Over the years, I've read most of Isabel Allende's books. Some I've liked, others not so much. This one I really enjoyed.
As she says in her acknowledgements at the end of the book, Allende mined her own family stories to create the framework for this novel. It starts during the brutal Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and ends in the 1990s in Chile. While there are a number of major, well-drawn characters, the focus of the book is a couple who made a "marriage of convenience" in order to flee to Chile at the end of the Spanish Civil War. They favored the losing side, and it wasn't safe to stay.
After a dangerous flight over the French border and near starvation in refugee camps, Victor Dalmau, a medic, and Roser Bruguera, is a young pianist who was taken in by Victor's parents, are able to reach Chile. Roser is pregnant by Guillem, Victor's brother and a fighter in the Civil War. But when it comes time for Victor and Roser to escape, Guillem has not been heard from for some time and is feared dead. In order to emigrate, the couple have to marry. So they agree on a marriage of convenience, and take a boat with thousands of other refugees to Chile.
All of that takes up about the first half of the book; the rest is about their experiences over the decades in South America. There are quite a few twists of fate, due to their own restless hearts and also because of the precarious political situation that develops in the country. But through it all, the pair do their best to survive, for their own sakes and that of Guillem's son, Marcel.
Isabel Allenda is a marvelous storyteller. Her prose is spare but descriptive, and she keeps the plot moving through more than 50 years of history. This is one of my favorites of her books.
Buying Options
Print List Price: | $17.00 |
Kindle Price: |
$11.99
Save $5.01 (29%) |
Sold by: |
Random House LLC
Price set by seller. |

Add to book club
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club?
Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.

![A Long Petal of the Sea: A Novel by [Isabel Allende, Nick Caistor, Amanda Hopkinson]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51TOIfPWbVL._SY346_.jpg)
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
OK
A Long Petal of the Sea: A Novel Kindle Edition
by
Isabel Allende
(Author),
Nick Caistor
(Translator),
Amanda Hopkinson
(Translator)
&
0
more
Format: Kindle Edition
Isabel Allende
(Author)
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author?
Learn about Author Central
|
See all formats and editions
Hide other formats and editions
Price
|
New from | Used from |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$0.00
|
Free with your Audible trial |
-
LanguageEnglish
-
PublisherBallantine Books
-
Publication dateJanuary 21, 2020
-
File size5182 KB
Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Download to your computer
|
Kindle Cloud Reader
|
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
- The Soul of a WomanKindle Edition
- The House of the Spirits: A NovelKindle Edition
- My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through ChileKindle Edition
- The Four Winds: A NovelKindle Edition
- Eva Luna: A NovelKindle Edition
- The Japanese Lover: A NovelKindle Edition
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
- The Soul of a WomanKindle Edition
- Apeirogon: A NovelKindle Edition
- The House of the Spirits: A NovelKindle Edition
- The Japanese Lover: A NovelKindle Edition
- Fates and Furies: A NovelKindle Edition
- The Invited: A NovelKindle Edition
Amazon Business: Make the most of your Amazon Business account with exclusive tools and savings. Login nowAmazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Majestic . . . both timeless and perfectly timed for today . . . Allende’s assured prose vividly evokes her fictional characters [and] historical figures . . . seamlessly juxtaposing exile with homecoming, otherness with belonging, and tyranny with freedom.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A tale that is seductively intimate and strategically charming . . . a virtuoso of lucidly well-told, utterly enrapturing fiction . . . Allende deftly addresses war, displacement, violence, and loss in a novel of survival and love under siege.”—Booklist (starred review)
“A Long Petal of the Sea is a rich and transportive novel, epic in scope, about finding love and finding home.”—PopSugar
“An absorbing story.”—AARP
“An immersive read about love and survival.”—Real Simple
“Isabel Allende has time and again proven herself a master of magical realism. Her latest novel . . . serves as a paean to human love and endurance.”—Elle
“Allende fans have been waiting with bated breath for her latest novel, and A Long Petal of the Sea doesn’t disappoint.”—Marie Claire
“The wondrous Isabel Allende is back, doing what she does best.”—Read It Forward
“In addition to being well-researched historical fiction, it also parallels current issues.”—Book Riot
“Powerfully told, this is a soaring, inspirational tale.”—The Orange County Register
“Allende . . . has deftly woven fact and fiction, history and memory, to create one of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in her long career.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Allende’s latest . . . marks a return to the time and setting of the book that jump-started her literary career, The House of the Spirits, but with far less supernatural elements and a more expansive engagement of revolution, exile and the determination of the human spirit. . . . A page-turning story rich with history and surprising subplots that keep the novel unpredictable to the end.” —Los Angeles Times
“Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea gets to the heart of immigrant struggle. . . . [It] begins, as it ends, with the heart. . . . Victor and Roser’s story is compelling. . . . Allende’s prose is both commanding and comforting. The author writes eloquently on the struggle of letting go of one culture to embrace a new one and shows that one’s origin story is not the whole story. . . . While debate and policy surround the issues of refugees and immigration, Allende reminds us that these issues, at their core, are made up of individuals and their love stories.” —USA Today
“A tale that is seductively intimate and strategically charming . . . a virtuoso of lucidly well-told, utterly enrapturing fiction . . . Allende deftly addresses war, displacement, violence, and loss in a novel of survival and love under siege.”—Booklist (starred review)
“A Long Petal of the Sea is a rich and transportive novel, epic in scope, about finding love and finding home.”—PopSugar
“An absorbing story.”—AARP
“An immersive read about love and survival.”—Real Simple
“Isabel Allende has time and again proven herself a master of magical realism. Her latest novel . . . serves as a paean to human love and endurance.”—Elle
“Allende fans have been waiting with bated breath for her latest novel, and A Long Petal of the Sea doesn’t disappoint.”—Marie Claire
“The wondrous Isabel Allende is back, doing what she does best.”—Read It Forward
“In addition to being well-researched historical fiction, it also parallels current issues.”—Book Riot
“Powerfully told, this is a soaring, inspirational tale.”—The Orange County Register
“Allende . . . has deftly woven fact and fiction, history and memory, to create one of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in her long career.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Allende’s latest . . . marks a return to the time and setting of the book that jump-started her literary career, The House of the Spirits, but with far less supernatural elements and a more expansive engagement of revolution, exile and the determination of the human spirit. . . . A page-turning story rich with history and surprising subplots that keep the novel unpredictable to the end.” —Los Angeles Times
“Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea gets to the heart of immigrant struggle. . . . [It] begins, as it ends, with the heart. . . . Victor and Roser’s story is compelling. . . . Allende’s prose is both commanding and comforting. The author writes eloquently on the struggle of letting go of one culture to embrace a new one and shows that one’s origin story is not the whole story. . . . While debate and policy surround the issues of refugees and immigration, Allende reminds us that these issues, at their core, are made up of individuals and their love stories.” —USA Today
About the Author
Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende is the author of a number of bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, Paula, and In the Midst of Winter. Her books have been translated into more than forty-two languages and have sold more than seventy-four million copies worldwide. She lives in California.
--This text refers to the hardcover edition.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The most outstanding pianist among Professor Dalmau’s students was Roser Bruguera, a young girl from the village of Santa Fe de Segarra who, had it not been for the generous intervention of Santiago Guzman, would have shepherded goats all her life. Guzman, from an illustrious family that had fallen on hard times thanks to generations of lazy sons who squandered money and lands, was spending his last years in an isolated mansion surrounded by mountains and rocks, but full of sentimental memories. He had been a professor of history at the Central University in the days of King Alfonso XII, and remained quite active despite his advanced years.
He went out every day, in the fierce August sun and the icy January winds, walking for hours with his pilgrim’s staff, battered leather hat, and hunting dog. His wife was lost in the labyrinths of dementia, and spent her days being cared for inside the house, creating monsters with paper and paint. In the village she was known as the Gentle Lunatic, and that’s what she was: she didn’t cause any problems, apart from her tendency to get lost as she set off toward the horizon, and to paint the walls with her own excrement.
Roser was about seven years old when on one of his walks Don Santiago saw her looking after a few skinny goats. It was enough for him to exchange a few words with her to realize that she possessed a lively and inquiring mind. The professor and the little goatherd established a strange friendship based on the lessons in culture he gave her, and her desire to learn. One winter’s day, when he came upon her crouched shivering in a ditch with her three goats, soaked from the rain and flushed with fever, Don Santiago tied up the goats and slung her over his shoulder like a sack, thankful she was so small and weighed so little. Even so, the effort almost killed him, and after a few steps he gave up. Leaving her where she was, he hurried on and called to one of his laborers, who carried her to the house. Don Santiago told his cook to give her something to eat, instructed his housemaids to prepare a bath and bed for her, and the stable boy to go first to Santa Fe and find the doctor, and then to look for the goats before someone stole them.
