#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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Kristen Hannah writes such beautiful stories about strong and courageous women and The Four Winds is another beautifully written story that pulled at my heart strings yet filled me with hope throughout the story. I loved getting to know Elsa from a young woman who excelled at making herself small to fit her family’s expectations to a warrior who discovered her strength and voice as a mother and a woman. Mama Bear! Hannah so wonderfully described the hardship of the Dust Bowl in Texas as well as the despair families suffered during the Depression my heart was breaking throughout and yet was the people endured.
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to St. Martins Press, NetGalley, and Kristin Hannah for allowing me to read this wonderful story.
Gritty, insightful, and incredibly atmospheric!
The Four Winds is an intriguing tale that sweeps you away to Dalhart, Texas during the 1920s – 1930s, when the country is reeling from the great depression and the townsfolk of West Texas must decide to continue to struggle to maintain their livelihoods, identities, and health through the relentless heat, devastating wind storms, and catastrophic droughts or relocate to the lushness of California where water is plentiful, the land is fertile, but survival may be just as difficult or worse.
The prose is poetic and lyrical. The main characters are strong, resilient, and hardworking. And the plot is an enthralling, emotional saga filled with life, loss, self-discovery, motherhood, familial drama, social stratification, poverty, tragedy, discrimination, inequality, heartbreak, courage, romance, and friendship.
Overall, The Four Winds is another exquisitely written, exceptionally detailed, beautiful novel by Hannah that I absolutely adored, and is undoubtedly going to be a big hit with historical fiction fans and book clubs everywhere.
I have to admit this is my very first Kristin Hannah book. I am truly ashamed to admit that but it will not be my last. There are so many and each sounds so good. I even own a couple. How’s that for crazy.
This book is so good. It made me laugh, cry, get angry, yell and cry some more. It will give you so many emotions. That is what makes a book great in my opinion.
Elsa had a hard life. From the time she was fourteen years old she was told she had a weak heart and was kept from doing anything that she truly wanted to do. Not because her parents really loved her enough to protect her but because they were somewhat ashamed of her. She was not like her two sisters. She was not like all the other girls. She was so much more though. You will get to know the true Elsa and how incredibly strong she really is. You will love her too. Or at least I did. I think she is probably one of the strongest females in any book I have ever read. She’s a daughter, mother, wife, friend. She’s a hard working woman who has given so much to others. Her life is hard but she is not one to give up. She fights for her children. She works so hard for them. She’s all they have and they are all she has.
This book is based on an awful time in America’s history. When crops died and there was no rain. No rain. Can you imagine that? Absolutely no rain for so long. Things go from bad to worse when the dust storms hit too. This is a deep historical fiction book based on real life in the early to mid thirties. What families went through. What they did to just survive. How cruel some people could be. It’s a book that will keep you turning pages until the very end. Then you have to read the Author’s Notes.. I’m so very sorry for the loss of you and your husband’s friend Ms Hannah. I’ve lost a few too and it hurts.
This book makes you feel the desperation that the people in this era went through. The hopelessness they felt. The need they felt. You will feel Elsa’s pain in different places. When she is alone and thinks it’s all her fault. When she feels love and finally knows she is worthy. When she feels so much pride for her children. When her daughter finally looks at her as if she is a human being. You know teenagers. They are always the same….
This is a great book. A very deeply touching book. One that will stick with you. It’s just a great all around story of hope, loss, love and forgiveness. Of seeing your hard work pay off.
Thank you #NetGalley, #KristinHannah, #StMartin’sPress for this ARC. This is my own true feelings about this book.
5/5 stars and the highest recommendation to you all. Grab this book as soon as possible and read it.
Get your tissues out. Each book Kristin Hannah writes gradually builds on a set of multi-faceted female characters that are put into unthinkable situations but she’s topped herself in this one. My heart took a beating. I have sand in my teeth. It’s a relentless look at the bleak dust bowl depression era that scarred a generation. I was drawn to it as a former Oklie who grew up with stories from my grandmother and great-grandparents about this time in America.u2063
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While I enjoyed the main character, Elsa, especially the early chapters, the parallels to Grapes of Wrath are so many, it’s impossible not to make comparisons. It’s an unfair competitor that I wish I didn’t know so well but time and again I came back to it.
