Status
Checked out
Publication
Vintage Espanol (2010), Edition: Reprint, 512 pages
Description
"The story of a mulatta woman, a slave and concubine, determined to take control of her own destiny in a society where that would seem impossible"--Provided by publisher.
Media reviews
After the recent catastrophes in New Orleans and Haiti, I had hoped this novel would teach me something new about the history of those places, but it did not. I kept wondering when the story would take off, but it never did. There is no magical realism here, and little realism of the ordinary kind.
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It has much more in common with Cartland than with Márquez. Show Less
Island Beneath the Sea isn't Allende's greatest work, but she handles a difficult issue with, for the most part, considerable restraint and grace. Allende isn't, and never has been, a terribly subtle writer -- her plots are typically markedly dramatic, and her characters often wear their
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motivations and emotions on their sleeves. But she's a little more reined in than usual here, despite a few ornate phrasings that might have lost something in translation ("Meanwhile, the French Revolution had hit the colony like the slash of a dragon's tail ... "). Show Less
With this admirable novel, Allende cements her reputation as a writer of wide scope and amazing talent. Although very traditional in its unfolding — readers enamored by her use of magical realism will find little in this narrative — this historical novel does what one hopes a book of its ilk
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will do: transport readers to a new world, open up history and make it come alive, and cause readers to forget time passing in the world the author has so carefully and lovingly built. Show Less
Critics devised the label “magical feminism” just for Isabel Allende’s multigenerational family chronicles featuring strong-willed women, usually entangled in steamy love affairs against a backdrop of war and political upheaval. These elements are all present in her latest novel, “Island
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Beneath the Sea,” which is set partly in late-18th-century Haiti. The protagonist, a mulatto slave named Zarité, is maid to a sugar planter’s wife who gradually goes mad. (The Caribbean seems to have had a reliably deranging effect on women in fiction, from “Jane Eyre” onward.) Even before her mistress’s death, Zarité becomes the concubine of her master, Valmorain, submitting to that role across decades and borders, even when he flees to New Orleans after the 1791 slave revolt. ...
In a welcome revision, Allende brings women to the forefront of the story of the rebellion. She replaces the African war god Ogun with the love goddess Erzulie. (In the one episode that most approaches magic realism, Erzulie possesses Zarité, but even then it’s unclear whether this is merely happening in Zarité’s imagination.) Ultimately, however, Allende has traded innovative language and technique for a fundamentally straightforward historical pageant. There is plenty of melodrama and coincidence in “Island Beneath the Sea,” but not much magic. Show Less
NOT MAGIC, NOT REALISM
This failure to capture history in the making is the greatest contrast between this book and Allende’s early works. The rich texture of details that Allende provided in The House of the Spirits and Of Love and Shadows served to bring a particular universe vividly to life.
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The rich details were not superfluous or banal—they had a purpose, they represented a larger understanding. In Island Beneath the Sea, by contrast, what we get is a shallow and lazy pastiche of a well-researched historical mise-en-scène embellished by irrelevant but colorful particulars that are supposed to certify the book’s authenticity but are instead a poor substitute for a deeper comprehension of what this moment in history was about. Show Less
Island Beneath the Sea looks promising, as it has a number of interesting elements: voodoo, slavery, uprisings, good, evil and an Allende favorite, forbidden love. With Allende's touch for storytelling, this book should have been fantastic, rather than just good.
There is no doubt that Isabel
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Allende has done her research, but, instead of letting the words dance on the page, Allende tries so hard to be historically accurate that she leaves the reader with the equivalent of a stale sex scene one expects from a relationship that has lost its passion and desire. (And yes, those scenes are also in the book.) It's not that the novel is poorly written. Allende is an excellent writer—and an even better storyteller—but her passion isn't as apparent here as in her earlier works. I must admit to a bias as I have been reading this author's works since The House of Spirits, and I expect only the best. Even so, I have great faith that a reader unfamiliar with Allende's work will find this novel mesmerizing. A seasoned Allende fan, however, will expect a little bit more. Show Less
With Ines of My Soul one had the sense that the author was trying to structure a story around facts, dates, incidents, and real people. Here it is the reverse, resulting in a book one second-guesses at every turn. Of course there will be a forbidden love. Betrayal. Incest. Heartbreak. Insanity.