The doctor said the girl had influenza and was malnourished. She also had scabies and lice. Since nobody came to the Guzman house asking after her either on that day or any of the following ones, they assumed she was an orphan, until in the end they asked her directly and she explained that her family lived on the other side of the mountain. In spite of being as frail as a partridge, the young girl recovered rapidly, because she turned out to be stronger than she looked. She allowed them to shave her head to get rid of the lice, and didn’t resist the sulfur treatment they used for the scabies. She ate voraciously and showed signs of having a placid temperament that was at odds with her sad situation.
In the weeks she spent in the mansion, everyone, from the delirious mistress to all the servants, became deeply attached to her. They had never had a little girl in that stone house haunted by semi-feral cats and ghosts from past ages. The most infatuated was the professor, who was vividly reminded of the privilege of teaching an avid mind, but even he realized that her stay with them could not go on forever. He waited for her to recover completely and to put some flesh on her bones, then decided to visit the far side of the mountain and tell her negligent parents a few hard truths. Ignoring his wife’s pleas, he installed her, well wrapped up in his carriage, and took her off.
They came to a low muddy shack at the edge of the village, one of many wretched places in the area. The peasants lived on starvation wages, working on the land as serfs for big landowners or the Church. The professor called out, and several frightened children came to the door, followed by a witch dressed in black. She was not, as Don Santiago first thought, the girl’s great-grandmother, but was in fact Roser’s mother. These villagers had never received the visit of a carriage with gleaming horses before, and were dumbstruck when they saw Roser climbing out of it with such a distinguished-looking gentleman. ‘I’ve come to talk to you about this child,’ Don Santiago began in the authoritarian tone that had once struck fear into his university students. Before he could continue, the woman grabbed Roser by the hair and started shouting and slapping her, accusing her of the loss of their goats. The professor immediately understood there was no point reproaching this exhausted woman for anything, and on the spot came up with a plan that would drastically alter the girl’s destiny.
Roser spent the rest of her childhood in the Guzman mansion, officially adopted and taken in as the mistress’s personal servant, but also as the professor’s pupil. In exchange for helping the maids and bringing the Gentle Lunatic solace, she was given board and an education. The historian shared a good part of his library with her, taught her more than she would have learned in any school, and let her practice on the grand piano once played by his wife, who now could no longer recall what on earth this huge black monster was for. Roser, who during the first seven years of her life had heard no music at all apart from the drunkards’ accordions on Saint John’s Eve, turned out to have an extraordinary good ear. There was an old cylinder phonograph in the house, but as soon as Don Santiago realized his protégée could play tunes on the piano after listening to them only once, he ordered a modern gramophone from Madrid, together with a collection of records. Within a short time Roser Brugera, whose feet still didn’t reach the pedals, could play the music from the records with her eyes closed. Delighted, he found her a music teacher in Santa Fe, sent her there three times a week, and personally supervised her practice sessions. Roser, who was able to play anything from memory, didn’t see much point in learning to read music or to practice the same scales for hours, but did so out of respect for her mentor.
By the time she was fourteen, Roser was far more accomplished than her teacher, and at fifteen Don Santiago installed her in a guest house for young Catholic ladies in Barcelona so that she could continue her music studies. He would have liked to keep her by his side, but his duty as an educator won out over his paternal instinct. He decided that the girl had received a special talent from God, and his role in this world was to help her develop it. It was around this time that the Gentle Lunatic began to fade away, and in the end died without any fuss. Alone in his mansion, Santiago Guzman began increasingly to feel the weight of his years. He had to give up his walks with his pilgrim’s staff and the time spent reading by the hearth. His hunting dog also died, and he was loath to replace it because he didn’t want to die first and leave the animal without a master.
The arrival of Spain’s Second Republic in 1931 embittered the old man. As soon as the election results favoring the Left became known, King Alfonso XIII left for exile in France, and Don Santiago, monarchist, staunch conservative and Catholic that he was, saw his world collapsing around him. He could never tolerate the Reds, still less adapt to their vulgar ways: those ruthless people were lackeys of the Soviets who went around burning churches and executing priests. The idea that everyone was equal was fine as a theoretical slogan, he said, but in practice it was an aberration. We are not equal in the eyes of God, because He was the one who created social classes and other distinctions among mankind. The agrarian reform stripped Don Santiago of his land, which was not worth a great deal but had belonged to his family forever.
