The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Book starts out with a listing of the author's other works, dedication and prologue where we learn about the penny that has hope for one's new life in US.
1921 and we start out in TX and Elsa has been raised to be very poor in health so the parents keep her safe at home.
Her sisters are beautiful and are married and out in the world. Elsa wants to be more like them so she does a few things to her hair and dress and spends the night at a speakeasy where she meets a boy.
She meets him more over time and before you know it she's with child. What I hated to read was that her father dropped her off at the boys house for them to take care of the daughter and child.
She was from a very well to do banker family and knows nothing of preparing meals and doing chores. She is thankful to learn how to do everything.
Rafe is tired of TX life and the droughts cause him to just up and leave to head to CA. They don't hear from him and the youngest boy needs to be relocated for his health so she packs up the kids and heads west also, leaving the grandparents behind.
Terrifying hearing of the nights spent on the road and passing through the desert. When they reach CA things are not what they expected and Elsa is NOT afraid to work. She meets a wonderful woman in camp who gives her information about how to survive.
She did scrub a woman's house from top to bottom til 6pm one day and got 40 cents. She puts the kids in school and while searching for work she tries to also find Rafe.
Fell in love with this side of CA during the depression reading about it from John Steinbecks stories so to me this is an added plus to continue on with the story coming from a different irrespective.
Hard times hits them front and center and just when you think they are getting ahead you realize they are not. They realize it also and the daughter goes to do something about it.
So many emotions and I love hearing of the travels and the places they went through on their way to follow their dreams.
Tragic times and love hearing about how they survived through it all. Love hearing of the strikes during the time as the land owners were in control and could set the price of a picker for the day...
Never saw the ending happening as it did but was so glad Ledora gets to bring it all full circle and move on with her life as she gets older.
Received this review copy from St. Martin's Press via publicist via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
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