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Violence. And in the end the island in the novel's title remains legend. Fittingly so, because to reach the Island Beneath the Sea , one would have had to dive deep. Allende barely skims the surface. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Johnny1978
The scope of this novel is impressive and its various settings are fascinating: pre- and post - revolution Haiti, and New Orleans before and after the French hocked it like Granmere's pearls to the USA. Allende evokes each with considerable skill and great historical detail. It is, however, a
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largely disappointing read: Zarite is a flat impersonation of the brutalised but unbroken character she has the potential to be - she appears to exist simply to shuffle along the novel's somewhat limp narrative. Valmorain, her 'master', is a more successful character - a truly hideous example of corruption, venality and human weakness. Show Less
LibraryThing member rivergen
I was so bored by this book that I gave up when I was about 40% into it. The basic premise was excellent and thss could have been a fantastic book, if told in a different way. It was just a factual description of events, with very little character development and a very strange flow. I tried hard
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to like it, but I simply could not empathize with any character and was annoyed that such a good story was told in such a mundane way. Show Less
LibraryThing member Nickelini
A work of historical fiction that follows the life of Tete, a slave, and her owner Toulouse Valmorain. The first half of the book is set in what is now Haiti, in the late 1700s and the time leading up to the Haitian Revolution and slave rebellion, and the second half is after they escape to New
I studied the Haitian slave rebellion at university and it's a fascinating episode in history. I would have liked to have seen a bit more about it in the book, rather than just these characters who are in the periphery and flee fairly early on.
This novel was an easy read, but it took me a whole month to get through it as I'd get bored and wander off to do something else or fall asleep.
Rating: Island Beneath the Sea is one of those books that readers rate much higher than the critics. I'm with the critics on this one -- it's a good book, but not great.
Recommended for: readers who like straight-forward historical fiction and readers who want to learn about the Haitian Revolution.
For some reason, Isabel Allende books always end up with "magic realism" tags on LT, which drives me nuts. None of the 4 Allende books I've read have had any magic realism. So if you're one of those people who avoids MR, don't shy away from her writing. Yes, House of the Spirits is a key MR text, but that doesn't mean everything she writes is magic realism. Sheesh! (stepping off my soap box now).
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Orleans. I studied the Haitian slave rebellion at university and it's a fascinating episode in history. I would have liked to have seen a bit more about it in the book, rather than just these characters who are in the periphery and flee fairly early on.
This novel was an easy read, but it took me a whole month to get through it as I'd get bored and wander off to do something else or fall asleep.
Rating: Island Beneath the Sea is one of those books that readers rate much higher than the critics. I'm with the critics on this one -- it's a good book, but not great.
Recommended for: readers who like straight-forward historical fiction and readers who want to learn about the Haitian Revolution.
For some reason, Isabel Allende books always end up with "magic realism" tags on LT, which drives me nuts. None of the 4 Allende books I've read have had any magic realism. So if you're one of those people who avoids MR, don't shy away from her writing. Yes, House of the Spirits is a key MR text, but that doesn't mean everything she writes is magic realism. Sheesh! (stepping off my soap box now).
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LibraryThing member gypsysmom
I listened to this book as a download from my library. It is the story of a young slave girl, Zarite, in Haiti who is bought to be a lady's maid to the Cuban wife of a plantation owner. The wife goes steadily mad but does produce one male heir for her husband. Before the time the wife becomes
This book didn't grab me as much as some of Allende's other books have. Perhaps because I felt that the story shared a lot with The Book of Negroes which I really loved. But there is some interesting history here and some really strong women characters.
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pregnant the husband takes the slave girl (Tete as she is called) to his bed. Tete has a son as well but he is taken away from her by the master. Tete raises Maurice, the legitimate son, and when she also has a daughter she is allowed to keep her because by that time the wife is completely mad. The two children grow up together. While they are still young there are slave uprisings and the master has to flee the island. Tete is instrumental in saving the family and she is promised she will be freed because of this. Eventually they end up in New Orleans. Tete does win her freedom and that of her daughter. However, their lives are still entangled with that of her former master.This book didn't grab me as much as some of Allende's other books have. Perhaps because I felt that the story shared a lot with The Book of Negroes which I really loved. But there is some interesting history here and some really strong women characters.
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LibraryThing member santhony
I ordered this novel immediately after having read the author’s The House of the Spirits. I found this novel to be very similar in style and substance to the aforementioned work, which in this case is a good thing. Whereas the former work was a highly educational look at early 20th century Chile,
Just as in The House of the Spirits, the author alternates between the first person account of Zarite and the more prevalent third person narrative. The prose is beautiful and the story line is educational and instructive.
