Question #6: The narrator

[[deleted user]]

The narrator of The Nightingale writes several chapters set in 1995. Who did you think she was? Did the narrator's identity take you by surprise at the end of the novel?

[Allison]

I'll admit that I was aware of the ambiguity of the narrator - I knew the author was keeping us guessing -- that was pretty obvious to me. I genuinely thought it was Isabelle (probably because the one thing we were privy to was the fact that the narrator had a son named Julien - and no mention of a daughter, Sophie). So it didn't seem likely that it was Vianne. In the end, I was only very mildly surprised (almost nonchalant and a little disappointed) at the reveal and the truth behind the narrator.

[Susan]

Like Allison, I thought the narrator was Isabelle as well, until very late in the book. I was touched that her son was named Julien, after her father. It seemed there must have been a reconciliation between father and daughter for that honour to happen. The narrator looked at Isabelle's false identity papers in the opening chapter, so it seemed she must be looking at her own papers. I think the author must have done this to give us hope that Isabelle would survive the many dangers she faced.

I was surprised that Isabelle died at the end. She made it so far;
we thought she was safe. I was quite upset by her death,
which in the end was a realistic choice for the author to make.
There was so much in that final chapter by the narrator - Sophie's death at an early age, especially. But the fact there was a Julien was proof that Vianne and Antoine had gone on. The reunion with Gaeten and Ari was perhaps too neat, but believable given the event they all attended.

[Allison]

Susan wrote: "Like Allison, I thought the narrator was Isabelle as well, until very late in the book. I was touched that her son was named Julien, after her father. It seemed there must have been a reconciliatio..."

I think the reconciliation between father and daughter took place when Julien came to tell Vianne that he was going to make things right and take Isabelle's place as the Nightingale. So, Vianne knew that her father was sacrificing himself for Isabelle.

I was also surprised that Isabelle died at the end. But then again she had both typhoid and pneumonia (and had stopped eating - even the broth was not being consumed) -- I knew something was up when this was mentioned. However, I still very much wished she had survived.

This reminds me of that one little detail in the story near the end, where the women were being marched to another camp and Isabelle's friend (cannot remember her name) told Isabelle she was not to cry herself to sleep - as this surely meant death by the morning. I was very moved by this and thought that the power of willing oneself to survive at all costs is a very real and extraordinary thing, and I wondered at the historical accuracy of this for the survivors of the holocaust.