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| Categories | Genre Fiction |
| Author | Kristin Hannah |
| Publisher | St. Martin’s Press; American First edition (February 6, 2024) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 480 pages |
| Item Weight | 1.59 pounds |
| Dimensions |
6.65 x 1.45 x 9.55 inches |
I. Book introduction
The Women is a historical fiction novel by American author Kristin Hannah published by St. Martin’s Press in 2024. The book tells the story of Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a young nurse who serves in the United States Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War. The novel debuted at number one on The New York Times fiction best-seller list.
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.
But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.
Background and inspiration
Hannah first came up with the idea for the novel 20 years prior to its publication. The story centered on a nurse and was initially a love story. She would occasionally revisit the project only put it aside again. She began to work on it in early 2020, shortly after completing her novel The Four Winds. It was developed during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic while she was confined to her home on a small island outside Seattle.
The book was inspired by Hannah’s experience growing up during the war era, which she says “cast a huge shadow across [her] life”. She was influenced by the public protests, marches, and social division about the war at the time as well as the later treatment of veterans upon returning home. In an interview with LibraryThing, Hannah commented:
For years, I wanted to write about the turbulence and chaos and division of the times, but it wasn’t until the pandemic, when I was on lockdown in Seattle, confined to my home essentially, and watching our nurses and doctors serving on the front lines of the pandemic, becoming exhausted amid the political division of the time that it all came together for me. That’s when I knew I was ready to write about the women who served in the war and were forgotten at home.
Hannah also spoke about wearing a silver prisoner of war bracelet when she was about 10 years old, one which commemorated her close friend’s father who had been shot down as pilot in the war. Her friend’s father never returned home, and she wore the bracelet for many years, and as a result “was reminded of him and his service and war each day.”In the book, after attending a march by Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Washington, D.C., Frankie encounters two volunteers for the National League of POW/MIA Families, from whom she buys a silver cuff bracelet on which the name of a missing soldier and the date of his disappearance are engraved: “Maj. Robert Welch 1-16-1967.”
In her research, Hannah read several memoirs by nurses who served in Vietnam, many of whom experienced difficulty adjusting to civilian life and were afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Hannah chose Frankie to be the novel’s central character, as opposed to fellow combat nurses Ethel or Barb, partly due to Frankie’s naivete and Southern California origin, which Hannah felt she could empathize with due to her own upbringing in Garden Grove, California.
About Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah (born September 25, 1960) is an American writer. Her most notable works include Winter Garden, The Nightingale, Firefly Lane, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds. In 2024, St. Martin’s Publishing Group published her novel, The Women, which is set in America in the 1960s.
Kristin Hannah was born in California. After graduating with a degree in communication from the University of Washington, Hannah worked at an advertising agency in Seattle. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound law school and practiced law in Seattle before becoming a full-time writer. Hannah wrote her first novel with her mother, who was dying of cancer at the time, but the book was never published.
Hannah’s best-selling work, The Nightingale, has sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide and has been published in 45 languages.
Hannah lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with her husband and their son.
II. Reviewer: The Women
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1. EMILY MAY reviews for The Women
Women can be heroes.
4 1/2 stars. Kristin Hannah certainly knows how to take a sledgehammer to your heart and she is NOT afraid to do it.
Hannah’s reads are so powerful and harrowing that I can forgive a few negatives, like here I think the major plot points of the story are quite predictable– yet they still hit me like a ton of bricks, their impact not lessened by the fact I’d seen them coming. Maybe this one was easier to predict as I’m getting used to the author’s formula. Her novels take us to vastly different times and places but she uses similar tricks to engage the reader. I’m not complaining: it works.
This book is an epic on women in the Vietnam War. Hannah introduces us to bright-eyed and naive nurse Frances “Frankie” McGrath, who longs for a place on her father’s “Hero’s Wall” and so volunteers for service in Vietnam.