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In the beginning, Elsa is established as a young woman who’s been told she’s unattractive, unmarriable, and sickly despite the fact that she feels healthy. She’s a heartbreaking restless heroine clinging to the idea of being brave. This bravery will guide her through the ordeals that her life is destined to be thrust into. u2063
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When she has her own family, her daughter, Loreda, has the same restlessness that Elsa had yet she clashes with her mother, possibly because she never really knows her true spirit. Loreda takes on issues of worker’s rights with optimistic hopes of youth but the blindness of the young woman to see consequences that can alter her entire life is a repeating theme. Seeing this circle of life was interesting but I had a hard time latching onto the romance thrown in. It felt like a device to put a shiny coat on a story that is very grim. The endless emergencies (wind storms, starving, flooding, beatings) were historically accurate, but left little breathing room or depth between these events. My issue was how little the characters ranged in hero or villain. Usually, her characters show both sides of their humanity but in this one it felt limited. That made the Grapes comparison even worse because Steinbeck created profound characters that are in my bones and this book didn’t have the same weight.
It’s a great book and I know fans of her books will love it but this takes 3rd place among my favorites.u2063 Thank you @stmartinspress and NetGalley for letting me read this gem! It is an epic read.
With The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah proves again that she excels at creating realistic storylines; strong, relatable, and complex characters; and making the reader feel a part of the action.
This historical fiction novel is set in the 1930’s as Americans deal with the abject poverty of the Great Depression and farmers try to hold on to their land through the Dust Bowl years brought on by years of severe drought. As we follow Elsa Martinelli and her two children, Baby Boomers and all generations who follow, get an indelible understanding and appreciation of what those of the Greatest Generation went through and how they earned that designation with their determination, their blood, sweat, and tears, and their resolve to never give up.
A fascinating and emotional read that had me feeling the grit of the dirt, the high, dry winds, the hot, blazing sun, never ending hunger, and the cold of winters. Kristin Hannah, I will read anything you write!!
My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me the privilege of reading an early copy of this novel set to be published on 2/2/21. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
I didn’t expect a book set in the Great Depression to be a happy-go-lucky read, but I also didn’t expect it to be quite so depressing. It started off strong. In the first chapter, Elsa hooked me and I was eager to read her story. She had dreams and hopes… and then something happened and I knew before I finished reading about it, what the outcome would be. It wasn’t long after that I wasn’t quite so fond of her (not because of the event that took place). I spent most of the book rolling my eyes at her unwillingness to believe that a single person could love her or think her pretty. My empathy for her quickly turned to annoyance as she kept everything to herself. There wasn’t a ton of action in the story, but every bad thing that could happen, did. We were told about it without getting to experience it. Some of it seemed to be glossed over in order to move on to the next bad thing that was due to happen. There wasn’t an emotional investment on my part since the writing felt devoid of emotion. I felt that the end of the book was rushed and the ending was just a way to kick the reader when they were already down. While this one missed the mark for me, I appreciated that Elsa and Loreda experienced some growth, even though it seemed to come in at the very last minute.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is a very highly recommended historical fiction epic set during the Great Depression.
It is 1921 and Elsa Wolcott lives in the Texas Panhandle. She never felt love from her family and longed for something more, certainly love, but also acceptance and a place to belong. At the age of 25, she decides to take a chance, leaving her home one night looking for… something, she meets Rafe Martinelli, a young 18 year-old man who is also restless and the two make a connection with each other. After a few late night clandestine meetings, Elsa is pregnant, her parents throw her out, and she and Rafe are married. She lives on the Martinelli homestead, learns to cook, clean and farm, and to love her new in-laws, Tony and Rosa.
Then the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression hit the Great Plains. It is 1934. Foreclosures are rampant, crops are nonexistent, people are starving, livestock is dying, and the land is blowing away without rain. Elsa and Rafe have two surviving children, Loreda, 12, and Anthony (Ant), 7. Rafe, who has becoming increasingly distant and a hard drinker, leaves one night for California, abandoning his family. The Martinelli’s struggle on until a decision must be made. Elsa takes Loreda and Ant, with Tony and Rosa’s support, and they head to California to look for steady work and a better life. But California is not the land of milk and honey and the dream is a nightmare. The immigrants, or Okies, are discriminated against and taken advantage of, making their lives even more precarious.