From one day to the next, the peasants spoke to him without doffing their caps or lowering their eyes. His inferiors’ insolence was more painful than the loss of his land, because it was a direct affront to his dignity and the position he had always held in this world. He dismissed all the servants who had lived under his roof for decades, had his library, paintings, other collections and memorabilia packed up, and closed his house under lock and key. All this filled three moving vans, but he couldn’t take the biggest pieces of furniture or the grand piano, because they wouldn’t fit into his Madrid apartment. A few months later, the Republican mayor of Santa Fe confiscated the house and turned it into an orphanage.
Among the many grave disappointments and reasons for anger Don Santiago suffered in those years was the transformation of his protégé. Under the bad influence of the troublemakers at the university, and in particular that of a certain Professor Marcel Lluis Dalmau, a communist, socialist, or anarchist—in the end, it was all the same thing—his Roser had turned into a Red. She had left the guest house for young ladies of good repute and was living with some hoydens who dressed as soldiers and practiced free love, which is what promiscuity and indecency had come to be called. He had to admit that Roser never showed him any lack of respect, but since she took it upon herself to ignore his warnings, he naturally had to withdraw his support for her. She wrote him a letter thanking him with all her soul for everything he had done for her, promising she would always follow the right path according to her own principles, and explaining she was working at night in a bakery and continuing to study music by day.
Don Santiago Guzman, installed in his luxurious Madrid apartment, where he could barely make his way through the clutter of furniture and other objects, and protected from the noise and vulgar uproar in the streets by heavy drapes the color of bull’s blood, socially isolated by his deafness and boundless pride, was blissfully unaware of how the most terrible rancor was surfacing in his country, a rancor that had been feeding on the wretchedness of some and the arrogance of others. He died alone and irate in his apartment in the Salamanca district four months before the uprising spearheaded by Franco’s troops. He was lucid to the end, and so accepting of death that he prepared his own obituary, to avoid some ignorant person publishing untruths about him.
He said farewell to no one, possibly because there was nobody close to him still alive, but he did remember Roser Bruguera, and in a noble gesture of reconciliation left her the grand piano, which was still being stored in the new orphanage at Santa Fe. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
He went out every day, in the fierce August sun and the icy January winds, walking for hours with his pilgrim’s staff, battered leather hat, and hunting dog. His wife was lost in the labyrinths of dementia, and spent her days being cared for inside the house, creating monsters with paper and paint. In the village she was known as the Gentle Lunatic, and that’s what she was: she didn’t cause any problems, apart from her tendency to get lost as she set off toward the horizon, and to paint the walls with her own excrement.
Roser was about seven years old when on one of his walks Don Santiago saw her looking after a few skinny goats. It was enough for him to exchange a few words with her to realize that she possessed a lively and inquiring mind. The professor and the little goatherd established a strange friendship based on the lessons in culture he gave her, and her desire to learn. One winter’s day, when he came upon her crouched shivering in a ditch with her three goats, soaked from the rain and flushed with fever, Don Santiago tied up the goats and slung her over his shoulder like a sack, thankful she was so small and weighed so little. Even so, the effort almost killed him, and after a few steps he gave up. Leaving her where she was, he hurried on and called to one of his laborers, who carried her to the house. Don Santiago told his cook to give her something to eat, instructed his housemaids to prepare a bath and bed for her, and the stable boy to go first to Santa Fe and find the doctor, and then to look for the goats before someone stole them.
The doctor said the girl had influenza and was malnourished. She also had scabies and lice. Since nobody came to the Guzman house asking after her either on that day or any of the following ones, they assumed she was an orphan, until in the end they asked her directly and she explained that her family lived on the other side of the mountain. In spite of being as frail as a partridge, the young girl recovered rapidly, because she turned out to be stronger than she looked. She allowed them to shave her head to get rid of the lice, and didn’t resist the sulfur treatment they used for the scabies. She ate voraciously and showed signs of having a placid temperament that was at odds with her sad situation.
In the weeks she spent in the mansion, everyone, from the delirious mistress to all the servants, became deeply attached to her. They had never had a little girl in that stone house haunted by semi-feral cats and ghosts from past ages. The most infatuated was the professor, who was vividly reminded of the privilege of teaching an avid mind, but even he realized that her stay with them could not go on forever. He waited for her to recover completely and to put some flesh on her bones, then decided to visit the far side of the mountain and tell her negligent parents a few hard truths. Ignoring his wife’s pleas, he installed her, well wrapped up in his carriage, and took her off.
