The Four Winds

"The best-selling hardcover novel of the year." - Publishers Weekly

From the bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Loneliness comes a moving American epic of love, heroism, and hope, set during the Great Depression, a time when the country was in crisis and at war with itself, when millions were out of work, and even the earth seemed to have turned against them.

"My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family."

Texas, 1921. A time of plenty. World War I is over, the land is bountiful, and America is on the cusp of a new and optimistic age. But for Elsa Wolcott, considered too old for marriage in a time when marriage was the only option for women, the future looks bleak. Until the night she meets Ravi Martinelli and decides to change the course of her life. With her reputation in tatters, she has only one respectable option left: marry a man she barely knows. By 1934, the world has changed; millions are unemployed, and drought has ravaged the Great Plains. Farmers struggle to maintain their land and livelihoods as crops fail, water runs dry, and the earth cracks. Dust Bowls rage relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli ranch is dying, including Elsa's fragile marriage. Every day is a desperate battle against nature and a struggle to keep her children alive. In this difficult and perilous time, Elsa—like her neighbors—finds herself a painful choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it and head west to California in search of a better life for her family. A rich and sweeping novel, Four Winds stunningly captures the Great Depression and the people who lived through it, the harsh reality that divided us as a nation, and the ongoing battle between rich and poor. Capturing hope, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity, Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of an indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice would define an entire generation.