Publication
Random House Large Print, 2023
Collection
Call number
Large Print Fiction A
Physical description
348 p.; 24 cm
Status
Available
Call number
Description
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:This powerful and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and Violeta weaves together past and present, tracing the ripple effects of war and immigration on one child in Europe in 1938 and another in the United States in 2019. �Both stories are rich enough to carry the weight of one novel, but Allende expertly intertwines them.��The Washington Post Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht�the night his family loses everything. As her child�s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel�s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin. Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita D�az and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Dur�n, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita�s mother. Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers�and never stop dreaming.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member sleahey
As usual, Allende has presented a fascinating and timely story of immigration, family, and connections. During the holocaust, young Simon is sent by his mother from Austria to England before she and his father are fatally sent to concentration camps. Eighty years later Young Anita is brought to the
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US by her mother to escape the brutality of El Salvador, only for the two of them to be officially separated at the border. The novel traces all that happens to Simon and Anita, and it is only toward the end that we see how their stories become intertwined. The points of view of a social worker, a lawyer, and a Salvadoran-American housekeeper are also interspersed in various chapters. Although I found the plotline very interesting and relevant, I thought the narrative style was awkward, and much of the dialog stilted and inauthentic, perhaps because of the translation? Show Less
LibraryThing member pomo58
The Wind Knows My Name, written by Isabel Allende and translated by Frances Riddle, is a twin timeline novel that follows two families surviving circumstances that required leaving their homelands.
If you enjoy Allende's writing and, in particular, the way she puts so much detail into every scene,
It is hard to separate the story as story from the story as a social statement. With the immigration issues that are in the news so much today, whether caused by violence or political persecution or climate change, this novel serves to help readers remember that these are human beings, including children, and not just numbers. If your ethical or spiritual belief system includes any form of compassion, you should want to help these people, not pretend that your system or religion ends with your country's border. If you're just a hypocrite, then you're comfortable claiming some high ground while condemning people to suffer. Obviously none of your religion's key figures was ever a refugee or immigrant, right?
I recommend this to readers who enjoy novels that use excellent descriptions of both locations and characters to create a story. If you're content with much of the action being mental and emotional, then you'll enjoy this.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
If you enjoy Allende's writing and, in particular, the way she puts so much detail into every scene,
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this will not disappoint you. Her characters are also well-developed, though to different extents depending on where they fall in the timeline. The ones we need to know best, in order to understand the trauma passed from generation to generation, are the most developed. As is her norm, this is not a fast action-packed novel. It is well-paced and methodical, bringing the reader along but making sure we have a chance to take in as much as possible along the way.It is hard to separate the story as story from the story as a social statement. With the immigration issues that are in the news so much today, whether caused by violence or political persecution or climate change, this novel serves to help readers remember that these are human beings, including children, and not just numbers. If your ethical or spiritual belief system includes any form of compassion, you should want to help these people, not pretend that your system or religion ends with your country's border. If you're just a hypocrite, then you're comfortable claiming some high ground while condemning people to suffer. Obviously none of your religion's key figures was ever a refugee or immigrant, right?
I recommend this to readers who enjoy novels that use excellent descriptions of both locations and characters to create a story. If you're content with much of the action being mental and emotional, then you'll enjoy this.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
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LibraryThing member tamidale
Isabel Allende always writes some beautiful stories and this was no exception. It begins with a young boy named Samuel Adler who is living with his parents in Vienna. When Kristallnacht occurred, his father disappeared and life became very difficult for his family.
In desperation, his mother put him
In another storyline, Anita has come illegally to the US with her mother. They are soon separated and her mother cannot be found. Anita, is seven years old and blind. Selena a social worker and a San Fransisco attorney work together to locate any of Anita’s family.
As luck would have it, Anita has a distant cousin who just happens to be the housekeeper for Samuel Adler. I loved the parallels between what Samuel endured as a child and what Anita has gone through.
