The Four Winds: A Novel

by Kristin Hannah

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing, Kristin Hannah’s stunningly beautiful and heart-wrenching dustbowl drama traces the conflicts and challenges faced by Elsa and her family, who journey west in search of a better life. Elsa's critical choices shape the lives of the people around her for generations to come.

"The Bestselling Hardcover Novel of the Year."—Publishers Weekly

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250178619
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	659
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

KRISTIN HANNAH is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including The Nightingale and The Great Alone. A former lawyer turned writer, she lives with her husband in the Pacific Northwest.

Editorial Reviews

"The Bestselling Hardcover Novel of the Year."—Publishers Weekly

Book of the Month Club's Best Book of 2021

Selected for The Texas Library Association's 2022 Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List

"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 indispensable but often overlooked role of Greatest Generation women."—People

"Brutally beautiful."—Newsweek


"Epic and transporting, a stirring story of hardship and love...Majestic and absorbing."—USA Today

"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, asa change in the wind. This mother’s soul, suffering the same drought as the land, attempts to cross deserts and beat starvation to save her children with a fierce inner strength called motherhood. A timely novel highlighting the worth and delicate nature of Nature itself." —Delia Owens, author of WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING

"A powerful, stirring, wind-swept tale set in Depression-era America that makes your heart break and soar in equal measure. An escape into the past with timely echoes to the present. Kristin Hannah is a classic storyteller and The Four Winds sees her at the top of her game.” — MATT HAIG, New York Times bestselling author of THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

"Wow. I have been left with a bursting heart. Prepare to go on a journey. The story of Elsa and her family will sweep you up on its wings and plunge you to the depths of feeling. This novel is crucial for our times: although set during the Great Depression and the terrible dust bowls, it holds up a mirror to our current world and asks us to look and to understand deeply. It is a story of migration, poverty, prejudice - it shines a light on a crisis that is all too real in today’s world. Yet, it is also a story of love, family, unbreakable bonds, bravery and hope. I will never forget the characters, what they endured and how they hoped and loved. I feel that I will be forever touched by them. I loved this book so much!" —Christy Lefteri, author of THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO

"The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is a captivating, heartbreaking tale of a family who will do anything for each other — and everything to survive. The strength of Hannah’s prose brings the characters to life in a way that will make you unable to tear yourself away from them. You will celebrate their triumphs, mourn their tragedies, and commend their bravery.

Through it all, it is easy to feel Hannah’s desire to honor those who lived and fought through this devastating time in history. The Four Winds is also an ode to the strength and ferocity of mothers, and a declaration that sometimes, love is the only thing that holds us together.

Above all else, The Four Winds is merely a really good story, one that hits you in all the right places and will keep surprising you until the end."—Associated Press

"One woman’s journey exemplifies the hard choices families faced when confronted with survival versus a sense of home."—GoodMorningAmerica.com

"Hannah brings Dust Bowl migration to life in this riveting story of love, courage, and sacrifice...combines gritty realism with emotionally rich characters and lyrical prose that rings brightly and true from the first line"— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Outstanding.... [A] rich, rewarding read about family ties, perseverance, and women's friendships and fortitude." — Booklist (starred review)

"The Four Winds is a sweeping epic about an American struggling to keep her family afloat. It feels eerily timely as it highlights the ways women rally during a national crisis."—Real Simple

"A heartbreaking but beautiful story of sacrifice, courage, love, and hope. Grab the tissues."—The Skimm

From the Publisher

★ 11/09/2020

Hannah (The Great Alone) brings Dust Bowl migration to life in this riveting story of love, courage, and sacrifice. In 1934 Texas, after four years of drought, the Martinelli farm is no longer thriving, but Elsa is attached to the land and her in-laws, and she works tirelessly and cares for her children, 12-year-old Loreda and seven-year-old Anthony. Her husband, Rafe, has become distant and something of a hard drinker, and after he abandons them, Elsa reluctantly leaves with her children for California with the promise of steady work. Her dreams of a better future are interrupted by the discrimination they face in the unwelcoming town of Welty, where they are forced to live in a migrant camp and work for extremely low wages picking cotton. When Elsa’s meager wages are further reduced and she has the opportunity to join striking workers, she must decide whether to face the dangers of standing up for herself and her fellow workers. Hannah combines gritty realism with emotionally rich characters and lyrical prose that rings brightly and true from the first line (“Hope is a coin I carry: an American penny, given to me by a man I came to love”). In Elsa, a woman who fiercely defends her principles and those she loves, Hannah brilliantly revives the ghost of Tom Joad. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 02/01/2021

Elsa Wolcott was stricken with rheumatic fever at 14 and was subsequently sheltered by her parents. Skinny, unusually tall, and thought to be too fragile to engage in routine activities, she had only books as her companions. She turns 25 in 1921; her family sees her as an unattractive spinster. When Elsa boldly escapes the confines of her home seeking excitement, she meets a young Italian man named Rafe Martinelli, which alters her path. Soon, she is living on a wheat farm in the Texas Panhandle, embracing her new life. This exquisite novel follows Elsa through nearly two decades of hardship, including the Dust Bowl, droughts, the Great Depression, migrant farming in California, and a devastating flood. VERDICT Through Elsa's eyes, readers travel through the Great Depression era and experience firsthand the difficulties faced in the Great Plains. Historical fiction readers will become immersed in this poignant story by Hannah (The Nightingale; The Great Alone) and will enjoy witnessing Elsa's transformation from fragile, insecure girl to fearless, resilient woman.—Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Library Journal