They came to a low muddy shack at the edge of the village, one of many wretched places in the area. The peasants lived on starvation wages, working on the land as serfs for big landowners or the Church. The professor called out, and several frightened children came to the door, followed by a witch dressed in black. She was not, as Don Santiago first thought, the girl’s great-grandmother, but was in fact Roser’s mother. These villagers had never received the visit of a carriage with gleaming horses before, and were dumbstruck when they saw Roser climbing out of it with such a distinguished-looking gentleman. ‘I’ve come to talk to you about this child,’ Don Santiago began in the authoritarian tone that had once struck fear into his university students. Before he could continue, the woman grabbed Roser by the hair and started shouting and slapping her, accusing her of the loss of their goats. The professor immediately understood there was no point reproaching this exhausted woman for anything, and on the spot came up with a plan that would drastically alter the girl’s destiny.
Roser spent the rest of her childhood in the Guzman mansion, officially adopted and taken in as the mistress’s personal servant, but also as the professor’s pupil. In exchange for helping the maids and bringing the Gentle Lunatic solace, she was given board and an education. The historian shared a good part of his library with her, taught her more than she would have learned in any school, and let her practice on the grand piano once played by his wife, who now could no longer recall what on earth this huge black monster was for. Roser, who during the first seven years of her life had heard no music at all apart from the drunkards’ accordions on Saint John’s Eve, turned out to have an extraordinary good ear. There was an old cylinder phonograph in the house, but as soon as Don Santiago realized his protégée could play tunes on the piano after listening to them only once, he ordered a modern gramophone from Madrid, together with a collection of records. Within a short time Roser Brugera, whose feet still didn’t reach the pedals, could play the music from the records with her eyes closed. Delighted, he found her a music teacher in Santa Fe, sent her there three times a week, and personally supervised her practice sessions. Roser, who was able to play anything from memory, didn’t see much point in learning to read music or to practice the same scales for hours, but did so out of respect for her mentor.
By the time she was fourteen, Roser was far more accomplished than her teacher, and at fifteen Don Santiago installed her in a guest house for young Catholic ladies in Barcelona so that she could continue her music studies. He would have liked to keep her by his side, but his duty as an educator won out over his paternal instinct. He decided that the girl had received a special talent from God, and his role in this world was to help her develop it. It was around this time that the Gentle Lunatic began to fade away, and in the end died without any fuss. Alone in his mansion, Santiago Guzman began increasingly to feel the weight of his years. He had to give up his walks with his pilgrim’s staff and the time spent reading by the hearth. His hunting dog also died, and he was loath to replace it because he didn’t want to die first and leave the animal without a master.
The arrival of Spain’s Second Republic in 1931 embittered the old man. As soon as the election results favoring the Left became known, King Alfonso XIII left for exile in France, and Don Santiago, monarchist, staunch conservative and Catholic that he was, saw his world collapsing around him. He could never tolerate the Reds, still less adapt to their vulgar ways: those ruthless people were lackeys of the Soviets who went around burning churches and executing priests. The idea that everyone was equal was fine as a theoretical slogan, he said, but in practice it was an aberration. We are not equal in the eyes of God, because He was the one who created social classes and other distinctions among mankind. The agrarian reform stripped Don Santiago of his land, which was not worth a great deal but had belonged to his family forever.
From one day to the next, the peasants spoke to him without doffing their caps or lowering their eyes. His inferiors’ insolence was more painful than the loss of his land, because it was a direct affront to his dignity and the position he had always held in this world. He dismissed all the servants who had lived under his roof for decades, had his library, paintings, other collections and memorabilia packed up, and closed his house under lock and key. All this filled three moving vans, but he couldn’t take the biggest pieces of furniture or the grand piano, because they wouldn’t fit into his Madrid apartment. A few months later, the Republican mayor of Santa Fe confiscated the house and turned it into an orphanage.
