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The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Historical fiction

The Four Winds

Book of the year

Each year thousands of members vote for our Book of the Year award—congrats to The Four Winds!

Repeat author

Kristin Hannah is back at Book of the Month – other BOTMs include The Great Alone and The Nightingale and The Women.

by Kristin Hannah

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Volume 0
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Yes, she’s embroidered.

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Quick take

From the Texas plains to the California coast, this Depression-era tale follows a family striving for a better life.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, 400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Rugged

    Rugged

  • Illustrated icon, Marriage_Issues

    Marriage issues

  • Illustrated icon, Quest

    Quest

Synopsis

Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. 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.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of The Four Winds.

The Four Winds

Prologue

Hope is a coin I carry: an American penny, given to me by a man I came to love. There were times in my journey when it felt as if that penny and the hope it represented were the only things that kept me going.

I came west in search of a better life, but my American dream was turned into a nightmare by poverty and hardship and greed. These past few years have been a time of things lost: Jobs. Homes. Food.

The land we loved turned on us, broke us all, even the stubborn old men who used to talk about the weather and congratulate each other on the season’s bumper wheat crop. A man’s got to fight out here to make a living, they’d say to each other.

A man.

It was always about the men. They seemed to think it meant nothing to cook and clean and bear children and tend gardens. But we women of the Great Plains worked from sunup to sundown, too, toiled on wheat farms until we were as dry and baked as the land we loved. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I swear I can still taste the dust...

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Why I love it

You will not be able to put The Four Winds down. Literally. I’m a working mom with three young kids, and I read this 450-page book in 36 hours. The characters are unforgettable, the storytelling is captivating, and the parallels to life right now are notable. It is Kristin Hannah at her absolute best.

The Four Winds takes readers to the Dust Bowl, where Elsa Martinelli lives with her in-laws, drunk husband, and two young children. Struggling to survive in every way—physically, mentally, and emotionally—Elsa must make hard choices for the sake and well-being of her children. Should her family stay and try to survive the drought or head west to California, where word of work, sun, and prosperity seem like the Promiseland? Spanning two decades, The Four Winds is a portrait of the grit, courage and sacrifices made by ordinary people trying to achieve the American Dream.

The Four Winds speaks to our deepest desires—to be loved and wanted, to be understood, and to make a difference. I found myself drawn to the gamut of emotions the characters experienced and was moved to tears at multiple points. As in The Great Alone, the land is like an extra character in the book, adding depth and complexity to the story. Kristin Hannah clearly did her research, making this the kind of historical fiction you want to press into the hands of all your friends. It is a masterpiece, and I’m already certain it will be one of my top books of 2021.

Other books by Kristin Hannah

Member ratings (71,442)

Historical fiction
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
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Husbands & Lovers
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The Storm We Made
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River Sing Me Home
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The Four Winds
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The Fountains of Silence
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The Great Believers
The Clockmaker's Daughter
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Historical fiction
View all
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
The Women
Husbands & Lovers
Shelterwood
A Thousand Times Before
All We Were Promised
Spitting Gold
The Seventh Veil of Salome
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
The Great Divide
The Storm We Made
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
Lessons in Chemistry
The Frozen River
What We Kept to Ourselves
Take My Hand
The Last Russian Doll
The First Ladies
The House Is On Fire
River Sing Me Home
The Attic Child
Malibu Rising
The Book of Longings
Hester
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
The Nightingale
Daisy Jones & The Six
The Lincoln Highway
The Secret Book of Flora Lea
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
The Circus Train
Peach Blossom Spring
Hang the Moon
Booth
The Good Left Undone
The Perishing
The Family
Things We Lost to the Water
The Spectacular
Still Life
Send for Me
The Magnolia Palace
The Bookbinder
China Room
This Tender Land
Atomic Love
All the Light We Cannot See
The Vanishing Half
Outlawed
The Four Winds
Independence
The Fountains of Silence
Libertie
Queen of Thieves
The Great Believers
The Clockmaker's Daughter
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Great Alone
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Rules of Civility
Circling the Sun
The Moor's Account
Jacqueline in Paris
Don't Cry for Me
The Christie Affair
Bloomsbury Girls
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Bronze Drum