The story behind The Women
Bestselling author Kristin Hannah on why she wanted to write about the women who served in Vietnam.
The Women by Kristin Hannah is a story of devastating loss, epic love and the power of female friendship, set during the Vietnam War. Here, she explains how she came to write it.
This book has been a true labor of love, years in the making. I first conceived of it in 1997, but as a young writer, I wasn’t ready to tackle such an important and complex subject. I didn’t feel I had the skill or the maturity to achieve my vision. It has taken me decades to circle back to the Vietnam War era.
I was young, in elementary or middle school, for the majority of the war, but I remember it vividly: the protests, the darkening tone of the nightly news, the arc of the story told by the media, more and more young men dying, and most of all, how the veterans – many of them my friends’ fathers – were treated when they came home. All of it made a lasting impression.
‘Many of the women keenly remembered being told often that there 'were no women in Vietnam.' I am honored to tell this story.’
Reading the firsthand accounts of the women who served in Vietnam was incredibly inspiring. I was also saddened to realize that these women’s heroic stories have too often been forgotten or overlooked.
Not enough has been made or recorded or remembered about their service. It is even difficult to get certain agreed-upon numbers of the women who served in Vietnam. According to the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation statement, approximately 10,000 American military women were stationed in Vietnam during the war. Most were nurses in the Army, Air Force, and Navy, but women also served as physicians and medical personnel, and in air traffic control and military intelligence. Civilian women also served in Vietnam as news correspondents and workers for the Red Cross, Donut Dollies, the USO, Special Services, the American Friends Service Committee, Catholic Relief Services, and other humanitarian organizations.
Talking to these remarkable women, listening to their stories, and reading their firsthand accounts of both being in Vietnam during the war and their treatment upon coming home to the United States has been a revelation. Many of the women keenly remembered being told often that there 'were no women in Vietnam.' I am honored to tell this story.
The Women
by Kristin Hannah
The Women follows twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath. Raised on California’s idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she's 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 him there. Amidst chaos and heartbreak, Frankie finds strength in female friendship and learns the value of sacrifice and commitment. This emotionally charged novel illuminates the often-forgotten stories of women who bravely served their country.
Taken from The Women's author's note