This is an absolutely top class piece of work, both in the quality of the writing and the history and political lesson contained therein. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in French and Spanish colonization of the Caribbean or the writing of such authors as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to whose writing Allende compares quite favorably.
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and the formation of the country’s first Republic, this novel is set in late 18th century Haiti, Cuba and New Orleans. The novel follows a young female slave named Zarite (Tete), from the unrest and subsequent slave rebellion on Haiti as she follows her master to first Cuba and then New Orleans.Just as in The House of the Spirits, the author alternates between the first person account of Zarite and the more prevalent third person narrative. The prose is beautiful and the story line is educational and instructive.
This is an absolutely top class piece of work, both in the quality of the writing and the history and political lesson contained therein. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in French and Spanish colonization of the Caribbean or the writing of such authors as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to whose writing Allende compares quite favorably.
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LibraryThing member lauriebrown54
While this novel lacks the magicalness of some of Allende’s books, it’s a powerful story about one of the world’s great abominations: slavery, and it’s effects on one woman in particular, Zarite called Tete.
Toulouse Valmoriain arrives in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) as a 20 year old with the
Many of the whites are almost caricatures in their evilness as slaveholders, especially Valmorain’s second wife who carries a whip in her hand at all times. But people like her really existed, as did men like Valmorain, who lives with a clear conscience despite raping Tete when she is 11 and taking her first child away from her immediately. To him- and to most of the whites- she is not fully human and thus her feelings need not be taken into account. They are less than animals, because most of those slave owners would have taken care of their horse or dog better than they did these fellow human beings. Thankfully, there are a few exceptions. A few whites exist in this story who feel that slavery is a horrible thing. Allende achieves a good balance of good and evil; while the atmosphere is oppressive, things aren’t’ completely bleak for Tete.
Through the years of Tete’s slavery, the story moves from Saint-Domingue and the slave rebellion, to Cuba, to New Orleans, which is sold to the United States during the novel. Allende has done serious research for this book, and it shows.
While not my favorite of Allende’s books- I was enraged by so many of the characters too much of the time- it’s a good one. It’s a very memorable novel.
Toulouse Valmoriain arrives in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) as a 20 year old with the
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idea of seeing his ailing father, getting the sugar plantation on it’s feet again, and then going back to civilized France. But the plantation takes constant attention, so he stays. The child Tete is bought to be his first wife’s personal slave, which is an easier life for a slave than working in the fields. But Tete is prey to the same dangers as all slaves, of abuse, rape, threats of sale or death. Her life may be easier than some because of her intelligence and her luck in ending up with valued slaves who take her under their wings, but it’s still a miserable, hard life. She longs for freedom, even though the chances of obtaining it are slim. Many of the whites are almost caricatures in their evilness as slaveholders, especially Valmorain’s second wife who carries a whip in her hand at all times. But people like her really existed, as did men like Valmorain, who lives with a clear conscience despite raping Tete when she is 11 and taking her first child away from her immediately. To him- and to most of the whites- she is not fully human and thus her feelings need not be taken into account. They are less than animals, because most of those slave owners would have taken care of their horse or dog better than they did these fellow human beings. Thankfully, there are a few exceptions. A few whites exist in this story who feel that slavery is a horrible thing. Allende achieves a good balance of good and evil; while the atmosphere is oppressive, things aren’t’ completely bleak for Tete.
Through the years of Tete’s slavery, the story moves from Saint-Domingue and the slave rebellion, to Cuba, to New Orleans, which is sold to the United States during the novel. Allende has done serious research for this book, and it shows.
While not my favorite of Allende’s books- I was enraged by so many of the characters too much of the time- it’s a good one. It’s a very memorable novel.
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LibraryThing member MarkMeg
A historical novel about Hait. Very interesting. Well written. Could have been shortened in a few places, but good on a whole.
LibraryThing member Twink
Stunning, breathtaking, just an absolutely fantastic read. I started Island Beneath the Sea last night and literally could not put it down. I've just turned the last page and am wondering why have I never read Isabel Allende before!?
The novel opens with a prologue in which Zarité expresses her
"..he invited me to lose myself in the music, the way you do in a dream. Dance, dance, Zarité, the slave who dances is free...while he is dancing, he told me. I have always danced."
Zarité or Teté as she comes to be known, was sold as a slave when she was only a few months old. In 1770 she lives on the island of Saint-Domingue. She is sold again to plantation owner Toulouse Valmorain to look after his wife. Life in the French colony is becoming more and more unsettled. By 1793 the island is extremely dangerous - the blacks have rebelled and are massacring the whites. Valmorain, his family and Teté escape to Cuba and then to Louisiana.
