The Women

Author: Kristin Hannah
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2024
Pages: 480
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets - and becomes one of - the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protestors, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

Review: While I have loved Hannah's last few novels, I wasn't 100% onboard with reading a novel set in Vietnam. However, I had loved Robert Dugoni's, While the World Played Chess so I knew I needed to give The Women a chance. 

From the first few pages, I was hooked. Really hooked. I started reading in late afternoon, and I had to set the novel down to sleep, but otherwise I would have been able to read the whole thing in one day. 

The novel opens with a graduation party on Coronado Island, a place I just visited this past October, and Hannah does a great job describing the characters and the setting. I felt like I was at the party, and I so wish I had been. From there, her characters travel to Vietnam and eventually back home again. What a story! How does one follow up reading a novel such as this? This novel is perfection.

Other Kristin Hannah Novels
Angel Falls
Home Front
Summer Island
The Enchantment
The Four Winds
The Great Alone
The Nightingale
True Colors