Fantastic, 10 Oct 2008
I have never read a book where so many characters are delved into so deeply. Allende is a wonderful story teller, and the narrative being interspersed with individual character opinions makes it all the better. I had to limit my reading every day so I would not get through it too quickly. Even if you have no interest in the Chilean revolution, this book is a must read. It's a shame that the rest of her books never quite made it up to this standard.

Clara, Clearest Clairvoyant!! Magical visitations in Isabel Allende's House!, 01 Sep 2008
I can still remember reading Allende's opening lines in Liverpool's Bold Street Waterstones. 'Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.' I tingled all over, bought the book and barely managed to get off the train at Bolton Station. Literary purists always gesture knowingly towards their copies of Marquez's One Hundred years of Solitude. Leave them to it. Allende was born to write this book. She centres her story on a family's experience of Pinochet's savage regime in Chile. The House of the Spirits is as the title suggests, a family saga but a saga marvellously suffused by 'other' ways of knowing about events and futures. Part of the magic of the novel is that the 'spirit' co-exists powerfully with the 'material' in an unapologetic and finally redemptive way. The epigraph by the poet Pablo Neruda says it all for me:

How much does a man live, after all?

Does he live a thousand days, or one only?

...What does it mean to say 'for ever'?

Fantastic, 01 Aug 2008
I absolutely loved this book! It was colourful and political, about love and family, sadness and tragedy, all wrapped into one heart-warming story. For me it was one of those books that once I started, I didn't want to do anything else but see what happened next.

Allende has become my favourite author as a result of this book. I would advise anyone to read it.

My first favourite book!, 31 Mar 2008
We can all remember that book that showed us how reading can be genuinely enjoyable. For me, The House of the Spirits was that book. I was to read this book in 11th grade when we were given 2 months to finish it. Back then I had better ways to distract myself from homework by the time I realised it was 2 days before the deadline I had only read about 4 chapters. Of those two days, I forced myself to read as much of it as I could, and the first night I ended up reading just over 100 pages, leaving the remaining 250 pages for the following day. Needless to say, it was not a struggle and I actually enjoyed reading the whole thing, even though it took most part of day and night.

Isabelle Allende is Chilean, and very proudly molds her stories around her knowledge of her country and her ancestry. She has extremely powerful ways of describing expressions and feelings in detail, and will write in words what some of us wouldn't be able to describe. Love is one of those, and this book is full of it. Love for the country, love for the family, love for that one special person, and the power it has over you, giving you the strength to accomplish anything.

Like all memorable novels, The House of the Spirits is a mixture of melancholy, joy, sadness, laughter; an array of powerful feelings that grasp the reader's heart. Tragedy has a continuous presence in this story as it evolves around Chile's civil war and the way the characters lived, or died, through it. Some of the characters used were based on real relatives, adding a biographical touch to the story, enhancing the power of the novel.

A must read, and if you like Isabel Allende, I strongly recommend PAULA, Isabel's autobiography, but be prepared for a very powerful and captivating book.

Magical..., 09 Jan 2008
Really magical book that follows a family through four generations. A strange mix of fantasy and reality. Didn't get 5 stars as it took me a long time to get through (not because I'm lazy, just sometimes could only get through a few pages at a time). The authors description of characters is brilliant, I really felt like I knew them. Becomes extremely political towards the end (which would usually stop me reading) but Allende's writing style and dashes of fantasy throughout kept me going. Strange book but very very good!!

Fantastic, 10 Oct 2008
I have never read a book where so many characters are delved into so deeply. Allende is a wonderful story teller, and the narrative being interspersed with individual character opinions makes it all the better. I had to limit my reading every day so I would not get through it too quickly. Even if you have no interest in the Chilean revolution, this book is a must read. It's a shame that the rest of her books never quite made it up to this standard.

Clara, Clearest Clairvoyant!! Magical visitations in Isabel Allende's House!, 01 Sep 2008
I can still remember reading Allende's opening lines in Liverpool's Bold Street Waterstones. 'Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.' I tingled all over, bought the book and barely managed to get off the train at Bolton Station. Literary purists always gesture knowingly towards their copies of Marquez's One Hundred years of Solitude. Leave them to it. Allende was born to write this book. She centres her story on a family's experience of Pinochet's savage regime in Chile. The House of the Spirits is as the title suggests, a family saga but a saga marvellously suffused by 'other' ways of knowing about events and futures. Part of the magic of the novel is that the 'spirit' co-exists powerfully with the 'material' in an unapologetic and finally redemptive way. The epigraph by the poet Pablo Neruda says it all for me:

How much does a man live, after all?

Does he live a thousand days, or one only?

...What does it mean to say 'for ever'?