As much as I loved the story, I could have done without the politics of illegal immigration. Numerous administrations have failed to address the issue in any meaningful way and for the author to subtly lay blame at any one of them added nothing to the story.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review.
In desperation, his mother put him
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on the Kindertransport, where he was relocated to the UK and taken in by a nice family. Samuel ends up working with the Symphony and later as a college professor at Berkeley.In another storyline, Anita has come illegally to the US with her mother. They are soon separated and her mother cannot be found. Anita, is seven years old and blind. Selena a social worker and a San Fransisco attorney work together to locate any of Anita’s family.
As luck would have it, Anita has a distant cousin who just happens to be the housekeeper for Samuel Adler. I loved the parallels between what Samuel endured as a child and what Anita has gone through.
As much as I loved the story, I could have done without the politics of illegal immigration. Numerous administrations have failed to address the issue in any meaningful way and for the author to subtly lay blame at any one of them added nothing to the story.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review.
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LibraryThing member mojomomma
Another Allende home run! The Kindertransport program to get Jewish children out of Germany is compared to the current migration of families from Central America to escape violence. In the depths of the pandemic, Samuel Adler, who as a child was sent to England to escape the Nazis by his desperate
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parents, suddenly becomes part of a family to Anita, his housekeeper/companion's relative who is seeking asylum in the U.S. Anita's mother is missing and assumed deported back to El Salvador, but until her true status is known, Anita's future is up in the air. A great read. Show Less
LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
The Wind Knows My Name, Isabel Allende, author; Edoardo Ballerini, Maria Liatis, narrators, Frances Riddle, translator
The author has very skillfully shone a light on America's broken immigration system. She has knitted together several tragic events to highlight the abuses. In the novel, Samuel
Another is Anita Diaz, aged 7, who was separated from her mother at the border of the United States and Mexico, as they left their country hoping to enter the United States to find safety. They were caught at the border due to circumstances beyond their control. They were running from Carlos Gomez, a man with a violent reputation. Mirasol Diaz believed their lives were in grave danger. Anita and her mother were forcefully separated at the border, ostensibly to keep Anita safe, since child trafficking had become a big business. They expected to be reunited.
The father of Carlos Gomez had once participated in the massacre in El Salvador that caused our third character, Letitia Cordero, to flee El Mozote with her father, during the Civil War, when she was just a young child. Years later, during the raging Covid 19 pandemic, we find Letitia in the home of Samuel Adler. She is the housekeeper and companion for Samuel, now a widower whom she calls Mr. Bogart, which was his wife's pet name for him. When she discovers that she is related to the young child, Anita Diaz, the threads of the novel connect as they each find a new purpose and discover a new direction in life.
For background, Samuel, Letitia and Anita, had something in common. They all suffered great loss. They all fled danger and they all wound up in Berkely, California. Because of the tragedies in their lives, they had to learn to adjust to a new land and a new language as they struggled to survive. All three had suffered the trauma of separation from those they loved. How they adjusted to the cruelties of life and built a new life, is one of the themes of this book. How manmade cruelties caused their trauma is a major theme of this book, as well. Does the author believe the United States played a part in all of these events leading to so much tragedy? What will you, the reader, believe? Man’s inhumanity to man is writ large on every page.
There are rules that must be followed in any civilized country, and the border of that country is usually considered sacrosanct. If the sheer number of immigrants that wish to come to America overwhelms the immigration system, the sanctuary country runs the risk of becoming a failed nation. Has the author given that issue any consideration? The fact remains that entering America illegally is a crime. If the border wasn’t overwhelmed by so many illegal entries, sponsored by “coyotes” and those who would defy our laws, the system would not break down and those who truly needed sanctuary would find it more easily. It is a known fact that not all immigrants come to escape danger. Some come for economic benefit. They need to wait their turn and enter legally. The United States owes its first responsibility to its own citizens, and illegal immigrants are stretching the ability of our health care, education and housing market to its breaking point. Many come to America for the free services we provide, but they are overwhelming the system, and therefore, some get trapped by the very system they hoped would save them.
