THE FOUR WINDS
Kristin Hannah
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St. Martin's Press
3/14/23
Historical Fiction
Paperback, 480 pages
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"A spectacular tour de force."
-People
"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
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A powerful American epic about love, 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 land is bountiful, and America is on the brink of a new 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, 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.
A rich, sweeping novel that brings to life the Great Depression, the people who lived through it, the harsh realities that divided a nation, and the enduring battle between the haves and the have-nots. 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.
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Dear Reader,
A few years ago, I began writing this novel about hard times in America: the worst environmental disaster in our history; the collapse of the economy; the effect of massive unemployment. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that the Great Depression would become so relevant in our modern lives, that I would see so many people out of work, in need, and frightened for the future.
As we know, there are lessons to be learned from history. Hope to be derived from hardships
faced by others.
We’ve gone through bad times before and survived, even thrived. History has shown us the strength and durability of the human spirit. In the end, it is our idealism and our courage, and our commitment to one another—what we have in common—that will save us. Now, in these dark days, we can look to history, to the legacy of the Greatest Generation and the story of our own past, and take strength from it.
Although my novel focuses on fictional characters, Elsa Martinelli is representative of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who went west in the 1930s in search of a better life.
Many of them, like the pioneers who went west one hundred years before them, brought nothing more than a will to survive and a hope for a better future. Their strength and courage were remarkable.
In writing this story, I tried to present the history as truthfully as possible. The strike that takes place in the novel is fictional, but it is based on strikes that took place in California in the thirties. The town of Welty is fictional as well. Primarily where I diverged from the historical record was in the timeline of events. There are instances in which I chose to manipulate dates to better fit my fictional narrative. I apologize in advance to historians and scholars of the era.
For more information about the Dust Bowl years, the migrant experience in California, and a suggested reading list. please visit my website.
Happy Reading,
Kristin Hannah
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THE FOUR WINDS
Book Club Menu
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When we first meet Elsa, she and her mother are preparing for a society potluck, where her classic family recipes, including molasses cake, are served to the upper crust of Dalhalt, Texas. The sweetness of the cake belies the cold correctness she experiences from her family—a correctness that explodes in light of her pregnancy.
While unexpected, Elsa’s pregnancy brings her not just the love of her life in daughter Loreda, but also a warm, found family environment with Rafe's parents. They teach her a love of the land they live on, as well as homemade Italian classics, like arancini, chickpea panelle, and ricotta cassada.
-Kristin Hannah
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