Kristin Hannah is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels, and her new novel “The Women” does not disappoint. This fictional story is set in the 1960s and centers around a young woman who enters the Vietnam war as an Army nurse.

Frances “Frankie” McGrath comes from a long line of family who are serving or have served in the military. As the story begins, her brother has recently shipped out to serve in the Vietnam war, which influences her decision to also serve her county. Shortly after signing up for service, the news comes that her brother was killed in combat. On the heels of this devastating news, she has to have the difficult conversation with her parents that she is leaving for Vietnam.

When Frankie arrives in Vietnam she is not prepared for how quickly she is thrown into the hospital and the difficult situations that come with war. She is introduced to nurses and doctors who become lifelong friends and help her out in many hard situations.

Frankie is discouraged when she hears about how American citizens are treating the soldiers who have returned home and how disappointed Americans are with the war in Vietnam. When it is Frankie’s time to go home she reflects back and thinks, “She’d joined the Army to find her brother and found herself insead; in war, she’d found out who she really was and who she wanted to be and, as tired as she was of all the death and destruction, she was also more than a little afraid to go home. What would life look like stateside?”

When Frankie arrives in the States, it is just as she feared; she gets spit on and yelled at, and is shocked with what is happening to herself and other service men and women. When she arrives at her home things aren’t much better. She has to learn how to live again and she begins to rely heavily on the friends she made in Vietnam, nurses and doctors who know what she is going through and who can help her figure out what she needs to do for her future.

Kristin Hannah is a gifted author. She can take a story that is hard to tell and make it so lifelike that at times it is hard to read and you feel like you are right there with her. “The Women” by Kristin Hannah can be found throughout the Lincoln County Library System in book format and CD book. It is also available on the Libby app.