The Stories of Eva Luna

by Isabel Allende

Other authorsMargaret Sayers Peden (Translator)

Hardcover, 1991

Call number

FIC ALL

Collection

Fiction

Genres

General Fiction

Publication

Atheneum (1991), Edition: 1st, 288 pages

Description

Told in the voice of Isabel Allende's beloved character Eva Luna, a "distinctive, powerful, and haunting" (Los Angeles Times) collection of short fiction by one of the most iconic and acclaimed writers of our time. Eva Luna is a young woman whose powers as a storyteller bring her friendship and love. Lying in bed with her European lover, refugee and journalist Rolf Carlé, Eva answers his request for a story "you have never told anyone before" with these twenty-three samples of her vibrant artistry. Interweaving the real and the magical, she explores love, vengeance, compassion, and the strengths of women, creating a world that is at once poignantly familiar and intriguingly new. Rendered in her sumptuously imagined, uniquely magical style, The Stories of Eva Luna is the cornerstone of Allende's work. This treasure trove of brilliantly crafted stories is a superb example of a writer working at the height of her powers.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member missmath144

I didn't finish it. I just don't like these short stories like I liked her novels.

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LibraryThing member donp

This is only the second collection of short stories that I've ever read in order, cover to cover, if that tells you anything.

LibraryThing member judithann

Some really good stories about life in South-America, mostly in the past. It's a book to dip into, not to try and read in one go, because there are too many very different stories. Some are OK, some are brilliant.

LibraryThing member bkinetic

These richly entertaining stories have many passionate full-blooded heroines and lots of interesting twists. If you like short stories where nothing much happens overtly and the action is subtle, perhaps even barely perceptible, these are not the stories for you. So many of the stories are the

literary equivalents of full body slams that it would be difficult to read them in quick succession. You at least have to stop and catch your breath before moving on the the next one.

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LibraryThing member fist

Is this the "50 Shades of Grey" of the early '90s? Great scene setting in a romantic South America in everyone of these short stories. Halfway through, I started to find the themes repetitive and a bit disturbing: beautiful women are invariably coupled with much older, more powerful men, and true

love and passion blossom after a first violent intercourse, ie rape. Maybe female readers will have an other opinion; it felt a lot like this collection of short stories was intended for them.

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LibraryThing member ehys0212

This book is in my top ten list for all time favorites.

LibraryThing member JBarringer

I really liked this collection of stories. They remind me of The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Thornton Wilder), but with less connection between the various characters. I liked that there still are connections between some of the characters so that they are all in the same fictional space, even if their

stories don't all intersect.

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