Although the book was published in June of 2023, at a time when more facts were known about the flaws of our immigration system and who was responsible for them, the author chose to blame many who were not responsible, simply because of her progressive ideals. In some cases, she presented what seemed like flawed information, like when she pointed to the fact that children were kept in "cages" by the administration in power during the Pandemic. In fact, it started in 2014, during the administration of another President. Although the characters yearned for a vaccine, she did not give credit to the President who enabled it, and actually called someone who worked for that President a fascist. The author has used her bully pulpit to promote a political point of view, but not necessarily a totally honest one.
The book is heartbreaking, no doubt about it. She describes the "Night of Broken Glass" with precision and the massacre at El Mozote with authenticity. She exposes the flaws in our broken system, but she attributes them to the wrong culprits, often, to promote a progressive viewpoint. The failures in the system are caused by those who continue to allow system to flourish with idealistic remedies that fail. Simply put, America cannot save the entire world. She laments that serial killers have a right to a lawyer, but not immigrants, but she ignores the fact that one is a citizen of the country, and one has entered the country illegally. Both may be criminals, but both are not Americans; both are not entitled to the same rights.
Also, not all republicans and conservatives refused to wear masks and not all progressives and democrats obeyed the rules and got vaccinated, but she portrays the right and left according to her personal political views which lean to the left. Essentially, she has compared our border crisis to the Holocaust, which I find to be a contradiction of terms. In one case, you have people flooding our border, willingly, hoping to find safety, and in the other you have innocent people removed from a country, unwillingly, to be murdered. The mistakes of the past cannot be corrected by making bigger mistakes in the present.
I do not condone the tragedies that have occurred, but the problems of Central America must be solved by Central America. America must have a border and rules and regulations must be followed. We are witnessing the decline of our own cities because of progressive policies that are unrealistic, though well-meaning. Who is to blame? The author has one view, I have another. What will you, the reader, believe?
The author has very skillfully shone a light on America's broken immigration system. She has knitted together several tragic events to highlight the abuses. In the novel, Samuel
Show More
Adler is a 7-year-old violin prodigy. He was separated from his family via the Kinder Transport that rescued children during the Holocaust. Families willingly gave up their children to save them from the horror they knew was coming. They hoped to be reunited, one day. There was poor record keeping and a genocide followed.Another is Anita Diaz, aged 7, who was separated from her mother at the border of the United States and Mexico, as they left their country hoping to enter the United States to find safety. They were caught at the border due to circumstances beyond their control. They were running from Carlos Gomez, a man with a violent reputation. Mirasol Diaz believed their lives were in grave danger. Anita and her mother were forcefully separated at the border, ostensibly to keep Anita safe, since child trafficking had become a big business. They expected to be reunited.
The father of Carlos Gomez had once participated in the massacre in El Salvador that caused our third character, Letitia Cordero, to flee El Mozote with her father, during the Civil War, when she was just a young child. Years later, during the raging Covid 19 pandemic, we find Letitia in the home of Samuel Adler. She is the housekeeper and companion for Samuel, now a widower whom she calls Mr. Bogart, which was his wife's pet name for him. When she discovers that she is related to the young child, Anita Diaz, the threads of the novel connect as they each find a new purpose and discover a new direction in life.
For background, Samuel, Letitia and Anita, had something in common. They all suffered great loss. They all fled danger and they all wound up in Berkely, California. Because of the tragedies in their lives, they had to learn to adjust to a new land and a new language as they struggled to survive. All three had suffered the trauma of separation from those they loved. How they adjusted to the cruelties of life and built a new life, is one of the themes of this book. How manmade cruelties caused their trauma is a major theme of this book, as well. Does the author believe the United States played a part in all of these events leading to so much tragedy? What will you, the reader, believe? Man’s inhumanity to man is writ large on every page.
