'A powerful love story spanning generations… Full of ambition and humanity' Sunday Times
'One of the strongest and most affecting works in Allende's long career' New York Times Book Review
Victor Dalmau is a young doctor when he is caught up in the Spanish Civil War, a tragedy that leaves his life - and the fate of his country - forever changed. Together with his sister-in-law, he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile in Chile. There, they find themselves enmeshed in a rich web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations, destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world.
'A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile and belonging' Independent Online
'A defiantly warm and funny novel, by somebody who has earned the right to argue that love and optimism can survive whatever history might throw at us' Daily Telegraph
'Allende's style is impressively Olympian and the payoff is remarkable' Guardian
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.
Industry Reviews
“Allende has everything it takes: the ear, the eye, the mind, the heart, the all-encompassing humanity”
New York Times
“Isabel Allende is a grand storyteller who writes with surpassing compassion and insight. Her place as an icon of world literature was secured long ago. She will be celebrated, by readers and writers alike, for generations to come”
Khaled Hosseini
“A historical saga that sweeps from the Spanish Civil War to the rise and fall of General Pinochet”
Daily Telegraph, Highlights for 2020
“Although this is fiction, Allende's epic is deeply rooted in fact, and often reads like a biography – of her homeland not least . . . [The characters] are brought alive by Allende's generous imagination and brisk, vivid prose”
Daily Mail
“A decades-spanning tale of war, exile and belonging . . . Grounding the novel is the love story between Victor and Roser, all the more touching for being unconventional . . . The book is all-encompassing, both in its sweep through history and the sheer number of lives crammed into it . . . The writing is unadorned but affecting, shot through with sad details”
Sunday Telegraph
