fights both the land and the people that take advantage that keeps her in poverty. Elsa tries to show her children that they have to stand up for what they believe in. She shows that they have to be strong, believe, and have courage.
I appreciate that the author describes the importance of working together, the importance of family, friends, love, hope, and fighting for what you believe in. I would highly recommend this amazing and memorable novel.
This book is filled with emotions; sadness, anger love and fear. I had to walk away from this story several times, but I always came back. Set in the 1930’s in Texas it gives a look at life in the Great Depression, and the Dust Bowl. When families felt the only way to live was go west, only to find more poverty, starvation and even less chance of survival. All these people wanted to do was work to protect their families. Elsa Martinelli is a symbol of all the amazing work women did in that heartbreaking time. She loved her children more than anything, and after her husband just walks away from them, she knows she has to be strong. When things went wrong, her only thought was to take her children home to Texas and their loving grandparents and the farm they were raised on.
I cried…a lot. But I am thankful for the opportunity to read this powerful American story.
I started THE FOUR WINDS late one night and I should have known better. Once I started reading, I was lost in the story and didn’t realize how much time had passed. I struggled with putting the book aside (after 3:30 a.m.) and going to sleep. I came really close to picking it up again instead of sleeping but managed a few hours before I woke up and grabbed it again. The only upside was that I started reading it on a Friday night and I didn’t have to be ready for virtual kids schooling after getting no sleep.
With THE FOUR WINDS, Kristin Hannah has created a novel with all the feels. I loved Elsa and felt so much for her. She took everything thrown at her and survived, even thrived. She would do anything for her family, especially her children and the parents that became more hers than the people she was born to. The era in which this novel took place was one that I had a basic knowledge of, but Hannah took the history and made it come alive, making me realize how little I really knew. There were times I could feel and taste physical hardships the characters experienced.
When I say this novel gave me all the feels, I am not exaggerating. It was, by turns, heartbreaking, inspirational, sad, happy… I could go on, but suffice to say, Hannah’s writing left me wrung out like an emotional rag. This was a wonderful novel. If you worry that it won’t live up to the pre-publication expectations, don’t. This novel will leave its mark and won’t be easily forgotten. Even if you forget the specific words, you won’t soon forget how you feel during and after reading THE FOUR WINDS.
Thank you to the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy of this novel. All opinions are my own and freely given.
#TheFourWinds #KristinHannah #StMartinsPress
The Four Winds is a pivotal novel by renowned author Kristin Hannah. This story begins in 1921. There is a boon in the Texas panhandle after the success this area had with growing grain for the war effort. Businesses are thriving, farmers are having record crops, and life is looking good.
However, Elsinore (Elsa) Wolcott, on the eve of her 25th birthday, is distraught at the future that is unfolding for her. Having had rheumatic fever as a young teen, she is treated as an invalid and only has an isolated and lonely life living in her parents house in her foreseeable future. She asks to go to college and is swiftly met with denial. To take a moment to live out some of her own dreams, Elsa sneaks out at night to sample the speakeasy and flirt with life.
Striking out for herself, Elsa encounters the handsome young Rafe Martinelli. Rafe is out to sew his wild oats before heading to college, the first of his family to do so. After several encounters together, still harboring no thoughts of him caring about her long term, the unthinkable happens, and Elsa’s future is forever changed when her mother realizes Elsa is with child. That night, Elsa is told to pack her belongings. Her father then takes her and dumps her at the Martinelli farm.
This is the beginning of an epic journey for Elsa and the Martinelli family. As they endure the Great Depression, the major midwestern drought and the effects of the dust bowl, Elsa proves her disowning parents wrong on every count. And when the only choice is to escape, Elsa finds the strength to make sure her family can survive. All the while, Elsa hears her beloved grandfather tell her to be brave. Perhaps this is the best legacy she can give her children.
This story is well researched, beautifully written, and so reflective of our current times it is heartbreaking. So much of this story is mirrored in the events of today. As the saying goes, if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it, and Ms. Hannah is a wonderful history teacher. Having begun this book well before the events of 2020, the timing of this release is perfection. I have been captured by each of the books by Ms. Hannah that I have read, but this one, this character, will be here with me for awhile. I very much enjoyed this book and wholeheartedly recommend it!
Set in the rural Great Plains in Texas, the story centers around 25-year-old Elsa Wolcott. She wants a better life other than her childhood years. One day she meets Rafe Martinelli.
