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Summary
Chapters 26-30
Chapter 26
In May 1995, the older woman receives a call reminding her of the passeurs reunion honoring “The Nightingale” in Paris. Though she hangs up, she nevertheless calls a taxi to take her to the airport, leaving a message on her son’s phone to inform him of her plan.
Chapter 27
In October 1942, Vianne accompanies Gaëtan to the border, where he will attempt to smuggle an unconscious and badly injured Isabelle into the Free Zone. After she returns home, Vianne reflects guiltily upon her murder of Beck and her argument with Isabelle. Waiting for the Nazis to show up and investigate the disappearance of Beck, she warns Sophie to go to the Mother Superior of the local convent if she is arrested and does not return after three days. When the SS agents arrive, Vianne pretends that she does not know Beck’s whereabouts. The SS bring Vianne to their headquarters in town, where she is questioned by Von Richter. She lies to him, claiming that Beck drove off on his motorcycle in an agitated state in order to find the airman. Von Richter seems to believe her story and informs her that he will take Beck’s place at Le Jardin.
After being released, Vianne witnesses the police take away Madame Fournier, who used to operate the butcher’s stall. She tries to save Madame Fournier’s son, Gilles, but the police insist upon deporting him too, even though he was born in France. At Le Jardin, Vianne warns Sophie that she must be careful around Von Richter.
Chapter 28
In the Free Zone, Isabelle wakes up in a barn next to Gaëtan after four days of unconsciousness. He tells her that he, Henri, and Didier removed the bodies from Le Jardin and that Vianne refused to go into hiding. Arguing that either of them could die any day, Isabelle provokes Gaëtan into acknowledging that he shares her feelings, and they fall asleep while embracing. The following day, after Isabelle bathes, she and Gaëtan sleep together.
In Carriveau, Von Richter selects the largest room at Le Jardin for himself and Vianne moves into Beck’s former room, where she has guilty dreams about his death. Von Richter flaunts his power over Vianne, treating her like a maid in her own home.
Chapter 29
Isabelle and Gaëtan spend a few blissful days in the safe house in the Free Zone. However, now that Isabelle’s wound has begun to heal, they know that they must get back to their work, and make plans to attend a Resistance meeting the following week.
As winter approaches, Vianne introduces Daniel to the people of Carriveau as the son of a deceased relative. She collects some food in town and witnesses another round of deportations targeting Jews born in France. A woman named Hélène Ruelle recognizes Vianne and begs her to take her younger son, Jean Georges. Though Vianne has no papers for him, she hurries back as the child cries for his mother. At home, she claims to Von Richter that Jean George’s mother has died of tuberculosis, and he commands her to take the child to the orphanage. Vianne walks Jean Georges to the convent where she asks the Mother Superior to take in the child. The Mother Superior of the convent notes the dangers of this plan, but agrees to take in Jean Georges and, further, puts Vianne in charge of a plan to rescue as many children as they can.
Chapter 30
The Germans dissolve the Vichy state and assume control over the former Free Zone. Using their false papers, Isabelle and Gaëtan travel to the Basque seaside town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where they meet another group of downed airmen, three of whom are British and one of whom is American, at the home of Madame Babineau. Gaëtan tells Isabelle that he will leave to join a group of guerilla fighters and, knowing that they might not see each other for a long time, they make love passionately.
Desperate to obtain forged papers for Jean Georges and any other children she might be able to rescue, Vianne turns to the hotel operated by Henri, who tells her that he can find blank papers for her but that she will need to learn to forge the information herself. Later, Henri approaches her while she is in town and delivers the papers hidden in a baguette. After a tense encounter with Von Richter, Vianne returns home and forges signatures on the blank papers to provide Jean Georges with a plausible new identity.
Analysis
Vianne’s perception of her younger sister shifts rapidly after the truth of her wartime activity is revealed. Before leaving Carriveau for Paris, Isabelle told Vianne that she was going for a romantic getaway with the handsome Henri, a lie which Vianne readily believed due to her perception of Isabelle as immature and irresponsible. At various points in the story, Isabelle takes advantage of the tendency of others to underestimate her, and Vianne is one of many characters who dismiss her as a silly young girl. After the revelation that Isabelle has been working alongside the Resistance for years, sharpening her survival skills and taking great risks to undermine the German occupation, Vianne realizes that her sister is no flippant girl but a brave and strong young woman. She looks back upon their final fight, during which she told Isabelle to stay away from Le Jardin and even threatened to report her to the authorities, and she feels a deep sense of shame.
While she accompanies Gaëtan to the border of the Free Zone, Vianne speaks about her past with Isabelle with uncharacteristic openness. She emphasizes to him that Isabelle has been abandoned by many important figures in her life, arguing that her hard-as-nails exterior conceals a soft and vulnerable heart. At this point in the story, Vianne knows that it is too late to be the sister who Isabelle once needed, but she nevertheless tries to make up for past mistakes by ensuring that Gaëtan will be there for her. Though Vianne is the older of the two sisters, ultimately it is Isabelle who inspires her. She too begins to take serious risks that put her at odds with the Nazis, hiding Jewish children from the Gestapo, contacting members of the Resistance, and forging fake identity cards. Slowly, Vianne begins to overcome her earlier fears, standing by her principles just as Isabelle does.
This section of the novel further develops the complex relationship between Gaëtan and Isabelle. The two have harbored deep feelings for each other, but the hardships of war and the dangers of working in the Resistance have kept them from acting upon those feelings. For Gaëtan, love is a luxury that a member of the Resistance cannot afford. He keeps a close eye on Isabelle, but, knowing the very real risks that they both face, he also keeps her at arm’s length. Love, in The Nightingale, makes an individual vulnerable, and Gaëtan protects himself from heartbreak by keeping his distance from others. For Isabelle, however, the dangers they face and the very real possibility of death make the question of love all the more urgent. Because she cannot be sure that she will be alive tomorrow, she feels that she must grasp love while she can. As Gaëtan and Isabelle open up to one another, she begins to better understand his earlier resistance. Now, for the first time in the novel, she truly feels that she has something to lose, and her previous disregard for danger gives way to new anxieties about the future. She learns that she must strike a torturous balance between love and duty.
