Key themes
- Women's resistance in occupied France
- Sisterhood across difference
- The untold stories of wartime
About this book
Two sisters in German-occupied France take different paths through the war: Vianne shelters Jewish children in her home while her husband is a prisoner of war; Isabelle joins the Resistance and guides downed Allied airmen over the Pyrenees. Hannah's novel about women's wartime experience became one of the most-read historical novels of the decade.
Published in 2015, The Nightingale sold over four million copies and spent over 150 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, becoming one of the most successful historical fiction novels of recent years.
Discussion questions
- The novel follows two sisters who choose very different forms of resistance. What is Hannah saying about the relationship between the visible heroism of physical resistance and the quieter courage of endurance?
- The framing narrative — an old woman looking back — creates dramatic irony throughout. How does knowing this perspective shapes your reading of the wartime sequences?
- Women's wartime stories were for decades less documented than men's. What responsibility does historical fiction carry when it tries to fill these gaps?
- The Nightingale (Juliet de Musset) is a specific historical figure whom Hannah fictionalises. How does the relationship between the fictional and the historical change how you engage with the story?
- The novel was enormously popular with book clubs. What do you think it offers that drives communal reading — what conversations does it open?
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