Following in the tradition of Steinbeck’s classic, The Grapes of Wrath, the historical time and setting in The Four Winds has been thoroughly researched and masterfully presented. Hannah does an excellent job setting her novel in the time period and describing the hardships they endured. The plot is well paced, covering the hardships in Texas and California and the narrative is compelling. I was engrossed in the story, both in Texas and California. There was no good choice during these desperate times and the whole gritty reality is clearly presented in totality as we follow one woman and her children. The backbreaking work for very low pay as migrant workers in California was heartbreaking and the treatment of these Americans who were just trying to take care of their families was despicable.
Elsa is, ultimately, a strong woman, but she has so much self-doubt and self-loathing that she has to overcome a lifetime of self-debasement in order to become the strong woman she is in the end. Loreda is a horrid teen, but also changes, becoming a mature, confident young woman after she experiences and takes note of the disparity of the treatment of people. When she is told, “They call you names because they don’t want to think of you as like them” it was a truth that holds on today when people from the Great Plains are still called disparaging names and put down by people from California, as well as the east coast, with no acknowledgment that we are all Americans and, in light of the pandemic, we all need jobs.
Many of us who had ancestors live through this time period have heard the stories of hardship and sacrifice they endured living through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Some basic things they did during this time as a matter of course have survived right up through my generation. (Washing and reusing all plastic containers, foil, saving anything that might be useful for something.) But we were also taught to work hard without complaint and to put family first. It is a pleasure to read such a well-written novel that shows the self-sacrifice and determination of those who survived the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, in spite of the forces against them.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of St. Martin’s Publishing Group
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/01/the-four-winds.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3793601399
Wow! I am blown away (no pun intended). This book will stay with you long after you read the last page, much like The Nightingale. As we enter a new year with the same pandemic and political strife, so much of this book will open your eyes to the plight of those less fortunate trying to feed their families and make a living in dire times and trying to right wrongs. Sound familiar? This book takes us from Texas to California during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. I admit, I put off reading this book due to the subject matter. But, I became immersed in Elsa’s story from the beginning.
Elsa, born to wealthy parents, becomes ill as a child and thus, becomes her lot in life; frail, unattractive spinster. Elsa is ignored with only books to fill her days. She meets an attractive stranger and her life is forever changed. The Martinelli family becomes the family she always wanted. Elsa will do anything for her family to survive, even head west with Her children, to find work. Her journey is that of the migrant worker doing anything to feed their family. Friendships are formed even in this time of darkness, and love survives. Elsa’s love, devotion, determination, and strength will be visible to all, except Elsa herself.
This book is written beautifully, the characters are wonderful, giving us total insight to their plight and despair, while making them relatable with normal every day issues. Let me honest, this is not a light read. It’s dark, sad, and, at times, it will rip your heart out! But, it’s an important story that I’m sure many do not know all that well, and is all too relevant. Warning….ugly cry ahead!
Many thanks to Ms. Hannah, St. Martin’s Press and NeGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.
I think everyone’s going to want to read this book in 2021, and they should! THE FOUR WINDS is a haunting story of the Dust Bowl, the Okie migration, and the cruelty Americans have shown one another in just the past hundred years. It’s an incredibly timely novel.
An easy 4 stars for a book of courage in face of soul destroying poverty. Four Winds is the story of Elsa Wolcott and her marriage to Rafe Martinelli, after she becomes pregnant with his child. She is disowned and shunned by her family because of this forced marriage to someone they regard as lower class. She moves into the Martinelli home. Rafe’s parents welcome her as one their own in 1921 rural panhandle Texas.
But then the drought comes and crops no longer grow. This period is now known as the Dust Bowl. Rafe’s holds on for a couple of years, but then deserts his wife and 2 children, leaving a note, saying he is looking for a job. Elsa stays for another year, but when her son Ant almost dies from a silicosis lung infection caused by a dust storm, Elsa decides to go west.
She arrives in California’s San Joaquin Valley. She ends up picking cotton at wages that keep her family in perpetual debt and poverty The story of her struggle to provide for her family is inspiring, but truly depressing.
Two quotes: “Poverty was a soul destroying thing. A cave that tightened around you, its pinprick of light closing a little more at the end of each desperate, unchanged day.”
“Love is what remains when everything else is gone. This is what I should have told my children when we left Texas.”
This is a long book, at 477 pages and I read it in 11 days
Thanks to St Martin’s Press for sending me this eARC through NetGalley. #TheFourWinds #NetGalley
Such a difficult book to read as most of the story is anything but uplifting, yet it’s based on real life, which makes it even more tragic. Great historical fiction!