During the 13 years of her marriage she;s grown up to love her land and when in 1934 – darkest periods of the Great Depression – she must decide, she stay on the home farm and keep struggling, waiting for the rain to come or leave. But they don’t find the promised work and life even there.
There is always hope.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah was an emotional story told during the Great Depression and what it truly meant to live during these times. Elsa has been living a hard life and then suddenly finds herself having to make a difficult choice. She was a strong and determined woman who loved her family deeply and would do anything for them. This is a story about choices, perseverance and so much more. It is not an easy read, but it is compelling and captivating.
Happy reading!
Kristin Hannah is one of those authors who always manages to pull me directly into her stories in a quick manner. She is a master at world building and setting a tone. In The Four Winds she hooked me on page one.
The Four Winds opens with Elsa, a formerly ill girl who has grown into an entirely unexceptional woman. On the cusp of her twenty-fifth birthday she is now solidly destined for spinsterhood. But, despite her rigid upbringing and judgmental parents, Elsa does have a streak of strength far below her submissive demeanor. One daring decision is all it takes to set her on a path that will both challenge her and show her true resiliency.
The Four Winds is a story set against the great depression and the dustbowl migration when poverty spread across America and people were forced to make hard choices in an effort to survive. Elsa finds a new life on the farm of her husband’s family. But when the drought and failing crops force them to follow a promise of a better life, she discovers that California isn’t the escape she’d hoped for. Despite every adversity, Elsa proves herself stronger than the sickly little girl her parents saw in her. She’s got a ferocious will to live and will face any horror and suffer any injustice to survive and secure a better future for her children.
Kristin Hannah has done another magnificent job of setting the scene and reaching out to grasp every emotion in your body. Every one of her books leaves me an emotional wreck and The Four Winds is no different. While Hannah does a great job of capturing the essence of the setting and time period, there’s a slow build in the story line as we travel with Elsa from her parent’s home to the farm and through the drought. Despite the slower build, it’s a fantastic and emotional journey. This is perhaps the bleakest of her books, simply because it’s a true reflection of what people endured during this era. What a great story about resilience, love and hope though.
*I received a copy of The Four Winds from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review*
I received a free electronic ARC of this exceptional historical novel from Kristin Hannah, Netgalley, and a personal invite from St. Martin’s Press, the publisher. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. As usual, Kristin Hannah takes us on a rollercoaster ride of emotions as we accompany this true grit Italian family in the 1930s through the years of drought, the plains states dustbowl, and the depression, as Elsa Wilcott of the Texas panhandle town of Dalhart chooses to make drastic changes to her future plans.
A survivor of childhood rheumatic fever, Elsa was shuffled off to the side, treated as an invalid with no saving graces by her busy family. Though the eldest of three daughters, the family chose to isolate her in her room, where she read everything she could get her hands on. It was considered by her mother that she was too ugly to even consider marriage and children, not long for this world with her rheumatoid-induced heart problems, thus not worth educating, and allowed only Sunday worship service and her walks to the city library as a way to socialize. Most painfully, her entire family refused to include her in their lives at home as well as out in the community. The wealthiest family in Dalhart, there is no excuse for limiting her socialization and education, but she is powerless in their arguments and heartbroken by their excuses. Her only friend was her now deceased Grandfather, who gave her the advice she is going to base the rest of her life on. He said, “Don’t worry about dying, Elsa. Worry about not living. Be brave.” At 25, she decides to take her future into her own hands. Completely naive with little interaction with people and normal activities, she begins to make her own choices even if she has to rely on the information attained from novels.
And it was a mess, for a time, her life. She was banned from returning to her own home after one of her decisions backfires, but it may be for the best. The farming Martinelli family, though reluctant to fold her into their world, are even at first glance warmer and kinder than her own. And the lifestyle – the chores and patterns of life on the farm are wonderfully exciting to this city girl. It is with a full heart that she adapts to life on a working farm.
And then the drought begins. The Great Plains loses all of its topsoil – millions of tons of it – to the severe winds as year after year the rains don’t come. Change is coming. Can Elsa Wilcott Martinelli adapt fast enough to survive this, too? Can she be that brave?
Kristin’s books always seem a little daunting to me when I pick one up—they are all a bit hefty. But the subject matter she writes about is always so interesting to me and I find myself flying through the pages. The Four Winds was exactly that and so much more. So many pages but oh, it was so, so good!