Fantastic, 01 Aug 2008
I absolutely loved this book! It was colourful and political, about love and family, sadness and tragedy, all wrapped into one heart-warming story. For me it was one of those books that once I started, I didn't want to do anything else but see what happened next.

Allende has become my favourite author as a result of this book. I would advise anyone to read it.

My first favourite book!, 31 Mar 2008
We can all remember that book that showed us how reading can be genuinely enjoyable. For me, The House of the Spirits was that book. I was to read this book in 11th grade when we were given 2 months to finish it. Back then I had better ways to distract myself from homework by the time I realised it was 2 days before the deadline I had only read about 4 chapters. Of those two days, I forced myself to read as much of it as I could, and the first night I ended up reading just over 100 pages, leaving the remaining 250 pages for the following day. Needless to say, it was not a struggle and I actually enjoyed reading the whole thing, even though it took most part of day and night.

Isabelle Allende is Chilean, and very proudly molds her stories around her knowledge of her country and her ancestry. She has extremely powerful ways of describing expressions and feelings in detail, and will write in words what some of us wouldn't be able to describe. Love is one of those, and this book is full of it. Love for the country, love for the family, love for that one special person, and the power it has over you, giving you the strength to accomplish anything.

Like all memorable novels, The House of the Spirits is a mixture of melancholy, joy, sadness, laughter; an array of powerful feelings that grasp the reader's heart. Tragedy has a continuous presence in this story as it evolves around Chile's civil war and the way the characters lived, or died, through it. Some of the characters used were based on real relatives, adding a biographical touch to the story, enhancing the power of the novel.

A must read, and if you like Isabel Allende, I strongly recommend PAULA, Isabel's autobiography, but be prepared for a very powerful and captivating book.

Magical..., 09 Jan 2008
Really magical book that follows a family through four generations. A strange mix of fantasy and reality. Didn't get 5 stars as it took me a long time to get through (not because I'm lazy, just sometimes could only get through a few pages at a time). The authors description of characters is brilliant, I really felt like I knew them. Becomes extremely political towards the end (which would usually stop me reading) but Allende's writing style and dashes of fantasy throughout kept me going. Strange book but very very good!!

The story of a strong woman, 17 Oct 2008
Ines of my soul is a book about the Spanish conquest of Chile. Ines is a woman that decided to go after her man though this process. Written in first person, Ines retells all the struggles they have to go through in order to conquer this territory. It describes many battles with the aborigines.

The whole book is based on real historical events, which makes this book even more interesting.

Every person who has read other Isabel Allende's books knows hers are always worth reading. So this one will deffinitely not disappoint you.



Typical Allende, Fantastic story telling, 02 Jun 2008
I have read the majority of Allende's output and love her compelling narrative style. The thing about Allende is that she really knows how to tell a fascinating story that sucks you in. This is no exception.

Based on the history of the first Spanish woman to settle in Chile in the New World this is Allende's fictionalised firsthand account of Ines' life. Ines is a great character and there is a lot of meat on the bones here. The story moves fast and is bloodthirsty, passionate and in the main, well told.

My main grumble was the fact that Ines had a remarkable capacity for recounting events that she wasn't present for. Most of the time this is fine and well handled with reasons for her being able to add such events into her narrative, but there are times, particularly towards the end of the novel where it seems more stretched and unrealistic, particularly regarding the motivations and activities of the barbaric enemy warrior Felipe becomes. I found this stretched my belief a little too much in what was otherwise a fine story.

The Sum of our Days, 30 Apr 2008
I have read almost all of Allende's books-The Sum of our Days is a follow up of family events following her book PAULA, a riveting account of her beloved daughter's tragic death.

I have laughed and cried whilst reading this book. Allende's talent for writing is amazing. She remains her passionate, volatile self and is humble enough to admit her very human failings. I always say I've put 2 lifetimes into my one, Allende has put 4 into hers!

A must for Allende fans, 07 Aug 2007
If you liked A Portrait in Sepia and Daughter of Fortune, you will almost certainly appreciate this tale, which as the other reviews say, is hard-hitting and passionate. For me this was a welcome return to Allende's more usual punchy style of story telling, which The City of Beasts etc. sadly lacked. Great stuff!

Bloodthirsty tale. , 14 May 2007
These are fictional memoirs of Ines Suarez who was the first Spanish woman to live in Chile in the 1500s. The historical details in this book are astounding, and some of the tales are extremely bloodthirsty and brutal to read. To think that some of the events they describe actually took place is almost inconceivable. Allende has a marvellous way with words and her writing style is so easy to read.

Passionate, breathtaking and bloodthirsty, this is historical fiction at is very best.

