4 ways Kristin Hannah redefined historical fiction
A love letter to Bainbridge Island, Washington
Here are 4 ways I think Kristin Hannah redefined the GOAT genre (I will die on this hill, stay tuned for a post on this), and why I think about her pretty much every time I sit down to write.
Big effort that sounds effortless. She does all the research to invite readers into the all-consuming world she has created without rambling on with every interesting fact she found out. This is the hardest part of historical fiction, to make it seem effortless when, in fact, you have been down hours of rabbit holes into times and places and geeking out on all new interesting facts about what they ate, what they wore and how they spoke. Reading her books feels like learning history without trying, which is the hardest thing to pull off.
Goldilocks language. She lets the story do the work without flowery language. Her language is beautiful but it isn’t over the top. It’s just enough to make you care about the characters and appreciate the writing without too much that your eyes roll because it sounds like someone prompted ChatGPT to write a metaphor for something. It’s not too much, not too little. Just right.
She writes brave women we can actually be. She writes women whose courage comes in different flavours, shapes and sizes. Even in The Nightingale, where bravery was literally in the face of the Nazis and arguably the most 'dramatic’, Vianne is quiet while Isabelle is loud. They make small decisions that show how brave they are and, more importantly, how brave we can be. Living in Israel and raising 4 daughters through this war since October 7, these reminders go a long way.
She plays the long game. She’s patient with her own career the way she’s patient with letting her characters ooze rather than dishing it all out in long prose on page 1. I remember Kristin Hannah saying in an interview that The Nightingale didn’t take off right away. It did fine, not extraordinary, until readers found it after another one of her books became popular. I think about that a lot as I run the marathon with The Spoon and the Sea.
So dear Kristin Hannah… thank you.
My faves: The Nightingale, The Four Winds and The Great Alone