The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression were devastating times for the United States, especially in the Plains states. The Four Winds personalizes the hardship and struggles of the time, through the lives of Elsa Martinelli and her family. What they, and others like them, had to endure was heartbreaking—everything in their lives was either lost or taken away.
I absolutely loved this story and learned so much about the time period and the unimaginable conditions that everyone had to endure. I know I will be thinking about Elsa and her family for a very long time. This is a story that I highly recommend, especially for lovers of historical fiction or American history.
“Hard times don’t last. Love does.”
This may be Kristin Hannah’s best work yet. In this masterpiece of historical fiction, Hannah takes us through the experiences of the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and the migration to California. When we first meet Elsa, she seems a sickly, sheltered woman with no prospects of ever leaving home in the Texas panhandle. A “shotgun wedding” brings Elsa and Rafe together and she leaves home to live with Rafe and his family on their farm where they have two children.
Just over a decade later, tragedy strikes through the form of severe drought and dust storms. The farm is devastated and Elsa learns just how strong she really is. Her journey of triumph through true loss, challenging familial relationships, and raising two children in the most difficult of circumstances is truly inspirational. In the end, Elsa is described as a warrior and I couldn’t agree more. Her love for her children and the things she did for them was pure strength and grit. I had such admiration for her and the way she handled everything that came her way.
The Four Winds was written before the pandemic but is such a poignant novel for the current day. It will both humble and inspire you and I believe is one that everyone should read. Highly recommend!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book. The opinions here are my own.
THIS BOOK!! WOW. Kristin Hannah did it again. It’s deep, powerful and I couldn’t put it down! This book wasn’t a happy one, BUT it was a poignant story and relates to what is happening to our world right now with COVID-19. Times are hard for Elsa. In more ways than one but she is a strong woman. In fact, most of the women of her time were. Circumstances had her making decisions she didn’t want to make. But she did it and with as much grace as she could. Times were hard and she did what she had to do. I was completely immersed in Elsa’s story and Kristin brought ALL. THE. FEELS. This was truly a beautiful read and gave me a book hangover; 1st of 2021!
What an emotional read. I always bawl my eyes out reading Kristin Hannah’s books and this one is no different. I didn’t like the first half of this book. I found it slow and I didn’t care much about Elsa. I will say you do have to go through the first half to really understand and appreciate the second half of the book. I think during this time in our lives with the pandemic you can understand and sympathize more with what happened during the Dust Bowl. It was quite sad to see how people treated each other back than when some compassion would go a long way.
*I received this free book from NetGalley and am leaving my honest opinion*
I admit to being a history buff but my knowledge of the Dust Bowl is limited. The Four Winds covers the Dust Bowl in Texas 1934. I was amazed at the similarities of today’s world and the events in 1934. Kristin Hannah must have a crystal ball.
Elsa Martinelli is the main character of The Four Winds and she makes Scarlet O’Hara look like a sissy. Elsa meets the trials and tragedies of this horrific time with a spirit of survival and sacrifice. The pictures from the Dust Bowl that we see on our history books don’t give as accurate a picture as Hannah does with this story. With the exception of a few parts that are R rated, this book should be required reading. I was totally exhausted when I finished. The descriptions are so vivid and the characters are so real! The Four Winds shows how strong and resilient the American people are. From famine, prejudices, unfair wages and working conditions, to lack of health care, Hannah still managed to weave love and family into this fantastic story.
I voluntarily received a copy of this book from NetGalley.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Book starts out with a listing of the author’s other works, dedication and prologue where we learn about the penny that has hope for one’s new life in US.
1921 and we start out in TX and Elsa has been raised to be very poor in health so the parents keep her safe at home.
Her sisters are beautiful and are married and out in the world. Elsa wants to be more like them so she does a few things to her hair and dress and spends the night at a speakeasy where she meets a boy.
She meets him more over time and before you know it she’s with child. What I hated to read was that her father dropped her off at the boys house for them to take care of the daughter and child.
She was from a very well to do banker family and knows nothing of preparing meals and doing chores. She is thankful to learn how to do everything.
Rafe is tired of TX life and the droughts cause him to just up and leave to head to CA. They don’t hear from him and the youngest boy needs to be relocated for his health so she packs up the kids and heads west also, leaving the grandparents behind.