Fantastic, 10 Oct 2008
I have never read a book where so many characters are delved into so deeply. Allende is a wonderful story teller, and the narrative being interspersed with individual character opinions makes it all the better. I had to limit my reading every day so I would not get through it too quickly. Even if you have no interest in the Chilean revolution, this book is a must read. It's a shame that the rest of her books never quite made it up to this standard.

Clara, Clearest Clairvoyant!! Magical visitations in Isabel Allende's House!, 01 Sep 2008
I can still remember reading Allende's opening lines in Liverpool's Bold Street Waterstones. 'Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.' I tingled all over, bought the book and barely managed to get off the train at Bolton Station. Literary purists always gesture knowingly towards their copies of Marquez's One Hundred years of Solitude. Leave them to it. Allende was born to write this book. She centres her story on a family's experience of Pinochet's savage regime in Chile. The House of the Spirits is as the title suggests, a family saga but a saga marvellously suffused by 'other' ways of knowing about events and futures. Part of the magic of the novel is that the 'spirit' co-exists powerfully with the 'material' in an unapologetic and finally redemptive way. The epigraph by the poet Pablo Neruda says it all for me:

How much does a man live, after all?

Does he live a thousand days, or one only?

...What does it mean to say 'for ever'?

Fantastic, 01 Aug 2008
I absolutely loved this book! It was colourful and political, about love and family, sadness and tragedy, all wrapped into one heart-warming story. For me it was one of those books that once I started, I didn't want to do anything else but see what happened next.

Allende has become my favourite author as a result of this book. I would advise anyone to read it.

My first favourite book!, 31 Mar 2008
We can all remember that book that showed us how reading can be genuinely enjoyable. For me, The House of the Spirits was that book. I was to read this book in 11th grade when we were given 2 months to finish it. Back then I had better ways to distract myself from homework by the time I realised it was 2 days before the deadline I had only read about 4 chapters. Of those two days, I forced myself to read as much of it as I could, and the first night I ended up reading just over 100 pages, leaving the remaining 250 pages for the following day. Needless to say, it was not a struggle and I actually enjoyed reading the whole thing, even though it took most part of day and night.

Isabelle Allende is Chilean, and very proudly molds her stories around her knowledge of her country and her ancestry. She has extremely powerful ways of describing expressions and feelings in detail, and will write in words what some of us wouldn't be able to describe. Love is one of those, and this book is full of it. Love for the country, love for the family, love for that one special person, and the power it has over you, giving you the strength to accomplish anything.

Like all memorable novels, The House of the Spirits is a mixture of melancholy, joy, sadness, laughter; an array of powerful feelings that grasp the reader's heart. Tragedy has a continuous presence in this story as it evolves around Chile's civil war and the way the characters lived, or died, through it. Some of the characters used were based on real relatives, adding a biographical touch to the story, enhancing the power of the novel.

A must read, and if you like Isabel Allende, I strongly recommend PAULA, Isabel's autobiography, but be prepared for a very powerful and captivating book.

Magical..., 09 Jan 2008
Really magical book that follows a family through four generations. A strange mix of fantasy and reality. Didn't get 5 stars as it took me a long time to get through (not because I'm lazy, just sometimes could only get through a few pages at a time). The authors description of characters is brilliant, I really felt like I knew them. Becomes extremely political towards the end (which would usually stop me reading) but Allende's writing style and dashes of fantasy throughout kept me going. Strange book but very very good!!

The story of a strong woman, 17 Oct 2008
Ines of my soul is a book about the Spanish conquest of Chile. Ines is a woman that decided to go after her man though this process. Written in first person, Ines retells all the struggles they have to go through in order to conquer this territory. It describes many battles with the aborigines.

The whole book is based on real historical events, which makes this book even more interesting.

Every person who has read other Isabel Allende's books knows hers are always worth reading. So this one will deffinitely not disappoint you.



Typical Allende, Fantastic story telling, 02 Jun 2008
I have read the majority of Allende's output and love her compelling narrative style. The thing about Allende is that she really knows how to tell a fascinating story that sucks you in. This is no exception.

Based on the history of the first Spanish woman to settle in Chile in the New World this is Allende's fictionalised firsthand account of Ines' life. Ines is a great character and there is a lot of meat on the bones here. The story moves fast and is bloodthirsty, passionate and in the main, well told.

My main grumble was the fact that Ines had a remarkable capacity for recounting events that she wasn't present for. Most of the time this is fine and well handled with reasons for her being able to add such events into her narrative, but there are times, particularly towards the end of the novel where it seems more stretched and unrealistic, particularly regarding the motivations and activities of the barbaric enemy warrior Felipe becomes. I found this stretched my belief a little too much in what was otherwise a fine story.