There are rules that must be followed in any civilized country, and the border of that country is usually considered sacrosanct. If the sheer number of immigrants that wish to come to America overwhelms the immigration system, the sanctuary country runs the risk of becoming a failed nation. Has the author given that issue any consideration? The fact remains that entering America illegally is a crime. If the border wasn’t overwhelmed by so many illegal entries, sponsored by “coyotes” and those who would defy our laws, the system would not break down and those who truly needed sanctuary would find it more easily. It is a known fact that not all immigrants come to escape danger. Some come for economic benefit. They need to wait their turn and enter legally. The United States owes its first responsibility to its own citizens, and illegal immigrants are stretching the ability of our health care, education and housing market to its breaking point. Many come to America for the free services we provide, but they are overwhelming the system, and therefore, some get trapped by the very system they hoped would save them.
Although the book was published in June of 2023, at a time when more facts were known about the flaws of our immigration system and who was responsible for them, the author chose to blame many who were not responsible, simply because of her progressive ideals. In some cases, she presented what seemed like flawed information, like when she pointed to the fact that children were kept in "cages" by the administration in power during the Pandemic. In fact, it started in 2014, during the administration of another President. Although the characters yearned for a vaccine, she did not give credit to the President who enabled it, and actually called someone who worked for that President a fascist. The author has used her bully pulpit to promote a political point of view, but not necessarily a totally honest one.
The book is heartbreaking, no doubt about it. She describes the "Night of Broken Glass" with precision and the massacre at El Mozote with authenticity. She exposes the flaws in our broken system, but she attributes them to the wrong culprits, often, to promote a progressive viewpoint. The failures in the system are caused by those who continue to allow system to flourish with idealistic remedies that fail. Simply put, America cannot save the entire world. She laments that serial killers have a right to a lawyer, but not immigrants, but she ignores the fact that one is a citizen of the country, and one has entered the country illegally. Both may be criminals, but both are not Americans; both are not entitled to the same rights.
Also, not all republicans and conservatives refused to wear masks and not all progressives and democrats obeyed the rules and got vaccinated, but she portrays the right and left according to her personal political views which lean to the left. Essentially, she has compared our border crisis to the Holocaust, which I find to be a contradiction of terms. In one case, you have people flooding our border, willingly, hoping to find safety, and in the other you have innocent people removed from a country, unwillingly, to be murdered. The mistakes of the past cannot be corrected by making bigger mistakes in the present.
I do not condone the tragedies that have occurred, but the problems of Central America must be solved by Central America. America must have a border and rules and regulations must be followed. We are witnessing the decline of our own cities because of progressive policies that are unrealistic, though well-meaning. Who is to blame? The author has one view, I have another. What will you, the reader, believe?
Show Less
LibraryThing member mykl-s
This is a very layered work, in the best sense of the word.
There are many characters and several storylines, all told in ways showing how lives are enmeshed in webs of connection, making it all one story.
Because of the novels depth, it's pages seem at first awkward, as each storyline comes and
There is much unhappiness in these stories about displaced persons from three continents, but in the end it is uplifting and hopeful.
Allende knows how to tell this kind of story, without a word out of place.
There are many characters and several storylines, all told in ways showing how lives are enmeshed in webs of connection, making it all one story.
Because of the novels depth, it's pages seem at first awkward, as each storyline comes and
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goes, and each character is located in their time and place. There is much unhappiness in these stories about displaced persons from three continents, but in the end it is uplifting and hopeful.
Allende knows how to tell this kind of story, without a word out of place.
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LibraryThing member srms.reads
3.75⭐️
In I938 Vienna, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, six-year-old Samuel Adler is sent to England via Kindertransport – his mother’s final gesture of love in a bid to save her son’s life. Samuel, a violin prodigy and the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust spends time
Letitia Cordero was seven years old when everyone in her family, save for her father, lost their lives in the El Mozote massacre of 1981. Letitia and her father fled El Salvador, crossing the Rio Grande to enter America, where they eventually make a life for themselves.