The brief synopsis I've provided doesn't even begin to touch the rich, sweeping saga Allende has written. The story that Allende has woven is simply mesmerizing. But is is the character of Teté that captured me completely -her strength, fortitude, endurance and spirit. Teté is a resilient woman, facing seemingly unbearable situations with quiet dignity. Her life and that of Valmorain are inextricably intertwined as she bears two of his children - the products of repeated sexual violence, beginning when she was eleven. Despite the violence visited upon her, she has an unflagging love for her children and hope for her own future.
But it was the descriptions of the treatment of the slaves that brought tears to my eyes many times. The cavalier and cruel actions by the whites was appalling. Indeed, there were over 60 classifications of mulattoes, based on the amount of white blood.
The supporting characters were no less captivating. Tante Rose, the local healer and voodoo leader, the freedom fighters, including Gambo, Teté's lover and Violette,the mulatto courtesan desired by many. Parmentier, the local white doctor who has secrets of his own. Each one of their stories are rich and vibrant as well.
The Island Beneath the Sea is historical fiction at its' absolute best. The detail was fascinating. I had no idea of the roots of the island we now know as Haiti, the slavery that started long before it reached America and the long war between Spain and France over this small piece of land. Descriptions of the social lives and customs of this time period were incredibly illustrated.
The title? Slaves chose to kill their children and send the to 'the island beneath the sea' rather than have them live as slaves.
Allende's ability to weave factual events with fiction is truly spectacular. Highly, highly recommended.
The novel opens with a prologue in which Zarité expresses her
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love of dancing."..he invited me to lose myself in the music, the way you do in a dream. Dance, dance, Zarité, the slave who dances is free...while he is dancing, he told me. I have always danced."
Zarité or Teté as she comes to be known, was sold as a slave when she was only a few months old. In 1770 she lives on the island of Saint-Domingue. She is sold again to plantation owner Toulouse Valmorain to look after his wife. Life in the French colony is becoming more and more unsettled. By 1793 the island is extremely dangerous - the blacks have rebelled and are massacring the whites. Valmorain, his family and Teté escape to Cuba and then to Louisiana.
The brief synopsis I've provided doesn't even begin to touch the rich, sweeping saga Allende has written. The story that Allende has woven is simply mesmerizing. But is is the character of Teté that captured me completely -her strength, fortitude, endurance and spirit. Teté is a resilient woman, facing seemingly unbearable situations with quiet dignity. Her life and that of Valmorain are inextricably intertwined as she bears two of his children - the products of repeated sexual violence, beginning when she was eleven. Despite the violence visited upon her, she has an unflagging love for her children and hope for her own future.
But it was the descriptions of the treatment of the slaves that brought tears to my eyes many times. The cavalier and cruel actions by the whites was appalling. Indeed, there were over 60 classifications of mulattoes, based on the amount of white blood.
The supporting characters were no less captivating. Tante Rose, the local healer and voodoo leader, the freedom fighters, including Gambo, Teté's lover and Violette,the mulatto courtesan desired by many. Parmentier, the local white doctor who has secrets of his own. Each one of their stories are rich and vibrant as well.
The Island Beneath the Sea is historical fiction at its' absolute best. The detail was fascinating. I had no idea of the roots of the island we now know as Haiti, the slavery that started long before it reached America and the long war between Spain and France over this small piece of land. Descriptions of the social lives and customs of this time period were incredibly illustrated.
The title? Slaves chose to kill their children and send the to 'the island beneath the sea' rather than have them live as slaves.
Allende's ability to weave factual events with fiction is truly spectacular. Highly, highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member fiercebunny
When I pick up an Isabel Allende novel I bring certain expectations with me and even though Island Beneath the Sea met many of them, in some aspects I feel that Allende missed the mark. While still beautiful, this is not my favorite of her novels. Island Beneath the Sea is written in Allende's
The story line throughout Island Beneath the Sea is also beautiful and well constructed. Isabel Allende's talents here are obvious, but again it seemed too straightforward and predictable to come to a satisfying conclusion.
There is no denying the beauty of this book, but it is not the strongest novel from this wonderful writer. Nonetheless, I have been haunted by the world which Allende describes. This is the perfect time for this novel and the connection to the Haitian history that runs throughout can help connect readers to the current situation in Haiti.