The Sum of our Days, 30 Apr 2008
I have read almost all of Allende's books-The Sum of our Days is a follow up of family events following her book PAULA, a riveting account of her beloved daughter's tragic death.

I have laughed and cried whilst reading this book. Allende's talent for writing is amazing. She remains her passionate, volatile self and is humble enough to admit her very human failings. I always say I've put 2 lifetimes into my one, Allende has put 4 into hers!

A must for Allende fans, 07 Aug 2007
If you liked A Portrait in Sepia and Daughter of Fortune, you will almost certainly appreciate this tale, which as the other reviews say, is hard-hitting and passionate. For me this was a welcome return to Allende's more usual punchy style of story telling, which The City of Beasts etc. sadly lacked. Great stuff!

Bloodthirsty tale. , 14 May 2007
These are fictional memoirs of Ines Suarez who was the first Spanish woman to live in Chile in the 1500s. The historical details in this book are astounding, and some of the tales are extremely bloodthirsty and brutal to read. To think that some of the events they describe actually took place is almost inconceivable. Allende has a marvellous way with words and her writing style is so easy to read.

Passionate, breathtaking and bloodthirsty, this is historical fiction at is very best.


Once again a beautifully written masterpiece by Isabel Allende, 23 Apr 2008
I have always enjoyed reading Isabel Allende novels and this one does not fail - It had me gripped from page 1 right to the end.
Following on from Paula - Isabel write's from the heart for Daughter informing her of the changes that have taken place since she passed away.
The book is so well written in true Isabel Allende style - a must read for all fans and new readers to will enjoy this wonderful story.

Fantastic, 10 Oct 2008
I have never read a book where so many characters are delved into so deeply. Allende is a wonderful story teller, and the narrative being interspersed with individual character opinions makes it all the better. I had to limit my reading every day so I would not get through it too quickly. Even if you have no interest in the Chilean revolution, this book is a must read. It's a shame that the rest of her books never quite made it up to this standard.

Clara, Clearest Clairvoyant!! Magical visitations in Isabel Allende's House!, 01 Sep 2008
I can still remember reading Allende's opening lines in Liverpool's Bold Street Waterstones. 'Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.' I tingled all over, bought the book and barely managed to get off the train at Bolton Station. Literary purists always gesture knowingly towards their copies of Marquez's One Hundred years of Solitude. Leave them to it. Allende was born to write this book. She centres her story on a family's experience of Pinochet's savage regime in Chile. The House of the Spirits is as the title suggests, a family saga but a saga marvellously suffused by 'other' ways of knowing about events and futures. Part of the magic of the novel is that the 'spirit' co-exists powerfully with the 'material' in an unapologetic and finally redemptive way. The epigraph by the poet Pablo Neruda says it all for me:

How much does a man live, after all?

Does he live a thousand days, or one only?

...What does it mean to say 'for ever'?

Fantastic, 01 Aug 2008
I absolutely loved this book! It was colourful and political, about love and family, sadness and tragedy, all wrapped into one heart-warming story. For me it was one of those books that once I started, I didn't want to do anything else but see what happened next.

Allende has become my favourite author as a result of this book. I would advise anyone to read it.

My first favourite book!, 31 Mar 2008
We can all remember that book that showed us how reading can be genuinely enjoyable. For me, The House of the Spirits was that book. I was to read this book in 11th grade when we were given 2 months to finish it. Back then I had better ways to distract myself from homework by the time I realised it was 2 days before the deadline I had only read about 4 chapters. Of those two days, I forced myself to read as much of it as I could, and the first night I ended up reading just over 100 pages, leaving the remaining 250 pages for the following day. Needless to say, it was not a struggle and I actually enjoyed reading the whole thing, even though it took most part of day and night.

Isabelle Allende is Chilean, and very proudly molds her stories around her knowledge of her country and her ancestry. She has extremely powerful ways of describing expressions and feelings in detail, and will write in words what some of us wouldn't be able to describe. Love is one of those, and this book is full of it. Love for the country, love for the family, love for that one special person, and the power it has over you, giving you the strength to accomplish anything.

Like all memorable novels, The House of the Spirits is a mixture of melancholy, joy, sadness, laughter; an array of powerful feelings that grasp the reader's heart. Tragedy has a continuous presence in this story as it evolves around Chile's civil war and the way the characters lived, or died, through it. Some of the characters used were based on real relatives, adding a biographical touch to the story, enhancing the power of the novel.

A must read, and if you like Isabel Allende, I strongly recommend PAULA, Isabel's autobiography, but be prepared for a very powerful and captivating book.