I am speechless over what I have just finished reading! This is Author Kristen Hannah at her finest with a captivating story that covers a wide range of emotions and family dynamics that takes place in the panhandle of Texas beginning in 1921.
Elsinor “Elsa” Wolcott grew up in a wealthy family with two older and much prettier sisters and her parents never let her forget it. Elsa stood 6 feet tall, was very thin and considered herself very unattractive. Elsa was sick with a fever when she was a young teen and her parents turned her into an invalid and never let her do anything. Elsa marries Raffaello “Rafe” Martinelli and begins life as a farmer’s wife. Life on the farm is a struggle with the depression and then the dust bowl era which forces Elsa to make a decision about staying there or heading west. That is all I will say because I do not want to reveal any spoilers.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this truly remarkable and unforgettable book in exchange for an honest review. I predict that this will be one of the top reads for 2021.
This is an amazing historical fiction story about the hardship of farming life during the 1920s and 1930s. Also, including life in The Great Depression of the United States. It focuses on the struggles of one family, but knowing there were so many others like this one, made it heartbreaking to read. At the same time, the story is lifting, that people will push forward in the most difficult situations to strive for a better future for themselves and most especially their children.
I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for giving me the opportunity to read the advance reader copy, with no obligation to write a review. My review is written freely as a hobby, and is totally my own opinion, not influenced by receiving the ARC.
You can always, always count on Kristin Hannah for a story that will push her characters to the brink and give them the opportunity to surprise themselves—and you—with strength far beyond what they thought they were capable of. The Four Winds is just such a novel, full of grit in every sense of the word.
Hannah transports us to the Texas panhandle in the era of The Dust Bowl, when one unusually audacious night in the life of a young woman changes the trajectory of her life on the precipice of The Great Depression and the region’s infamously deadly ecological disaster. Through years of hardship and draught, dust storms and illness, poverty and heartbreak, we’re swept into a fierce tale of motherhood, family (by blood, by marriage, and by choice), commitment, and courage when all seems lost. This richly painted history, with meticulous research that wholly brings another time and place alive on the page, resonates in unsettling ways today: How do we treat those seeking refuge? What harsh judgments might we make about people we don’t want to know? And at what cost are we willing to stand up for what’s right? Kristin Hannah has done it again. A must for fans of historical and women’s fiction upon its February 2021 release. (With thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy.)
The Four Winds is a powerful heart wrenching story of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and more than that, the strength and tenacity of men , women and children that lived , suffered but never gave up during those times.
I can not imagine having the grit and determination to survive.
I simply did not want the book to end.
I cheered them on, I cried for them and I sometimes laughed with them all.
Elsa is my hero as she fights to provide and care for her two children in this horrific time. Her daughter learns from her mom’s strength though she does not know it at the time.
Please take time to read the author’s notes at the end of the book.
The Four Winds will stay with me for a very long time and I can’t wait to get my hard copy of this book that has to be in the top 10 of 2020.
Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press for allowing me to go on Elsa’s journey.
I have read five of Ms. Hannah’s novels. I would give the read itself a 3* but the beautiful writing and the incredible research that went into this book definitely earns it a 4* rating.
This book was an incredibly depressing read. I felt so much for the characters that I really had to hold myself back from crying. Particularly when injustice after injustice was endured and things kept going from bad to worse. It made me wonder how much can a person really stand before their spirit is completely broken.
Elsa was born into a family of “means”, however she suffered from a complete lack of love, attention or any kind of affection. Elsa had two sisters who were considered pretty and married at a young age. Elsa’s mother had told her this when she was in her twenties, ”You are unmarriageable, Elsinore, even with all our money and standing. No man of note wants an unattractive wife who looms over him” This last a comment on the fact that she was tall for women then, about six feet tall.
On her 25th birthday she decides to go into town and celebrate. She meets Rafe who finds Elsa interesting and beautiful in her own way. When she tells her parents that she is in love, her parents want to know who the man is. Her father then forces the marraige between Rafe and Elsa.
There are a few good years when Elsa and Rafe are living with the Martinelli’s who have embraced Elsa and their baby daughter Loreda. They are very warm and caring people and Elsa at last feels a part of a family.
Then The Great Depression and the worst drought in the history of the Great Plains hits and it’s a double whammy for the US farmers and workers.