Isabel Allende is a compassionate and beautiful writer, she has obviously researched this novel and includes details which lend to the credibility of the story and world. Her craft is unquestionably lovely, but this particular story I found difficult to connect to and frustrating to read. I would recommend many of her other novels including Of Love and Shadows, The House of the Spirits and Zorro, before I would recommend Island Beneath the Sea.
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amazing prose style, which creates vivid images and intense settings, it is as beautiful as Monet's Water Lilies at Giverny, but it is also written in a style which can be frustrating to the reader. Like Monet, Allende's style is unquestionably beautiful, but not for everyone. While reading Island Beneath the Sea, I often found myself enjoying lovely sentences but being frustrated by the repetition of information and felt as if Allende was overly concerned with her reader's understanding exactly what she was describing. It often seemed to me that she either simplified the descriptions or repeated them until her readers couldn't miss the meaning. The story line throughout Island Beneath the Sea is also beautiful and well constructed. Isabel Allende's talents here are obvious, but again it seemed too straightforward and predictable to come to a satisfying conclusion.
There is no denying the beauty of this book, but it is not the strongest novel from this wonderful writer. Nonetheless, I have been haunted by the world which Allende describes. This is the perfect time for this novel and the connection to the Haitian history that runs throughout can help connect readers to the current situation in Haiti.
Isabel Allende is a compassionate and beautiful writer, she has obviously researched this novel and includes details which lend to the credibility of the story and world. Her craft is unquestionably lovely, but this particular story I found difficult to connect to and frustrating to read. I would recommend many of her other novels including Of Love and Shadows, The House of the Spirits and Zorro, before I would recommend Island Beneath the Sea.
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LibraryThing member pamdierickx
Amazing historical fiction of Haiti and the slave uprising.
LibraryThing member MsMuseum
The tragedy of Haiti began long ago as Isabel Allende reveals with her great gift of story telling. The personal resolve of the leading character Zarite, a slave during the slave uprising in Haiti at the time of the French revolution recounts her journey to freedom from Haiti to New Orleans. The
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treatment of slaves is difficult to read but the human spirit personified by Zarite carries the reader with great anticipation. Show Less
LibraryThing member PegSwaney
story of slaves in St. Dominica and Haiti. House slave that saved master and son. Free black cortesan also throughout the story.
LibraryThing member ilurvebooks
Great read as always by this wonderful author who will by a few pages transform you into another world...
LibraryThing member andreablythe
Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue, Tete is purchased as a young girl by Toulouse Valmorain's as a gift for his new wife and works as a domestic slave within the household. A series of events binds both Valmorain and Tete together, and carries them from war the war torn Saint-Domingue to
The scope of this novel is huge, switching back and forth between third person POV and Tete's own POV. Allende is thorough in her history (however accurate), describing in detail the brutal rebellion of slaves on the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue and how the island, later known as Haiti, became the first free black country in the Carribean. From there, she weaves her story briefly through the Cuban landscape, where white refugees are forced to flee, and finally land in Louisianna, where she presents a very different world than that of Saint-Domingue.
Tete has a subdued quality throughout the book. All her life she has had to suppress her own emotions in the face of her own reality, filled with horrors, so it is no surprise that when she tells her tone seems nearly disinterested almost flat. But she is not a woman without passions, which have lain in the quiet depths of her heart. Her battles have been quiet subterfuges and she has had to face her life with simultaneous complacency and secret resistance.
The people who swim around Tete, such as Valmorain and his mad wife or the doctor who often visits to the plantation, are each treated with tenderness and respect. Allende works hard to leave judgment out and to let the reader observe and judge each character on their own terms.
Thick with history and folklore, The Island Beneath the Sea is a wonderful read.
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Cuba and finally to Louisianna. All the while Tete longs and plots for her freedom, taking and holding on tightly to what joys, hope, and passions she can obtain as a slave. The scope of this novel is huge, switching back and forth between third person POV and Tete's own POV. Allende is thorough in her history (however accurate), describing in detail the brutal rebellion of slaves on the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue and how the island, later known as Haiti, became the first free black country in the Carribean. From there, she weaves her story briefly through the Cuban landscape, where white refugees are forced to flee, and finally land in Louisianna, where she presents a very different world than that of Saint-Domingue.
Tete has a subdued quality throughout the book. All her life she has had to suppress her own emotions in the face of her own reality, filled with horrors, so it is no surprise that when she tells her tone seems nearly disinterested almost flat. But she is not a woman without passions, which have lain in the quiet depths of her heart. Her battles have been quiet subterfuges and she has had to face her life with simultaneous complacency and secret resistance.
