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How much of Nightingale is true?

Nat Conn
Nat Conn
2025-05-12 14:31:14
Count answers: 4
Although this is a historical fictional novel, it feels all too real. Hannah’s characters are loosely based on real people, as Isabelle was inspired by resistance pioneer Andrée de Jongh, and the events that take place in the story mirror World War II with accuracy. Through immense research about the war and thorough investigation of Andrée de Jongh’s legacy, Hannah paints an incredibly authentic story of unbridled bravery and determination.
Rosalia Kilback
Rosalia Kilback
2025-05-12 13:18:25
Count answers: 3
Although “The Nightingale” is fiction, it is rooted in truth. Hannah based Isabelle’s character on a Belgian woman, Andrée de Jongh, who risked her life helping downed Allied pilots escape Nazi-occupied France and Belgium on foot. Unlike the fiction, dystopian or fantasy books that I read, “The Nightingale” has undeniable historical truth. This story takes place during a brutal war, and I think it’s important to see the truth in history and not sugarcoat it. “The Nightingale” is not romanticizing their lives; no one would want to trade places.
Nicholas Hills
Nicholas Hills
2025-05-12 12:40:35
Count answers: 2
In truth, I did everything I could not to write this novel. But when research on World War II led me to the story of a young Belgian woman who had created an escape route out of Nazi-Occupied France, I was hooked. Her story—one of heroism and danger and unbridled courage—inspired me to imagine the women in that world. I had to keep digging, discovering, reading, and that story led me to others that were equally fascinating. Stories about women who had saved Jewish children and rescued downed airmen and put themselves in harm’s way to save others. Women who had paid terrible, unimaginable prices for their heroism. Their stories were impossible to ignore. In war, women’s stories are all too often forgotten or overlooked. The Nightingale is a novel about those women and the daring, dangerous choices they made to save their children and their way of life.