It is an understatement to say she didn’t know what she was getting into. Frankie finds herself in hell on Earth, struggling to help put together men who have been blown apart, watching Vietnamese children die from napalm burns, losing friends for a cause none of them even understand. Those sensitive to graphic depictions of injuries should steer clear– as a nurse in Vietnam, Frankie witnesses some of the most horrific things in our world.
“We’ve developed the skills to save their bodies, but not their lives,” Captain Smith said.
But this is not just a story about the war itself. It is a story of a young woman’s growth, aging impossibly in a short amount of time. Her friends, Barb and Ethel, keep her spirits up at the worst times, and the funny dialogue between them is a major highlight of the novel. She falls in love and this, too, gives her hope for the future.
How could she go from red alert sirens and saving lives to butter knives and champagne?
Only half of this story is set in Vietnam; the other half is about coming home and living afterwards. It’s not easy to say which one is more difficult. There was no hero’s welcome for those returning from Vietnam. Veterans were cursed at and spat on. Many were left with irreparable damage from their time in the war. For some, it was the loss of a limb. For many, it was the loss of something harder to explain. While psychiatric help began to be offered, it was typically for male veterans.
As with several of Hannah’s other books, she once again shines a light on the women who have been erased from history. The female veterans she spoke with for this book told her how they often heard “There were no women in Vietnam.” I cannot imagine how it must feel to risk your life, sacrifice your youth and peace of mind, and be told that it didn’t even happen.
Another horrible, ugly, powerful book from one of my must-read authors.
As well as graphic injuries, this may not be suitable to those sensitive to depictions of substance abuse and miscarriage.
2. DANILA reviews for The Women
One of the most interesting aspects of “The Women” is the themes Kristin explores, such as courage, resilience, and the lasting impact of military service on those who serve. Hannah writes vividly about the camaraderie between the women, their battles, and their triumphs, and together the stories are a rich tapestry of human emotions and experiences.
I discovered that there is audiobook format of this book and I can honestly say that audiobook it was an enlightening and fascinating experience.
There is also a societal aspect to the book that looks at the challenges that these women faced when they returned, fighting to be recognized and honored in a society that often devalued their contributions. The development of Frankie character and her bonds with the other nurses is powerfully hopeful and devastating.
This book is perfect for readers who have an interest in historical fiction and will be particularly appreciated for those interested in hearing a fuller story of women during the Vietnam War. Kristin Hannah has written a truly meaningful tribute to these silent heroes, and this story will touch its readers in lasting ways.
Not only is it a captivating story with strongly developed characters, but it also recognizes the value, strength, and resilience of women. Highly recommended.
3. CANADIAN JEN reviews for The Women
The Women was divine. Hannah’s writing has matured much like a fine wine. Each of her stories becoming richer, more complex, multi-layered.
The Women is a tribute to the many unsung female nurses who served in the Vietnam War. Frankie, 20, has graduated nursing school and has enlisted. Although green, her nursing skills sharpen during her 2 tours. However when she returns home, the welcome isn’t a warm one.
The brevity and courage these veterans had. Not only fighting for their lives over seas, but fighting for their own recognition at home amid a storm of protests and division. The sacrifices made. The lies told.
Hannah masterly develops a character from a young naive girl, to a professional combat nurse, to a veteran returning home experiencing many of the symptoms men did- except many unaware women even served. Grief, PTSD, shame, addiction and healing.
5⭐️ Hannah, you knocked it out of the park.
4. KAREN reviews for The Women
Another fantastic book by Kristin Hannah
I haven’t read much about the Vietnam War.. but, I was born in ‘58 and as a young girl I remember seeing the horrific video and images on the nightly news and.. fortunately for me.. I only knew of one older cousin who got drafted to go to war.
Most everything we saw before, during, and after the war was about the men who were there.. of course it was the men who saw combat.. but women were there too… the nurses trying to patch up mutilated bodies, being alongside the dying as they took their last breaths..the women also endured a lot!