Magical..., 09 Jan 2008
Really magical book that follows a family through four generations. A strange mix of fantasy and reality. Didn't get 5 stars as it took me a long time to get through (not because I'm lazy, just sometimes could only get through a few pages at a time). The authors description of characters is brilliant, I really felt like I knew them. Becomes extremely political towards the end (which would usually stop me reading) but Allende's writing style and dashes of fantasy throughout kept me going. Strange book but very very good!!

The story of a strong woman, 17 Oct 2008
Ines of my soul is a book about the Spanish conquest of Chile. Ines is a woman that decided to go after her man though this process. Written in first person, Ines retells all the struggles they have to go through in order to conquer this territory. It describes many battles with the aborigines.

The whole book is based on real historical events, which makes this book even more interesting.

Every person who has read other Isabel Allende's books knows hers are always worth reading. So this one will deffinitely not disappoint you.



Typical Allende, Fantastic story telling, 02 Jun 2008
I have read the majority of Allende's output and love her compelling narrative style. The thing about Allende is that she really knows how to tell a fascinating story that sucks you in. This is no exception.

Based on the history of the first Spanish woman to settle in Chile in the New World this is Allende's fictionalised firsthand account of Ines' life. Ines is a great character and there is a lot of meat on the bones here. The story moves fast and is bloodthirsty, passionate and in the main, well told.

My main grumble was the fact that Ines had a remarkable capacity for recounting events that she wasn't present for. Most of the time this is fine and well handled with reasons for her being able to add such events into her narrative, but there are times, particularly towards the end of the novel where it seems more stretched and unrealistic, particularly regarding the motivations and activities of the barbaric enemy warrior Felipe becomes. I found this stretched my belief a little too much in what was otherwise a fine story.

The Sum of our Days, 30 Apr 2008
I have read almost all of Allende's books-The Sum of our Days is a follow up of family events following her book PAULA, a riveting account of her beloved daughter's tragic death.

I have laughed and cried whilst reading this book. Allende's talent for writing is amazing. She remains her passionate, volatile self and is humble enough to admit her very human failings. I always say I've put 2 lifetimes into my one, Allende has put 4 into hers!

A must for Allende fans, 07 Aug 2007
If you liked A Portrait in Sepia and Daughter of Fortune, you will almost certainly appreciate this tale, which as the other reviews say, is hard-hitting and passionate. For me this was a welcome return to Allende's more usual punchy style of story telling, which The City of Beasts etc. sadly lacked. Great stuff!

Bloodthirsty tale. , 14 May 2007
These are fictional memoirs of Ines Suarez who was the first Spanish woman to live in Chile in the 1500s. The historical details in this book are astounding, and some of the tales are extremely bloodthirsty and brutal to read. To think that some of the events they describe actually took place is almost inconceivable. Allende has a marvellous way with words and her writing style is so easy to read.

Passionate, breathtaking and bloodthirsty, this is historical fiction at is very best.


Once again a beautifully written masterpiece by Isabel Allende, 23 Apr 2008
I have always enjoyed reading Isabel Allende novels and this one does not fail - It had me gripped from page 1 right to the end.
Following on from Paula - Isabel write's from the heart for Daughter informing her of the changes that have taken place since she passed away.
The book is so well written in true Isabel Allende style - a must read for all fans and new readers to will enjoy this wonderful story.

Beautiful Magic, 21 Jul 2008
For many years I have been curious of the genre of magical realism. A lover, decades ago, gifted me 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', but I struggled to read this dense book at the time. This novel by Isabelle Allende is not her first, 'The House of Spirits' takes this place, but it is said to be the easiest to read, one of her most accessible books, and I have not been disappointed.

She sows the seeds of stories of heightened reality throughout the first chapters of Eva Luna's life . Mainly based around a confusion of characters which are lost then re-emerge in Eva's life at a later date. Rolf Carle and Eva Luna are the central protagonists. The book begins first describing Eva's childhood, and then switches to Rolf's, detailing at the beginning that he is the man that Eva will fall in love with and marry - in some way joining the end to the beginning of the book and almost at once giving the plot away.

The book is much more dependent of the characterisations of individuals, especially in the context of how they touch Eva Luna's life. A number of Eva's significant others are carefully drawn and re-occur, during key events in Eva's life, for instance - Huberto Naranjo is the romantic tear-away street-child / guerrilla leader that rescues Eva after she rips off her madame's hair piece as a young girl and supports her financially; Melesio / Mimi who is very close to Eva and becomes a most beautiful and celebrated transexual entertainer; and Zulema and Kamal - incidental to the skin deep ugly that the kindest and most expansive character of Riad Halibi is afflicted with. It is not necessarily the plot that creates suspense but the behavoiur of these characters that involves the reader with the text and throw out cameo scenes of a strongly dreamlike almost surreal nature. .

