Is it the story or the storyteller? I’ve just completed a three-month trial with Audible.com. Selecting titles was harder than expected. Unlike picking a book off the shelf, choosing an audiobook involves the content and the reader. And can those readers differ. I sampled a few titles I am itching to read in the hope they’d fit the bill. What I discovered is that tone, cadence and pacing all factor into the audiobook experience. In the sampling process you don’t always have the chance to hear how the reader handles different characters/voices, a critical feature in experiencing the story. As a result, there were several titles I immediately dismissed in this format. There are many people who only “read” via audiobooks. I’m not there and suspect I will only dabble in this medium. But for those are unable to view the written word or prefer listening, there are readers who truly elevate an author’s story.
The day of release I settled on Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale. Hannah has a well-established readership and advance notice suggested this title was going a bit beyond her customary relationship/friendship stories to deal with the French Resistance during the Holocaust. The novel tells a compelling story of sisters and sibling rivalry, of love, friendship and compassion. As a listener, I loved hearing the story switch from Vianne to Isabelle. Polly Stone, the reader, voiced each of the characters, be they French, German, British or American in a way that still let me visualize each one.
With occasional flashbacks, we see the maturation of two very different sisters, each dealing with the trials of life in France during the occupation. The elder sister, Vianne, struggles to support her daughter and herself after her husband is captured while fighting the Germans. Once German officers are billeted in her home, she begins to work surreptitiously to support and save her neighbors who are singled out as Jews or others viewed as undesirables by the Nazi regime. Unknown to Vianne, her younger sister Isabelle joins the Resistance early in the war and becomes a high-value target, known as the Nightingale, for her work moving downed flyers and other escapees across the Pyrenees to Spain.
Hannah beautifully conveys the conflicting feelings of familial love and rejection, romantic love and rejection, security and danger throughout the story. Her novels are lengthy, but in this case I definitely believe the story warrants it. Polly Stone’s reading and characterization brought the story to life. After almost 14 hours of listening, the final hour was at least as captivating as those that came before. I would recommend The Nightingale to a newcomer to Holocaust fiction because of the careful treatment of some of the most sensitive issues.
IN A NUTSHELL
- Genre: Historical Fiction/Holocaust
- Locale: France
- Time: World War II
- Book Group Potential: Excellent
- Caveat: Some scenes of graphic violence consistent with the historical elements of the story.
by 
Yet another for my ever-growing TBR list — thanks!