The Nightingale

A young woman named Vianne Mauriac prepares for a picnic with her husband Antoine and her eight-year-old daughter Sophie. They live in a small town in the Loire Valley called Carriveau, in a summer house (“Le Jardin”) that has belonged to Vianne’s family for centuries. As she gets ready, Vianne tries not to dwell on sad memories of her past: her mother died when she was 14, and her father left her and her then 4-year-old sister Isabelle in the care of a hired woman. Unable to cope with Isabelle’s “cloying, needy loneliness” (8), Vianne sought refuge with her childhood sweetheart Antoine, becoming pregnant and marrying at 17, only to suffer a miscarriage a few months later.

After the family have eaten, Antoine remarks that war looks increasingly likely. Upset, Vianne gathers Sophie to go home, even as Antoine reasons that she “can’t ignore this” (11). Later, as Sophie and Vianne wash dishes, Sophie says her father seemed distracted all day and claims he was thinking about war. Vianne shushes her daughter and assures her there is nothing to worry about as she tucks her into bed. However, when she rejoins her husband in the garden outside, he admits that he has been drafted and is leaving for the army in two days.

Vianne has been deeply frightened of war ever since her father returned from World War I traumatized, distant, and increasingly prone to drinking. Nevertheless, she tries to put on a brave face, insisting that Antoine will be home by winter. Antoine assures Vianne that she is “stronger than [she] think[s]” (16).

The next day, Vianne takes Sophie to visit her neighbor and best friend, Rachel de Champlain. Once there, Vianne and Rachel—whose husband Marc has also been drafted—sit in the garden and do their best to make light of their fears. Rachel has a newborn son, Ari, and confesses that she’s afraid he’ll never know his father, then jokes that Marc is “no good at changing diapers” (19) anyway. The two women promise to support one another whatever happens.

The morning Antoine leaves, he reminds Vianne that he hid all their money in the mattress. Vianne then wakes Sophie, who begs her father not to leave; Antoine replies that he “[has] to be a soldier to keep [her] and Maman safe” (22), but he will return soon. The family drives to Tours, where they take a train to a temporary barracks: “How was it possible that war was coming and that this quaint town with its tumbling flowers and crumbling walls was amassing soldiers to fight?” (23). Antoine says goodbye to his wife and child, and Vianne watches helplessly as he leaves. 

Isabelle Rossignol, Vianne’s 18-year-old sister, is sent to see the headmistress of her finishing school after swearing in front of and then criticizing her teacher. Over the course of the conversation, it emerges that Isabelle has been expelled from several schools; nevertheless, she is unconcerned by her expulsion from this latest one, saying that her father, Julien, only put her there to be rid of her. Furthermore, she says learning “how to eat an orange and when you can spread cheese and who is more important—the second son of a duke or a daughter who won’t inherit or an ambassador to an unimportant country” (29) is trivial in the face of war. Once in Paris, Isabelle’s bravado fades, as she desperately wants to be welcomed home. When Julien meets her at the train station, however, he reacts with tired and impatient resignation.

A week later, Isabelle is late for work at her father’s bookstore; she had been chatting and flirting with a university student, insisting (to his amusement) that she could help in the war efforts like her hero, the British nurse Edith Cavell. Isabelle falls asleep at the counter, only waking up when her father points out the crowds of panicked people outside the shop. A passer-by informs them that the German army is advancing on Paris. Isabelle does not believe this, but Julien hurries her back to their apartment, where they huddle in the cellar as bombs begin to fall. The air raid eventually stops, and Julien tells his daughter to go to bed; when she wonders how she will be able to sleep, he says she “will learn that a lot of things are possible” (39).