One of the larger issues in this book is against machismo, the fight for sexual equality. In the end it is not just about the guerilla politics towards equality of class, wealth and education; Eva does not identify with Huberto's cause as her own, because it is a strictly male battle ground. A fight between men to wrest male power - woman's opression is not part of the subversive war, it is not a principal that they are fighting for in this patriarchal society. She touches on dictatorism, but the most highly drawn male politician is not interesting for his views or political party, but from Eva's point of view, he is regularly and digustingly obsessed with his stinking bowel movements into a potty that she has to empty.

Eva uses her ability as a "modern day Scheherazade" to tell stories and concoct tales to help cope with the oppressive atmosphere in Latin America directly preceding World War II.

Isabel Allende, (niece of Salvador Allende who was elected the first socialist president of Chile), writes in the tradition of "lo real maravilloso" - marvelous reality. She was not in the vangarde of writers of the Latin American "Boom" with whom this style emerged in the 1960s, but she continues this tradition and is a professor of literature.


Magic Unrealism, 21 Oct 2006
Isabel Allende's Eva Luna manages to be about many diverse things: a picaresque soap opera; the story of Latin America; the tale of a woman coming to self-determination; an autobiography; a description of the creation and nature of fiction: and yet never loses its narrative fascination. Allende uses very little dialog, and the characters, Eva herself included, are more 'imaginary' than most novelists attempt: but believable and in the end quite moving.

This was narrative at its most magical. It bore the signs of great art, at least for me: the resonance of other times and places, the sense of recognition...

Eva Luna at first reminded me strongly of Fina Estampa by Caetano Veloso, so much so that I went looking for a song called Eva Luna on the CD which wasn't there.

I read recently an exact parallel of the episode of the bald patrina in a story in Ihara Saikaku's Life of an Amorous Woman written in 17th century Japan (basis for Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu for those interested), which was odd.

huge and mad, 06 Apr 2003
The only reason I read this book was because my wife bought it for Valentibes day for me. I really enjoyed reading it. It is a story about storytelling and the two roles get whipped up and mixed together. Eva is a fun person that everyone would love to be with, always taking the best and the most out of the worst sutuations.

It has a wonderful twist in the end and it leaves you feeling sorry for all those soap addicts when you could be reading a book like this.

An amazing insight into Venezeula in a wonderful novel, 01 Sep 2001
I read this book whilst travelling in Venezeula and it really enhanced my experience of the country. Although Allende doesn't actually name the country its set in its becomes quite obvious that its Venezeula. Eva Luna's dramatic life-story perfectly mirrors the historical events in the background. An excellent novel which gives a real insight into Latin America.

Eva Luna clearly reflects the author herself, 20 Mar 2001
This is a truly engaging tale. Eva means life, and Luna, meaning moon in spanish, establishes her strong feminine, even matriachal, identity early in the book. As she takes on the different roles of daughter, mother and sister through the span of the book, we see her strong will and ability to survive in a country that is dominantly male. Eva Luna's gift of narration is very similar to Allende's own, only the latter conveys her strong, memorable message of feminism through the power of words, translated for the rest of the world to read. An extraordinarily wonderful book, and a must for anyone who has read her other books before.

Fantastic, 10 Oct 2008
I have never read a book where so many characters are delved into so deeply. Allende is a wonderful story teller, and the narrative being interspersed with individual character opinions makes it all the better. I had to limit my reading every day so I would not get through it too quickly. Even if you have no interest in the Chilean revolution, this book is a must read. It's a shame that the rest of her books never quite made it up to this standard.

Clara, Clearest Clairvoyant!! Magical visitations in Isabel Allende's House!, 01 Sep 2008
I can still remember reading Allende's opening lines in Liverpool's Bold Street Waterstones. 'Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.' I tingled all over, bought the book and barely managed to get off the train at Bolton Station. Literary purists always gesture knowingly towards their copies of Marquez's One Hundred years of Solitude. Leave them to it. Allende was born to write this book. She centres her story on a family's experience of Pinochet's savage regime in Chile. The House of the Spirits is as the title suggests, a family saga but a saga marvellously suffused by 'other' ways of knowing about events and futures. Part of the magic of the novel is that the 'spirit' co-exists powerfully with the 'material' in an unapologetic and finally redemptive way. The epigraph by the poet Pablo Neruda says it all for me:

How much does a man live, after all?

Does he live a thousand days, or one only?

...What does it mean to say 'for ever'?

Fantastic, 01 Aug 2008
I absolutely loved this book! It was colourful and political, about love and family, sadness and tragedy, all wrapped into one heart-warming story. For me it was one of those books that once I started, I didn't want to do anything else but see what happened next.

