Book Review: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

I checked out The Four Winds purely on chance. A patron needed help navigating the Libby app for BRIDGES and so I walked her through the download process by checking out The Four Winds. Later that day, as I finished my book on my drive home, I discovered to my horror that I didn’t have another book lined up. So I pulled up The Four Winds without knowing anything about the book. I was pleasantly surprised by this historical fiction book about the Great Depression. The story follows Elsa Martinelli, first when she is a young woman living in her parents’ wealthy family home in Dalhart, Texas to her married life on a farm on the panhandle of Texas, to her life as an Oakie in Welty, California. Elsa is accompanied on her trip to Welty by her two children Ant and Loretta, and their story of survival is heartbreaking at times. Hannah has a reputation for immersive writing and The Four Winds is no different. As you read, you are lost in the world that she describes. This book may leave you in tears, but there is light as well as dark times in this book and it is well worth the tears. It can be found on BRIDGES and in print at the Charles City Public Library.