The Nightingale follows the travails of two sisters in WWII era France. Vianne Mauriac is the timid, steady sister and Isabelle is the impetuous spitfire. After the death of their beloved maman, they are sent to live at Le Jardin, the Mauriac country home in Carriveau. Their papa, who has never been the same since coming back from the trenches of WWI, is unable to cope with the loss and he puts his two young daughters in the care of the cold and imperious Madame Dumas. Vianne soon meets Antoine, and after becoming pregnant, marries him amd assumes ownership of Le Jardin and the care of her younger sister. After a miscarriage and in a deep depression, she sends Isabelle back to her father in Paris. This begins a cycle of abandonment in the eyes of Isabelle, as she is shipped off to various boarding schools.
At age 19, she is thrown out of her last school. At the outbreak of war, her exasperated father sends her to live with Vianne and her daughter Sophie, as Antoine has been called up and shipped off to the front. At first there is not much worry, as the majority of the populace believe the Maiginot Line will hold. When Petain surrenders and moves the government to Free France, Isabelle is more than skeptical and when she hears De Gaulle speaking on the wireless about the need for resistance, she makes up her mind to fight. Vianne just wants to keep the staus quo, desperate for her husband to return. When the Germans assume control of their village, an officer is assigned to billet in their home and the sisters are more at odds then ever. The choice is remaining in the home with the German officer or giving up the property entirely.
This was a pleasant, quick read, in interesting view of the war at home and how two extraordinary Frenchwomen faced the challenges of Occupied France.