Allende has become my favourite author as a result of this book. I would advise anyone to read it.

My first favourite book!, 31 Mar 2008
We can all remember that book that showed us how reading can be genuinely enjoyable. For me, The House of the Spirits was that book. I was to read this book in 11th grade when we were given 2 months to finish it. Back then I had better ways to distract myself from homework by the time I realised it was 2 days before the deadline I had only read about 4 chapters. Of those two days, I forced myself to read as much of it as I could, and the first night I ended up reading just over 100 pages, leaving the remaining 250 pages for the following day. Needless to say, it was not a struggle and I actually enjoyed reading the whole thing, even though it took most part of day and night.

Isabelle Allende is Chilean, and very proudly molds her stories around her knowledge of her country and her ancestry. She has extremely powerful ways of describing expressions and feelings in detail, and will write in words what some of us wouldn't be able to describe. Love is one of those, and this book is full of it. Love for the country, love for the family, love for that one special person, and the power it has over you, giving you the strength to accomplish anything.

Like all memorable novels, The House of the Spirits is a mixture of melancholy, joy, sadness, laughter; an array of powerful feelings that grasp the reader's heart. Tragedy has a continuous presence in this story as it evolves around Chile's civil war and the way the characters lived, or died, through it. Some of the characters used were based on real relatives, adding a biographical touch to the story, enhancing the power of the novel.

A must read, and if you like Isabel Allende, I strongly recommend PAULA, Isabel's autobiography, but be prepared for a very powerful and captivating book.

Magical..., 09 Jan 2008
Really magical book that follows a family through four generations. A strange mix of fantasy and reality. Didn't get 5 stars as it took me a long time to get through (not because I'm lazy, just sometimes could only get through a few pages at a time). The authors description of characters is brilliant, I really felt like I knew them. Becomes extremely political towards the end (which would usually stop me reading) but Allende's writing style and dashes of fantasy throughout kept me going. Strange book but very very good!!

The story of a strong woman, 17 Oct 2008
Ines of my soul is a book about the Spanish conquest of Chile. Ines is a woman that decided to go after her man though this process. Written in first person, Ines retells all the struggles they have to go through in order to conquer this territory. It describes many battles with the aborigines.

The whole book is based on real historical events, which makes this book even more interesting.

Every person who has read other Isabel Allende's books knows hers are always worth reading. So this one will deffinitely not disappoint you.



Typical Allende, Fantastic story telling, 02 Jun 2008
I have read the majority of Allende's output and love her compelling narrative style. The thing about Allende is that she really knows how to tell a fascinating story that sucks you in. This is no exception.

Based on the history of the first Spanish woman to settle in Chile in the New World this is Allende's fictionalised firsthand account of Ines' life. Ines is a great character and there is a lot of meat on the bones here. The story moves fast and is bloodthirsty, passionate and in the main, well told.

My main grumble was the fact that Ines had a remarkable capacity for recounting events that she wasn't present for. Most of the time this is fine and well handled with reasons for her being able to add such events into her narrative, but there are times, particularly towards the end of the novel where it seems more stretched and unrealistic, particularly regarding the motivations and activities of the barbaric enemy warrior Felipe becomes. I found this stretched my belief a little too much in what was otherwise a fine story.

The Sum of our Days, 30 Apr 2008
I have read almost all of Allende's books-The Sum of our Days is a follow up of family events following her book PAULA, a riveting account of her beloved daughter's tragic death.

I have laughed and cried whilst reading this book. Allende's talent for writing is amazing. She remains her passionate, volatile self and is humble enough to admit her very human failings. I always say I've put 2 lifetimes into my one, Allende has put 4 into hers!

A must for Allende fans, 07 Aug 2007
If you liked A Portrait in Sepia and Daughter of Fortune, you will almost certainly appreciate this tale, which as the other reviews say, is hard-hitting and passionate. For me this was a welcome return to Allende's more usual punchy style of story telling, which The City of Beasts etc. sadly lacked. Great stuff!

Bloodthirsty tale. , 14 May 2007
These are fictional memoirs of Ines Suarez who was the first Spanish woman to live in Chile in the 1500s. The historical details in this book are astounding, and some of the tales are extremely bloodthirsty and brutal to read. To think that some of the events they describe actually took place is almost inconceivable. Allende has a marvellous way with words and her writing style is so easy to read.

Passionate, breathtaking and bloodthirsty, this is historical fiction at is very best.


Once again a beautifully written masterpiece by Isabel Allende, 23 Apr 2008
I have always enjoyed reading Isabel Allende novels and this one does not fail - It had me gripped from page 1 right to the end.
Following on from Paula - Isabel write's from the heart for Daughter informing her of the changes that have taken place since she passed away.
The book is so well written in true Isabel Allende style - a must read for all fans and new readers to will enjoy this wonderful story.

