THE FOUR WINDS: KRISTIN HANNAH

This is the third novel by Hannah that I have read, the other two, The Nightingale and The Great Alone.  What I like about her books is that they are so different from each other, with The Four Winds being no exception. This novel follows the depressing life of Elsa Woolcott who grows up in the Great Plains during the Great Depression when drought and duststorms destroy the livelihood of once-prosperous farmers. Elsa's husband abandons her with two young children, leaving her the difficult choice of staying or setting out for California, the land of promise.  What she finds instead are back-breaking days picking cotton to support her family, living in camps, near-death poverty, and landowners taking advantage of the poor.  She lives, however, by her grandfather's final words: "courage is fear you ignore" and she finally stands up to the owners, organizing and leading a strike to gain liveable wages. It reminded me of John Steinbeck's great novel, The Grapes Of Wrath.