Kristin Hannah

Kristin Hannah (born 25 September 1960) is an American novelist whose historical and family fiction, including The Nightingale (2015) and The Great Alone (2018), has repeatedly reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

Born in Garden Grove, California, she studied at the University of Washington and at Seattle University School of Law, and practised as an attorney before turning to fiction. Her first novel, A Handful of Heaven, came out in 1991, and her early books were category romances; she won a RITA Award in 2004 for Between Sisters. In the 2000s she moved towards contemporary women's fiction spanning several generations.

Firefly Lane (2008), the story of a lifelong friendship, became a Netflix series that ran for two seasons from 2021 to 2023. Winter Garden (2010) set a family drama against the Siege of Leningrad. The Nightingale, about two sisters in occupied France, was published by St. Martin's Press in 2015; by 2021 it had sold more than 4.5 million copies and appeared in 45 languages, and a TriStar film adaptation began shooting in Budapest in March 2026. The Great Alone (2018), set in Alaska, went straight to number one on the New York Times list, as did The Four Winds (2021), a Dust Bowl novel. The Women (2024) follows an Army nurse in the Vietnam War. She lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

For collectors

Collector interest centres on the St. Martin's Press first edition of The Nightingale (2015), the novel that made her an international name, followed by the American first editions of Firefly Lane (2008) and The Great Alone (2018).