In 2019, seven-year-old Anita Diaz and her mother, fleeing from violence in El Salvador, is taken into custody at the US-Mexico border while trying to enter the United States illegally. Detained and ultimately separated from her mother Marisol, Anita, visually impaired after an accident that took the life of her younger sister, is left to fend for herself, shuttled between foster homes, alone and desperate to reunite with her mother. Anita copes with her fears and loneliness through conversations with her deceased sister and dreams of an imaginary magical world where she would be reunited with all of those she has lost. Selena Duran, a social worker attached to the Magnolia Project for Refugees and Immigrants, and Frank Angileri a lawyer from San Francisco who represents Anita’s interests pro bono, work together so that Anita is granted asylum while the search for her mother continues. After Anita endures a particularly traumatizing episode in foster care they manage to track down Anita’s distant relation, Letitia Cordero who is sheltering in place in her employer, the elderly Samuel Adler’s home during the pandemic. As the narrative progresses we follow Anita, Letitia and Samuel as their stories converge - three lives, impacted by similar circumstances, decades apart –– and how they impact and are impacted by one another- on a shared journey of hope and healing.
Touching upon themes of forced migration, sacrifice, loss, trauma, healing and found family, the author seamlessly weaves the three threads of this story together to craft a beautiful, heartfelt narrative that will touch your heart. Powerful prose, superb characterizations, fluid narrative, and the author’s masterful storytelling make for a compelling read. The pace is a tad uneven but not so much that it detracts from the reading experience. Though the three characters and their childhood experiences are set in different timelines, decades apart, the author draws out the similarities between historical events and contemporary politics and policies, in the context of the impact of the same on children whose lives are upended in the face of violence and war, forced migration and immigration policies and politics. The author paints a heart-wrenching picture of the plight of innocent children forced to flee their homeland with their fates and their lives in the hands of those who might not always be sympathetic to their cause. This is not a lengthy book (less than 300 pages) but definitely a timely and thought-provoking story. However, I would have liked it if a few aspects and characters in this story had been explored in a bit more depth and the ending did feel a tad rushed. But overall, The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende is an impactful read that I would not hesitate to recommend
Many thanks to Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this beautiful story. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
In I938 Vienna, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, six-year-old Samuel Adler is sent to England via Kindertransport – his mother’s final gesture of love in a bid to save her son’s life. Samuel, a violin prodigy and the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust spends time
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in foster care among strangers before finally finding a home with a kindly Quaker couple. We follow Samuel’s story into adulthood, his move to the United States, and his love and talent for music playing an important role in the life he builds for himself.Letitia Cordero was seven years old when everyone in her family, save for her father, lost their lives in the El Mozote massacre of 1981. Letitia and her father fled El Salvador, crossing the Rio Grande to enter America, where they eventually make a life for themselves.
In 2019, seven-year-old Anita Diaz and her mother, fleeing from violence in El Salvador, is taken into custody at the US-Mexico border while trying to enter the United States illegally. Detained and ultimately separated from her mother Marisol, Anita, visually impaired after an accident that took the life of her younger sister, is left to fend for herself, shuttled between foster homes, alone and desperate to reunite with her mother. Anita copes with her fears and loneliness through conversations with her deceased sister and dreams of an imaginary magical world where she would be reunited with all of those she has lost. Selena Duran, a social worker attached to the Magnolia Project for Refugees and Immigrants, and Frank Angileri a lawyer from San Francisco who represents Anita’s interests pro bono, work together so that Anita is granted asylum while the search for her mother continues. After Anita endures a particularly traumatizing episode in foster care they manage to track down Anita’s distant relation, Letitia Cordero who is sheltering in place in her employer, the elderly Samuel Adler’s home during the pandemic. As the narrative progresses we follow Anita, Letitia and Samuel as their stories converge - three lives, impacted by similar circumstances, decades apart –– and how they impact and are impacted by one another- on a shared journey of hope and healing.