This is the story of the WOMEN… a few of them.. mostly about a young girl Frankie, who after her brother enlisted.. she followed him and was a war nurse in the Army.
I loved the story, mostly the first half that took place in Vietnam during wartime.
So much about this story took me back to those days.. the riots, the political landscape, the war protests, the mention of certain songs.
Wonderful!
Thank you to Netgalley and St Martins Press for the ARC!
5. JENNY WRIGHT reviews for The Women
A Riveting tender heartwrenching Hopeful Must Read
I could not put this book down . It was constantly in my thoughts, immersing me into the lives of American combat nurses’ doctors and soldiers selflessly serving in the jungles of Southeast Asia during a volatile era. The writing is vivid and brings the conflicting complex emotions surrounding the Viet Nam war into sharp relief.
The characters are convincing and diverse. The book is well researched and bone chilling in its harrowing depiction of the trauma nurses suffered during war as well as the shame and humiliation they faced once they returned home—trauma compounding trauma.
I agree with other readers that even if you are not a reader of historical fiction, this is a well-crafted compelling masterpiece that will draw you into unparalleled depths and breadths of compassion and understanding about these women and the vital role, they played saving and comforting military men serving in Viet Nam. ‘The ending was an outstanding stroke of hope and brilliance.
“The Women” is the best of the many notable books I’ve read this year. It left me with a burning urge to discuss with others who also loved this book.
6. ROBYN A. CHUMLEY reviews for The Women
As one who served in multiple deployments—including 14 months as an Air Force warrior at Al Udeid—I read Kristin Hannah’s book with a different slant. I understand her passion to serve. I understand how chaos and confusion startled her once her feet were on the ground. I understand her view of oh-so-many soldiers who died and didn’t die. I understand her need to fall for someone. I understand her connections with Barb and all the other patriots she served with. What an utterly brilliant book! It’s filled with so much love and hate, lust and love, desire and disgust. Highly recommend!
7. TESS JONES reviews for The Women
The Women – An intense book worth a read
Innocent Frankie enrolls as a combat nurse to serve her country, not anticipating it would thrust her into a heart-wrenching environment of young men dying, a constant stream of violence and no rules as she saved lives, even stitching up the wounded alongside the surgeons. She becomes best friends with two women, who support her through a rough reentry to life after return, where the country, her nursing peers, and even her own parents rejected those who served. To make matters worse she is told repeatedly that women weren’t in the Vietnam War, invalidating her experience.
Following along through the ups and downs of Frankie’s life story as a combat nurse who served in Vietnam (and the years after returning home) was gripping, heart-wrenching, and eye-opening. It was a moving account of what life must have been like and a story that will remain with me for many years.
TW: The first section of the book is intense, set at a combat hospital.
Themes: Female friendship, coming of age during the Vietnam War, romance, heartbreak, addiction and recovery, family relationships
8. KERRIN reviews for The Women
Around 1971 or 1972, when I was 11 or 12, I began wearing a POW/MIA bracelet. At that age, I thought it was the “cool” thing to do. I wore it constantly, even when the cheap nickel turned my wrist green. Finally, it broke in half and I threw it away. Now that I am older, I wish that I had kept it and found out what happened to the man whose name I wore. Author Kristin Hannah, who is a few years younger, still remembers the name on the bracelet she wore. Unfortunately, her soldier never returned. Now, she has written a powerful book about the forgotten women who served in Vietnam.
Frances “Frankie” McGrath was raised in an affluent home on Coronado Island, CA. When her older brother goes to Vietnam, Frankie enlists as a nurse so she can go, too. At 21 years old, she is wholly unprepared for the violence of war but quickly rises to the occasion. After her return home, she struggles with hatred of those who oppose the war, her family’s shame of her service, and the common misperception that no women served in Vietnam.
Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group has preemptively acquired rights to The Women. It will make an excellent movie or mini-series.