The people who swim around Tete, such as Valmorain and his mad wife or the doctor who often visits to the plantation, are each treated with tenderness and respect. Allende works hard to leave judgment out and to let the reader observe and judge each character on their own terms.
Thick with history and folklore, The Island Beneath the Sea is a wonderful read.
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LibraryThing member Spearvahn
This book starts wonderfully. I sent a quote to a friend before I had even reached the second page, but I REALLY felt that the book began to fall apart towards the end. She builds the stories and the characters and the history and then poof. She slings a bunch of people together as if to represent
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many aspects of history in Louisianna and then ends the book. I was dissatisfied. Show Less
LibraryThing member brigitte64
It a great but brutal book about slavery and the way people deal with it. I learned a lot about Haiti and New Orleans. A little bit long sometimes but a good read.
LibraryThing member mojomomma
The story of Zarite, known as Tete. A slave born in Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, Tete is a house slave on a sugar plantation. In exchange for saving her master from the slave uprising, she demands her freedom and that of her daughter, who was fathered by her master. Tied to the her master by the love
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of his child, she stays with him as they eventually escape to Cuba and then New Orlenas. I loved the history tied up in this story, especially the atmosphere of turn of the 19th century New Orleans. I thought the translations were a bit stilted in places, though. You'll like this if you like Allende's other stories of strong woman fighting to be free of male domination. Show Less
LibraryThing member kmaziarz
Zarité, known as Tété, was born into slavery in the colony of Saint-Domingue on the island that is now Haiti. Enslaved Africans and people of mixed race, like Tété, were often worked to death in a matter of months on the brutal sugarcane plantations of Saint-Domingue. Tété, however, was
Well-researched, detailed, and vivid, Island Beneath the Sea is a far-reaching tale of a way of life that, though ended, still has repercussions today.
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lucky. She was purchased by Toulouse Valmorain to care for his insane wife and their young son, not to work the fields. And all she had to put up with was Valmorain's unwanted sexual attentions. Valmorain, conflicted about slavery, comes to rely deeply on Tété while never quite accepting her as his equal, or even as quite human. When the slave uprising that will eventually give birth to the first free black republic of Haiti breaks out, Tété is instrumental in saving the lives of Valmorain, his legitimate son Maurice, and their illegitimate quadroon daughter Rosette. The family flees first to Cuba, and, later, relocates to the bustling, vibrant city of New Orleans, where Tété seeks freedom for herself and the beautiful, though spoiled, Rosette. Well-researched, detailed, and vivid, Island Beneath the Sea is a far-reaching tale of a way of life that, though ended, still has repercussions today.
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LibraryThing member marient
Born on the island of Saint-Domingue, Zarite-known as Tete-is the daughter of and African mother she never knew and one of the white ssailors who brought her into bondage. Her childhood is one of brutality and fear, Zarite becomes the slave or Toulouse Valmorian who arrives from France to oversee
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his father's plantation. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cailin
Great book! Isabel Allende never disappoints me. The Island Beneath the Sea follows the life of Zarite "Tete" and the birth of Haiti.
LibraryThing member nomad4224
This book starts in St Dominque - Haiti, while people were still slaves. The relationship between slaves and masters, and generally the candidness with which the characters are relayed is very moving. It's as rich in its story telling as its historical perspective (which later moves to the early
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days of abolitionism in the US). Warmly recommended reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member maryqueenofscotts
I love her writing and the way she incorporates history with intricacies of relationships is incredible in this book! Allende is surprising in her stories especially this one on the life of a slave and the relationships she encounters.
LibraryThing member drausche
I thoroughly enjoyed this even though at times the content was a horrific story line. No sugar-coating the reality of life and history.
LibraryThing member Smits
great book.prose brings to life history of Haiti, the brutality of slavery . She weaves together real characters with fiction. I learned so much about culture , religion and hostory in New Orleans.
LibraryThing member amandacb
Normally, I love Isabel Allende's works -- most of her novels I consider a "tour de force," and I consider them "epic" as well. However, perhaps the beginning of "Island Beneath the Sea" was too vague, too reminescent of freshman-level abstract poetry for me to fully embrace the ideas. I was put
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off by the beginning and thus unable to give the novel a chance. Show Less
Awards
Language
Original language
Spanish
Original publication date
2009
Physical description
512 p.; 5.19 inches
ISBN
0307476057 / 9780307476050
Local notes
espanol
Other editions
La isla bajo el mar (Spanish Edition) by Isabel Allende (Paperback)