Touching upon themes of forced migration, sacrifice, loss, trauma, healing and found family, the author seamlessly weaves the three threads of this story together to craft a beautiful, heartfelt narrative that will touch your heart. Powerful prose, superb characterizations, fluid narrative, and the author’s masterful storytelling make for a compelling read. The pace is a tad uneven but not so much that it detracts from the reading experience. Though the three characters and their childhood experiences are set in different timelines, decades apart, the author draws out the similarities between historical events and contemporary politics and policies, in the context of the impact of the same on children whose lives are upended in the face of violence and war, forced migration and immigration policies and politics. The author paints a heart-wrenching picture of the plight of innocent children forced to flee their homeland with their fates and their lives in the hands of those who might not always be sympathetic to their cause. This is not a lengthy book (less than 300 pages) but definitely a timely and thought-provoking story. However, I would have liked it if a few aspects and characters in this story had been explored in a bit more depth and the ending did feel a tad rushed. But overall, The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende is an impactful read that I would not hesitate to recommend
Many thanks to Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this beautiful story. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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LibraryThing member kayanelson
A nice readable book that comes together in the end. Allende is a prolific writer but I don’t think I need to read more of her books.
LibraryThing member ZachMontana
A good story that has many threads but all related to immigration from WW2 Austria Jewish people to todays US Southern Border crisis. Characters are well developed, interesting and empathetic. Unless the book is read straight thru or in a short period, it stretches the reader to remember what is
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going on until one is more than half way in because of the way it is written with chapters related to one time period and character changing. I had to keep going back and re-reading because I read this book over several weeks. The story is great on enlightening the reader to the issues of forced migration and perhaps helping people to have more empathy with the current very complex problem at the Mexico Border. But will US Citizens force our Congress to finally take on this issue and make some meaningful progress? I doubt it! The majority doesn't care enough and is too short sighted to see that our current progression of the rich getting richer and everyone else fighting to survive both in our Country and in the World will eventually end in conflagration with everyone losing! Show Less
LibraryThing member deslivres5
Two tragic stories from our near past, involving children put into peril and trauma, coalesce into a beautiful ending of survival and hope. The 2020 pandemic is also touched upon lightly.
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
This novel begins with the story of a six year old boy in Vienna in 1938, beginning with the terrible night when his father disappears and he and his mother take shelter in the upstairs apartment of a war veteran while their own apartment is vandalized. He is later placed on a train filled with
Then, in 1981, another child it taken to the city by her father for healthcare. While she is there, the residents of her village in El Salvador, El Mozote, are all murdered by the military. She and her father flee north to the United States and attempt to put together a life in this new country.
And in 2019, another young girl and her mother arrive in Arizona after a dangerous journey from El Salvador. They are quickly separated and while Anita is terrified, she ends up with allies, an immigration advocate and the lawyer working pro bono. Their first task is to find her mother.
The stories of these three children intertwine over time, and that story is both harsh and lovely. Allende is making a point here, about how damaging being left alone can be for a child, but also how desperate a parent has to be to let a child go in the hopes that they will at least survive. She is interested in what happens in the new, strange place, when the people around that child are not necessarily nurturing or welcoming and the lasting damage done, but also the people who are willing to open their hearts to these children. Allende herself founded a non-profit helping children immigrating to the US and her knowledge of the situation is clear in her writing.
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other Jewish children and sent to live out the war safely in England.Then, in 1981, another child it taken to the city by her father for healthcare. While she is there, the residents of her village in El Salvador, El Mozote, are all murdered by the military. She and her father flee north to the United States and attempt to put together a life in this new country.
And in 2019, another young girl and her mother arrive in Arizona after a dangerous journey from El Salvador. They are quickly separated and while Anita is terrified, she ends up with allies, an immigration advocate and the lawyer working pro bono. Their first task is to find her mother.
