The Nightingale has been published in 43 languages and will be made into a movie by
TriStar Pictures. Hannah has been writing novels for almost 30 years, she spent 2 years writing
The Nightingale. Our next book discussion will be April 4th and you guessed it - we are
discussing The Nightingale.
Who is Kristin Hannah?
Hannah thought she would grow up to be a Ballet dancer. She wears her mom's
engagement diamond on a chain around her neck, her favorite vacation spot is Botswana and
Italy, her guilty pleasures "cosmopolitans and massages." Hannah's favorite book is
To Kill a Mockingbird and The Shadow of the Wind; and, growing up her favorite books were
The Lord of the Rings, Dune, the Oz books, everything by Roald Dahl and everything by
S.E. Hinton.
Hannah prefers writing longhand and being on the beach. A book never feels "done" but
the ending is there when she becomes exhausted or the deadline appears.
Preferring to write books that are character driven rather than plot driven, she enjoys
discovering her characters as the story line unfolds. "I write because it frees something
in me...It allows me to be the wife/mother/friend I want to be, with plenty of time for the
people I care about, while still giving me something that's mine, something that defines
me as an individual."
When Hannah was 25, she was a law student by day, and attentive daughter at night, as
her mother (age 46) was dying of breast cancer in a Seattle hospital. To pass the time,
they began to write a book together, a romance book, a genre her mother favored. Her mother
saw this as a future career for Hannah, "She said I would become a writer." After losing
her mother, Hannah put the fledgling novel away. Two years later Hannah was pregnant,
confined to bed rest for five months, and watching daytime television shows. To distract
her from The Price is Right, her husband encouraged a return to writing. Hannah discovered
that she wanted to be a stay at home mom, and she wanted to be an author (Mom was
right!). Hannah sold her first novel when her son was 2 years old, and since then has
published a book a year. The early novels were published in paperback but Hannah's
On Mystic Lake was her breakout to the more esteemed hardcover market.
Our next book discussion will be The Nightingale. Here is Hannah's explanation to
the stimulus behind the book:
"While reading women's war stories, I came across the true story of a 19 -year old
Belgian woman who created an escape route out of Nazi-occupied France. Her
name was Andree De Jongh and her story --one of heroism and loss and unbridled
courage -- inspired me to write The Nightingale."