After years of near starvation on the family farm Elsa takes her daughter Loreda and young son Ant west to California. It is said that there is work there and money to be made. However as history has told us, both farmers from the drought stricken “Dust Bowl” and workers from the cities all converge on California looking for jobs. I had hoped that here at last would be a new beginning for Elsa and her children.
It would spoil the story to tell much else about the plot. In comparing Ms. Hannah’s novels, I felt that there was hope and more vibrancy in The Nightingale and The Great Alone. This book felt like just one nightmare to the next. I realize that this is the true history of what the people endured, but it is very hard to read. I kept looking for a silver lining which never seemed to come. Perhaps in her Elsa’s daughter’s generation.
The characters were incredibly well developed and I felt for all of them. The dust storms were so well described I could envision how horrible a twister of dust blowing at 50 mph would be. So forceful that it got between every small crack in the house. In the beginning the beautiful wheat fields were described; how tall, golden and strong the wheat stalks were and went on for acres and acres. She again described some terrible scenes in California when the rains caused flooding in the tent and truck camps set up along the ditches close to the farms. How horrible to have everything you own covered in mud for weeks on end.
As you can see this book did touch me in many ways. I went online to find out more about the drought and “Dust Bowl” and realized how little I had known. This book opened my eyes to the farmers tragedy. I had read much about The Great Depression but not much about the farmer’s plight.
This is a very eye opening novel. I loved the author’s notes in which she addressed the pandemic that we are now going through and hoped that the book would teach us this:
“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. Now in these dark days, we can look to history, to the legacy of the greatest generation and the story of our own past, and take strength from it.” I hope that we can learn this lesson and pass it on to our children.
This novel is set to publish on February 9, 2021
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.
This is a very well written descriptive book. I felt the dust pounding on them during each dust storm. The desperation of trying to live during this terrible time. By the end of the book I was in tears.
This book was hard to read but I also couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I thought it was really good.
Definitely recommend
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy
Wow! You can feel the dust and grit in your eyes and mouth, see the darkness of sand approaching, and feel every emotion, sorrow, sadness in this excellent offering. The story will passionately carry you through the realistic hardships on an unforgettable journey.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is a wonderful, heartbreaking, epic journey and is an excellent historical fiction novel. This novel will grip you from beginning to end. Once you start reading, you will not be able to tear yourself away from the stunning plot. You will forget your job, your responsibilities, your family…just kidding, but you will definitely be absorbed into this complex, intricate journey of a young woman coming into her own and overcoming the large amount of obstacles thrown her way to find her way to redemption. Do yourself a favor, and read this book.
The main character is Elsa Martinelli and she and her children live in a very difficult time and era: 1930s Midwest (Texas). The time of the post-stock market crash, down and out economy, the dust bowl center of the US, and in the center of this, Elsa is trying to eek out a living in a rural area with less then stellar results. Her choice in the end: does she take her children to California in order to find a sliver of a chance at survival, or does she stay with the sad, decreped land that she inhabits now which has thus far resulted in poverty, scarcity, and emotional emptiness?
Elsa has been through so much growing up, a difficult childhood, growing up too soon due to necessity, marrying into a loveless match, but being able to have children that she loves, and the eternal hope that somewhere, somehow things can be better.
I loved Elsa. She is strong, she has fire, she has gumption, she has a foundation of love and forgiveness for others despite not being afforded that in her past. She does not realize how strong and intelligent she truly is. She is a force to be reconned with. I love that she fights for her family and her children’s future. I love the independence. Is she perfect? Nope. Does she always make the best choices? Nope. But who does? And those imperfections make me love her even more. Her journey is hard, it is remarkable, it is brave, and I cannot lie and say I did not tear up every now and then while reading her story.
I am not going to lie, this is not an easy read. There is pain, there is heartache, there is not always justice. It is a difficult time for many people and the odds are stacked against the characters, but the fortitude and the drive is what draws you back to the story again and again.
An excellent read from an excellent author.
5/5 stars Truly a gem.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this wonderful ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, B&N and Instagram accounts upon publication.
I always know I’m going to love a Kristin Hannah book, no matter the subject matter. Her newest novel is contemporary take on The Grapes of Wrath with a feminist angle. The main character, Elsa Martinelli, is strong, smart and so easy to root for. We follow Elsa and her two children from a small town in the Texas dustbowl east to California where they are forced to live in a tent city Hooverville. I loved Elsa’s no nonsense attitude and refusal to take no for an answer and I learned a lot about the hardships of the era along the way. My favorite kind of historical fiction.