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That September 2, 1939, the day of the Spanish exiles' splendid arrival in Chile, the Second World War broke out in Europe.
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, the pianist Roser Bruguera, he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile.
When opportunity to seek refuge in Chile arises, they take it, boarding a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda to the promised 'long petal of sea and wine and snow' over the seas. 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, A Long Petal of the Sea is Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.
"Allende's assured prose vividly evokes her fictional characters, historical figures like Neruda, and decades of complex international history; her imagery makes the suffering of war and displacement palpable yet also does justice to human strength, hope and rebirth...the novel feels both timeless and perfectly timed for today." - 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)
"Allende tends to describe emotions and events rather than delve into them, and she paints the historical backdrop in very broad strokes, but she is an engaging storyteller...A trifle facile, but this decades-spanning drama is readable and engrossing throughout." - Kirkus Reviews
"Allende marries the fictional and the historical in lush, sprawling epics. A Long Petal of the Sea takes its place in the unparalleled canon she has created, exploring the sacrifices we make for the sake of those we love, and the love we sacrifice for the sake of our families." - Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things
"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, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner
This information about A Long Petal of the Sea was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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.
Author Interview
Link to Isabel Allende's Website
Name Pronunciation
Isabel Allende: Ees-abel Ay-enday (or ä-YEN-d?)
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