Among the many grave disappointments and reasons for anger Don Santiago suffered in those years was the transformation of his protégé. Under the bad influence of the troublemakers at the university, and in particular that of a certain Professor Marcel Lluis Dalmau, a communist, socialist, or anarchist—in the end, it was all the same thing—his Roser had turned into a Red. She had left the guest house for young ladies of good repute and was living with some hoydens who dressed as soldiers and practiced free love, which is what promiscuity and indecency had come to be called. He had to admit that Roser never showed him any lack of respect, but since she took it upon herself to ignore his warnings, he naturally had to withdraw his support for her. She wrote him a letter thanking him with all her soul for everything he had done for her, promising she would always follow the right path according to her own principles, and explaining she was working at night in a bakery and continuing to study music by day.
Don Santiago Guzman, installed in his luxurious Madrid apartment, where he could barely make his way through the clutter of furniture and other objects, and protected from the noise and vulgar uproar in the streets by heavy drapes the color of bull’s blood, socially isolated by his deafness and boundless pride, was blissfully unaware of how the most terrible rancor was surfacing in his country, a rancor that had been feeding on the wretchedness of some and the arrogance of others. He died alone and irate in his apartment in the Salamanca district four months before the uprising spearheaded by Franco’s troops. He was lucid to the end, and so accepting of death that he prepared his own obituary, to avoid some ignorant person publishing untruths about him.
He said farewell to no one, possibly because there was nobody close to him still alive, but he did remember Roser Bruguera, and in a noble gesture of reconciliation left her the grand piano, which was still being stored in the new orphanage at Santa Fe. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B07R9WKFRF
- Publisher : Ballantine Books (January 21, 2020)
- Publication date : January 21, 2020
- Language : English
- File size : 5182 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 298 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
-
Best Sellers Rank:
#3,149 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #34 in 20th Century Historical Romance (Books)
- #45 in Literary Sagas
- #79 in Historical Literary Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
5,421 global ratings
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2019
Report abuse
188 people found this helpful
Helpful
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
Roser and Victor Dalmau agree to marry in Spain after General Franco wins control of the government over the Republicans in the late 1930’s. Roser’s husband died during that conflict and his brother Victor, who learned to be a doctor during the Civil War, is determined to get them out of Spain as Franco’s government is tyrannical and devastating to millions. This novel is their story. What starts as a brother-sister relationship will develop into a phenomenal, glorious love.
Their journey will take them to France, Chile and Venezuela. Governments in those countries were also in flux. Before they get there, Victor has a brief fling with a spoiled, aristocratic Spanish woman. She has a child who is given up for adoption, a fact Victor never learns until he is much older. Victor becomes a good friend of Pablo Neruda the poet, who writes a poem about Chile, written on the ship called “Winnipeg” that gives this novel its title. Pablo is a Socialist and becomes persecuted and hunted because of his political beliefs; but it turns out he is mainly concerned with the love of people and freedom. He is responsible for two thousand refuges being allowed to emigrate from Spain to Chile. These refugees soon develop a fine reputation for being responsible families who improve conditions in Chile.
This is a family saga about those who face constant trials but do their best to work hard and avoid controversy. Their debacle in each of these countries is heartbreaking. Victor becomes a tough man as he experiences the horrors of war which he experienced as a medic and later as a doctor in Chile. Allende’s earlier novels are more about the Pinochet government in Chile but here we also get a glimmer of the military horrors creating suffering and death for far too many.
Victor earns a reputation as an intelligent, capable and kind cardiologist. Rosa is pragmatic, hard-working and loyally protective of Victor. His vanity is shattered when his love Rosa becomes terminally ill.
What is unique about this family saga is how positive these characters are even in the face of the most daunting challenges. It’s a beautiful tribute to the power of love and loyalty, faith and hope in mankind no matter what the prevailing political challenges and, like the title poem, a tribute to beautiful people and lands prevailing in victory even when caught in the prevailing tides and currents testing the mettle of those riding the formidable journey into a more hopeful existence.
Their journey will take them to France, Chile and Venezuela. Governments in those countries were also in flux. Before they get there, Victor has a brief fling with a spoiled, aristocratic Spanish woman. She has a child who is given up for adoption, a fact Victor never learns until he is much older. Victor becomes a good friend of Pablo Neruda the poet, who writes a poem about Chile, written on the ship called “Winnipeg” that gives this novel its title. Pablo is a Socialist and becomes persecuted and hunted because of his political beliefs; but it turns out he is mainly concerned with the love of people and freedom. He is responsible for two thousand refuges being allowed to emigrate from Spain to Chile. These refugees soon develop a fine reputation for being responsible families who improve conditions in Chile.
