The Women

Their friendship changed lives. Their bravery changed history.

From master storyteller Kristin Hannah, worldwide bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds, The Women is the story of a generation, of epic love, profound loss and enduring friendship. It is both an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and a story of a nation – and a world – divided by war.

The instant Number One Sunday Times bestselling novel, soon to be a major motion picture.

The Women is the essential story of the women who answered the call of the Vietnam War and paid a price that was heartbreakingly unique.

This is a novel of epic love, devastating loss, and the fierce, unyielding bond of female friendship.

'Utterly absorbing . . . A triumph' - Taylor Jenkins Reid

'Stuns with sacrifice. Uplifts with heroism' – Bonnie Garmus

'Never has a novel of war metamorphosed so profoundly into a story of the human heart. The female heart.' - Delia Owens

They answered the call. Then they fought to be remembered.

'Women can be heroes, too'.

When twenty-year-old nursing student, Frances "Frankie" McGrath, hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on California's idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl.

But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the young men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed America. But Frankie will also discover the true value of female friendship and the heartbreak that love can cause.

'Thank God for girlfriends. In this crazy, chaotic, divided world that was run by men, you could count on the women'

'Three little words. "They were there." Superb. Immersive. Shocking'

'This book turned me into an absolute sobbing mess . . . So well written and utterly heartbreaking as well as uplifting, joyful...