4.5-Stars. The only thing that kept me from giving it the full 5-stars was that Frankie went from one bad thing to another, and then would still make self-defeating choices. It got exhausting at times.
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
9. KATIE reviews for The Women
Kristen Hannah is a masterful storyteller. If you are a lover of historical fiction, Kristin Hannah is probably an auto-read author for you. If you normally shy away from historical fiction but are interested in trying it out, I would start with one of her books. Her ability to transport the reader to another time and immerse you into the culture of the era is unmatched. I find I always leave her books heartbroken, hopeful, and hungry for more, and The Women is no exception.
This story focuses on 20-year-old Frankie McGrath, who decides to leave her idyllic life as a dutiful daughter and sister in Coronado, California, and enlist in the Army Nurse Corps. While the book is focused on Frankie, it really tells the story of the often unsung heroes of the war: the women who were in Vietnam. We get to experience Frankie’s journey to the war zone, her time there, and the heartbreaking return home.
Hannah’s books are simultaneously long yet quick reads. Her characters get their hooks in you, and it’s hard to think of anything else. I love historical fiction because it teaches you so much while telling a very entertaining story. It combines the best parts of non-fiction and fiction wrapped together. The Women is definitely a heavier read, but I can’t recommend it enough. It’s the perfect book club book.
What’s your favorite Kristin Hannah book?! I need to add more of her work to my TBR!
10. CHERI reviews for The Women
’The missing. The forgotten. The brave… The women.’
I turned two less than a week before this war began, and it lasted until after I graduated high school, into my college years, but I don’t remember seeing regular news about it until my Jr. High / High school years, shortly before a boy I knew was leaving soon to go there, and who told me that when he returned he would marry me – we hadn’t even dated. A month or so later, his body was returned.
This story revolves around that war, and a family that has already been scarred by war. A father whose office is filled with memories of war, proud of his service. A son who wanted to follow in his footsteps, and a daughter who wants to follow in her brother’s footsteps, despite both her parents disapproval. She imagines it is what he would have wanted her to do, and so she joins the Army Nurse Corps, and leaves her safe home on Coronado Island for Vietnam.
What she finds in Vietnam is very different from what she had imagined, from the housing units to the weather, and the things she will see over her time there. The horror. The exhaustion. The endless hours trying to save lives, sometimes with a life saved, and other times, just being there to hold their hand or just be there so she could write to their parents and let them know their son was not alone when he passed. She feels that it is the least she can do. And, to keep them all from focusing on the horror endlessly, there are times when they manage to have some fun, dance, drink and try to forget the things that they’ve seen that haunt them.
The women who served there came home to a country that had changed. When she told people, men, that she’d served in Vietnam, they would respond by saying there were no women who had served in Vietnam. The skills she’d learned there as a nurse, including surgeries she performed, were not recognized when she returned home, and so she was relegated to performing skills like emptying bedpans.
This was a beautiful, if often heartbreaking story of war, the aftermath of war, the friendships formed there that remember it all, and will remain a part of their lives forever.
Pub Date: 06 Feb 2024
Many thanks for the ARC provided by St. Martin’s Press
III. The Women Quotes
The best book quotes from The Women by Kristin Hannah
“Thank God for girlfriends. In this crazy, chaotic, divided world that was run by men, you could count on the women.”
“The women had a story to tell, even if the world wasn’t quite yet ready to hear it, and their story began with three simple words. We were there.”
“We were the last believers, my generation. We trusted what our parents taught us about right and wrong, good and evil, the American myth of equality and justice and honor. I wonder if any generation will ever believe again. People will say it was the war that shattered our lives and laid bare the beautiful lie we’d been taught. And they’d be right. And wrong. There was so much more. It’s hard to see clearly when the world is angry and divided and you’re being lied to.”
“Women can be heroes.”
“Words were creators of worlds; you had to be careful with them.”
“In this crazy, chaotic, divided world that was run by men, you could count on the women.”