This is a family saga about those who face constant trials but do their best to work hard and avoid controversy. Their debacle in each of these countries is heartbreaking. Victor becomes a tough man as he experiences the horrors of war which he experienced as a medic and later as a doctor in Chile. Allende’s earlier novels are more about the Pinochet government in Chile but here we also get a glimmer of the military horrors creating suffering and death for far too many.
Victor earns a reputation as an intelligent, capable and kind cardiologist. Rosa is pragmatic, hard-working and loyally protective of Victor. His vanity is shattered when his love Rosa becomes terminally ill.
What is unique about this family saga is how positive these characters are even in the face of the most daunting challenges. It’s a beautiful tribute to the power of love and loyalty, faith and hope in mankind no matter what the prevailing political challenges and, like the title poem, a tribute to beautiful people and lands prevailing in victory even when caught in the prevailing tides and currents testing the mettle of those riding the formidable journey into a more hopeful existence.
76 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2020
Verified Purchase
I have read lots of historical fiction but never about the Spanish revolution or about Chile. The story did a great job of introducing both to me. The story itself was quite satisfying. In addition to being well written and well researched, I greatly enjoyed the story. Thus the five stars.
69 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2020
Verified Purchase
Allende's earlier books were intriguing, hard to put down. In this one (and others lately) she seems to have fallen into a lazy writing style of boring backstory and merely telling about the characters and their turmoil instead of showing us through action and dialogue. A shame, really, because the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War and the suffering and bloodshed it brought to millions (and the characters in this book) is a story in need of illumination. This one is isn't it. The same could be said for the her superficial treatment of the drama that played out in Chile in the time of Salvador Allende, Augusto Pinochet, and Pablo Neruda. This should have been two books. Additionally, there were too many characters to keep track. Sorry Isabel, you can do better.
46 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2019
I believe Isabel Allende to be one of the greatest writers of our time. Her words are like the smoke of incense that wraps itself around you and leaves a lingering perfume. This book comes at a time when the "othering" of refugees has reached a critical point. It is about love, loss, the power of hope and yearning for home. It's a sweeping epic that spans six decades. It is both timeless and timely. It is quite possibly her best work to date.
79 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Top reviews from other countries

JoanG
2.0 out of 5 stars
History lesson
Reviewed in Canada on June 15, 2020Verified Purchase
This book read like a long and slightly pedantic history lesson. Interesting nonetheless as I didn't know much about Chilean history, but I was looking for a novel. The novel was there, in between lessons, but the characters felt thin and one dimensional, not like real flesh and blood people.
3 people found this helpful
Report abuse

cranky granny
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another winner
Reviewed in Canada on January 21, 2021Verified Purchase
Like a lot of Isabel Allende's books, this one started slowly and was a little tough to get into. After the first couple of chapters, the characters became real and the economical, straighforward description of their daily struggle to survive made me really want to know what came next. As the story developed, the cast broadened to include lovers, friends, relatives and politicians -- and I wanted to know what became of all of them!
Allende's love of Chile and sense of Homeland shines through the narative. It's another tough, beautiful book.
Allende's love of Chile and sense of Homeland shines through the narative. It's another tough, beautiful book.

K. Davis
4.0 out of 5 stars
Decisions matter
Reviewed in Canada on January 18, 2021Verified Purchase
The main thing I found to Sun up motivation for choices is that we need to separate our wishes from reality. Make an emotional choice and you throw your future into the wind. Looking at the way things really are helps assure that our choices will have a better potential outcome over the long haul. It's hard sometimes, especially when it involves those we love, but we can't give them happiness of we overlook long term outlooks for our preferred short term benefits.

Maggie M.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story
Reviewed in Canada on November 18, 2020Verified Purchase
The story keeps the reader engaged with the main characters. Information about the Spanish Civil war and the hardships faced by many people is doled out in bite sized pieces, while keeping the characters front and centre. And when the story is based in Chile, the political unrest is also described by what happens to the characters. An enjoyable read.

Brian A Abbott
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great historical story
Reviewed in Canada on January 31, 2021Verified Purchase
Great historical story that covered the Spanish Civil War and the Chilean coup of the 1970s. The well developed characters were both believable and deeply fascinating. This is my first Allende novel. I definitely will read more
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
- The Four Winds: A NovelKindle Edition
- The Midnight Library: A NovelKindle Edition
- The Soul of a WomanKindle Edition
- The Book of Longings: A NovelKindle Edition