Kristin Hannah is the author of The Women, which I really enjoyed. The writing here is also exceptional. The Nightingale is the story of the Rossignol sisters who struggle to survive in France during the German occupation in WWII.
Vianne is the elder sister, married, and with a young daughter. Her husband is a prisoner of war and she has a German officer billeted in her home. Not by choice.
Isabelle is the defiant younger sister whose ideals lead her to play a key role in the Resistance. Rossignol means nighingale and she is the Nightingale, a sought after thorn in the side of the Germans. The Nightingale is helping Allied pilots, shot down in France, escape over the Pyrenees.
One sister has everything to lose and the other has nothing to lose. The difference drives them apart, but they each risk their lives for the other.
Having just been to Northern France to the D-Day beaches and through the towns south of there that were occupied, The Nightingale illuminated my experience of those bombed out villages and the stories of resistance that remain at the heart of French culture.
This is a great audiobook if you want to hear the pronunciation of the French villages and character names.