Terrifying hearing of the nights spent on the road and passing through the desert. When they reach CA things are not what they expected and Elsa is NOT afraid to work. She meets a wonderful woman in camp who gives her information about how to survive.
She did scrub a woman’s house from top to bottom til 6pm one day and got 40 cents. She puts the kids in school and while searching for work she tries to also find Rafe.
Fell in love with this side of CA during the depression reading about it from John Steinbecks stories so to me this is an added plus to continue on with the story coming from a different irrespective.
Hard times hits them front and center and just when you think they are getting ahead you realize they are not. They realize it also and the daughter goes to do something about it.
So many emotions and I love hearing of the travels and the places they went through on their way to follow their dreams.
Tragic times and love hearing about how they survived through it all. Love hearing of the strikes during the time as the land owners were in control and could set the price of a picker for the day…
Never saw the ending happening as it did but was so glad Ledora gets to bring it all full circle and move on with her life as she gets older.
Received this review copy from St. Martin’s Press via publicist via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
#TheFourWinds #NetGalley
#stmartinspress
A historical fiction novel set in The Great Depression told from the female perspectives of a warrior mother and her courageous, teenage daughter. The lovely and engaging writing of Kristin Hannah weaves together a tale that’s both incredibly sad and indelibly hopeful.
This is a story of downright hardship, pain, and despair. Yet, it’s one of survival; what it takes to survive not matter the personal, emotional, and financial cost. It’s of one woman with a heart full of love whose need to protect and guard her children play on your heartstrings and remind you of the absolute resilience of the human spirit. It’s a story of bravery. Courage that you can’t even see but find a way to muster for those who hold most dear. It’s a story of grit and fight when it’s recognizable but more importantly, when it’s not and how to come to see it.
That’s my most personal take away from this book. The strength and fight of the human spirit. Of a woman’s unbreakable spirit, her powerful voice, her enduring love. That strength, specifically, of a Mother. But, also, that of a daughter of such a warrior woman. These two females have much to teach us about the bond that connects us and the bravery we gain from the connection and how to use that power. And how much we learn from each other and how much we evolve from those learnings. This book, through it’s many obstacles and such grief, reminds us of that resiliency of spirit and what we can learn from it. It reminds us of the power of love and the many forms it takes and how often we take advantage of it yet it always remains. And I think, especially now, that’s a message worth reading.
Elsa lives a life of privilege but she is still in a terrible situation. When she ends up pregnant, her family kicks her out and she moves in with her new husband and his family on their farm. Elsa has no experience in farm life or a family quite like this one.
When life once again takes a terrible turn, Elsa digs deep for strength and makes some tough decisions. After the last dust storm which nearly killed her youngest son, Elsa decides to leave the only true family she has ever known. She loads up her kids and they strike out for California.
Elsa is one tough lady. She struggles to feed her family, to show love, and to just plain survive. She does what it takes. Sometimes it was even too much for me to handle. I would have to set the book aside for a minute and just breathe. My heart goes out to the people who lived during this time period.
Well! I think I have already read the best of the year for me! It is going to be tough to beat this one! What a wild ride this book is. Every emotion you could have…it is experienced within this story. I cannot imagine going through what these people went through.
Do not miss this one! Best of the best! It gives you all the feels!
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
I finished reading The Four Winds several weeks ago, but have been unable to formulate the words to express how good this book is. Elsa Martinelli and her family live during the Great Depression, and the trials and hearaches they experience seem almost too debilitating to survive. From the lack of rain contributing to the inability to raise crops to eat and sell, to the difficulty to breathe in the dryness of the air, you will experience the feeling of these hardships with Elsa. From the impact of the wind on the environment, to the desolation of the land, you will feel Elsa’s pain as she and her family must decide what they must do next to survive. From the unforeseen hardships they experience once decisions have been made, to the friendships and enemies they make along the way, you will root for Elsa and her family, marvel at her strength and cry with her in despair. Overall, this is a sad book but an amazing one. You will feel that you are right in the middle of the Great Depression with Elsa and others, experiencing both their hopelessness and their hope along the way. You may not always agree with some of the decisions Elsa makes along the way, but you will understand they are made from a place of love, hope and strength.
The Four Winds is one of the very best historical novels I have ever read. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for giving me the privilege of reading and honestly reviewing an ARC of this amazingly well written book.