The stories of these three children intertwine over time, and that story is both harsh and lovely. Allende is making a point here, about how damaging being left alone can be for a child, but also how desperate a parent has to be to let a child go in the hopes that they will at least survive. She is interested in what happens in the new, strange place, when the people around that child are not necessarily nurturing or welcoming and the lasting damage done, but also the people who are willing to open their hearts to these children. Allende herself founded a non-profit helping children immigrating to the US and her knowledge of the situation is clear in her writing.
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LibraryThing member bell7
Two families, two immigrant stories. Samuel Adler was sent away from Austria on the Kindertransport after Kristallnacht in 1938, first going to England and eventually settling in the U.S. Anita Diaz came to the U.S. from El Salvador with her mother, Marisol, in 2019 but they were separated and
It's obvious that Allende cares deeply and knows a lot about asylum seekers immigrating to the U.S. Unfortunately, the story here is superseded by her theme, and the result is an expository, clunky, didactic book that I wouldn't have finished if it weren't for book club. I could pick a sentence or two almost at random to illustrate the style, so here's a random taste from early on: "That afternoon, the stink of dread stirred up by the wind was suffocating, making him feel dizzy and nauseous. He decided to turn away the patients left in his waiting room and close up early. Surprised, his assistant asked if he was ill. She'd worked with the doctor for eleven years and had never known him to shirk his duties; he was a punctual, methodical man." Information about every character is presented in a similar way, and we get an extensive back story for everyone by this detached omniscient narrator that randomly tells readers things that happened before, filling in blanks between time periods (the story spans 1938 to 2020 and jumps in time a little, while mostly focusing on 2019-2020), and even sharing what will happen to a character in the future. The point of view changes among various characters: besides Samuel himself, a woman named Letitia who came to the U.S. after a massacre in El Salvador, Anita - whose first-person narration, as she talks to her (dead) younger sister Claudia, was the only one I could connect with - and Anita's social worker Selena. And then, because I was so focused on the mechanics of the story instead of the plot itself, little things that didn't make sense, like how a Californian lawyer is suddenly practicing law in Arizona with no explanation, really bothered me. I could go on, but I'll stop there. I read and enjoyed [Zorro] several years ago, and I know that Allende's work is highly regarded, but this one was a miss. Not recommended.
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she's in the foster care system while waiting for her court case to potentially grant her asylum.It's obvious that Allende cares deeply and knows a lot about asylum seekers immigrating to the U.S. Unfortunately, the story here is superseded by her theme, and the result is an expository, clunky, didactic book that I wouldn't have finished if it weren't for book club. I could pick a sentence or two almost at random to illustrate the style, so here's a random taste from early on: "That afternoon, the stink of dread stirred up by the wind was suffocating, making him feel dizzy and nauseous. He decided to turn away the patients left in his waiting room and close up early. Surprised, his assistant asked if he was ill. She'd worked with the doctor for eleven years and had never known him to shirk his duties; he was a punctual, methodical man." Information about every character is presented in a similar way, and we get an extensive back story for everyone by this detached omniscient narrator that randomly tells readers things that happened before, filling in blanks between time periods (the story spans 1938 to 2020 and jumps in time a little, while mostly focusing on 2019-2020), and even sharing what will happen to a character in the future. The point of view changes among various characters: besides Samuel himself, a woman named Letitia who came to the U.S. after a massacre in El Salvador, Anita - whose first-person narration, as she talks to her (dead) younger sister Claudia, was the only one I could connect with - and Anita's social worker Selena. And then, because I was so focused on the mechanics of the story instead of the plot itself, little things that didn't make sense, like how a Californian lawyer is suddenly practicing law in Arizona with no explanation, really bothered me. I could go on, but I'll stop there. I read and enjoyed [Zorro] several years ago, and I know that Allende's work is highly regarded, but this one was a miss. Not recommended.
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Awards
Language
Original language
Spanish
ISBN
9780593743720