“there was never enough time with the people who mattered.”
“Maybe happy now, happy for a moment, is all we really get. Happy forever seems a shitload to ask in a world on fire.”
“I imagine it would feel wonderful to be good at something that mattered. That is something that too many of the women of my generation didn’t consider.”
“That was the starting and ending point in life: love. The journey was everything in between.”
“From here, the war was almost beautiful. Maybe that was a fundamental truth: War looked one way for those who saw it from a safe distance. Close up, the view was different”
“The women had a story to tell, even if the world wasn’t quite yet ready to hear it, and their story began with three simple words. We were there.”
“We laugh so we don’t cry.”
“Love. A thing to be shouted from the rooftops, celebrated, not cultivated in secret and clipped into shape in the dark.”
“The old white men who run this country are scared. And people do stupid, ugly things when they’re scared.” She leaned close. “But they’re counting on their power and our fear.”
“The world changes for men, Frances. For women, it stays pretty much the same.”
“He was giving her that look—she knew it now—sadness wrapped in compassion, wrapped in understanding”
“Welcome to the Thirty-Sixth Evac Hospital, McGrath. Be the best version of yourself.”
“At twenty-five, Frankie moved with the kind of caution that came with age; she was constantly on guard, aware that something bad could happen at any moment. She trusted neither the ground beneath her feet nor the sky above her head. Since coming home from war, she had learned how fragile she was, how easily upended her emotions could be.”
“regrets were a waste of time. If only was the bend in a troubling road. She learned day by day how to navigate through life, keep going, keep moving forward.”
“She wouldn’t be surprised if those death stares would be a part of them forever now. Men staring into a world they no longer were a part of, no longer comprehended, a world where the ground beneath your feet exploded. Another kind of casualty.”
“Apparently, when Walter Cronkite reported on the Tet carnage, he’d said—on air—“What the hell is going on? I thought we were winning the war.”
“Love mattered in this ruined world, but so did honor. What was one without the other?”
“You deserve to be loved, Frankie. In that forever kind of way. Don’t forget that.”
“For a moment she held back, but the effort it took felt toxic, as if the stories she wanted to share might turn to poison inside of her.”
“Maybe that was why people built walls: to look away, to ignore anything they didn’t want to see.”
“This war has … stretched the generation gap so wide that it threatens to pull the country apart.”
“Some things don’t bear the weight of words. That’s the problem with your generation, you all want to talk, talk, talk. What is the point?”
“So. I am not coming home next month. I have signed up for another one-year tour of duty. I simply can’t leave my post when the men need me. We don’t have enough experienced staff here. There. I can hear you screaming. If you knew me now, you’d understand. I am a combat nurse.”
“The question was, how? How did you get through grief, how did you want to live again when you couldn’t imagine what that life could be, how you could be happy again?”
“There are men going home to their families because of us. That’s about all we can hope for.” He moved closer. “Come on, I’ll buy you a drink.” “I don’t really drink.”
“Maybe that was a fundamental truth: War looked one way for those who saw it from a safe distance. Close up, the view was different.”
“Most of us have made too many decisions based on other people. We need to do what we need to do. But we’ve been silenced for too long, invisible for too many years.”
“There’s no going back, Frankie. You have to find a way to go forward, become the new you.”
“The question was, how? How did you get through grief, how did you want to live again when you couldn’t imagine what that life could be, how you could be happy again?”
“There are men going home to their families because of us. That’s about all we can hope for.” He moved closer. “Come on, I’ll buy you a drink.” “I don’t really drink.”
“So. I am not coming home next month. I have signed up for another one-year tour of duty. I simply can’t leave my post when the men need me. We don’t have enough experienced staff here. There. I can hear you screaming. If you knew me now, you’d understand. I am a combat nurse.”
“Some things don’t bear the weight of words. That’s the problem with your generation, you all want to talk, talk, talk. What is the point?”
Excerpted from The Women by Kristin Hannah
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