Beautiful Magic, 21 Jul 2008
For many years I have been curious of the genre of magical realism. A lover, decades ago, gifted me 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', but I struggled to read this dense book at the time. This novel by Isabelle Allende is not her first, 'The House of Spirits' takes this place, but it is said to be the easiest to read, one of her most accessible books, and I have not been disappointed.

She sows the seeds of stories of heightened reality throughout the first chapters of Eva Luna's life . Mainly based around a confusion of characters which are lost then re-emerge in Eva's life at a later date. Rolf Carle and Eva Luna are the central protagonists. The book begins first describing Eva's childhood, and then switches to Rolf's, detailing at the beginning that he is the man that Eva will fall in love with and marry - in some way joining the end to the beginning of the book and almost at once giving the plot away.

The book is much more dependent of the characterisations of individuals, especially in the context of how they touch Eva Luna's life. A number of Eva's significant others are carefully drawn and re-occur, during key events in Eva's life, for instance - Huberto Naranjo is the romantic tear-away street-child / guerrilla leader that rescues Eva after she rips off her madame's hair piece as a young girl and supports her financially; Melesio / Mimi who is very close to Eva and becomes a most beautiful and celebrated transexual entertainer; and Zulema and Kamal - incidental to the skin deep ugly that the kindest and most expansive character of Riad Halibi is afflicted with. It is not necessarily the plot that creates suspense but the behavoiur of these characters that involves the reader with the text and throw out cameo scenes of a strongly dreamlike almost surreal nature. .

One of the larger issues in this book is against machismo, the fight for sexual equality. In the end it is not just about the guerilla politics towards equality of class, wealth and education; Eva does not identify with Huberto's cause as her own, because it is a strictly male battle ground. A fight between men to wrest male power - woman's opression is not part of the subversive war, it is not a principal that they are fighting for in this patriarchal society. She touches on dictatorism, but the most highly drawn male politician is not interesting for his views or political party, but from Eva's point of view, he is regularly and digustingly obsessed with his stinking bowel movements into a potty that she has to empty.

Eva uses her ability as a "modern day Scheherazade" to tell stories and concoct tales to help cope with the oppressive atmosphere in Latin America directly preceding World War II.

Isabel Allende, (niece of Salvador Allende who was elected the first socialist president of Chile), writes in the tradition of "lo real maravilloso" - marvelous reality. She was not in the vangarde of writers of the Latin American "Boom" with whom this style emerged in the 1960s, but she continues this tradition and is a professor of literature.


Magic Unrealism, 21 Oct 2006
Isabel Allende's Eva Luna manages to be about many diverse things: a picaresque soap opera; the story of Latin America; the tale of a woman coming to self-determination; an autobiography; a description of the creation and nature of fiction: and yet never loses its narrative fascination. Allende uses very little dialog, and the characters, Eva herself included, are more 'imaginary' than most novelists attempt: but believable and in the end quite moving.

This was narrative at its most magical. It bore the signs of great art, at least for me: the resonance of other times and places, the sense of recognition...

Eva Luna at first reminded me strongly of Fina Estampa by Caetano Veloso, so much so that I went looking for a song called Eva Luna on the CD which wasn't there.

I read recently an exact parallel of the episode of the bald patrina in a story in Ihara Saikaku's Life of an Amorous Woman written in 17th century Japan (basis for Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu for those interested), which was odd.

huge and mad, 06 Apr 2003
The only reason I read this book was because my wife bought it for Valentibes day for me. I really enjoyed reading it. It is a story about storytelling and the two roles get whipped up and mixed together. Eva is a fun person that everyone would love to be with, always taking the best and the most out of the worst sutuations.

It has a wonderful twist in the end and it leaves you feeling sorry for all those soap addicts when you could be reading a book like this.

An amazing insight into Venezeula in a wonderful novel, 01 Sep 2001
I read this book whilst travelling in Venezeula and it really enhanced my experience of the country. Although Allende doesn't actually name the country its set in its becomes quite obvious that its Venezeula. Eva Luna's dramatic life-story perfectly mirrors the historical events in the background. An excellent novel which gives a real insight into Latin America.

Eva Luna clearly reflects the author herself, 20 Mar 2001
This is a truly engaging tale. Eva means life, and Luna, meaning moon in spanish, establishes her strong feminine, even matriachal, identity early in the book. As she takes on the different roles of daughter, mother and sister through the span of the book, we see her strong will and ability to survive in a country that is dominantly male. Eva Luna's gift of narration is very similar to Allende's own, only the latter conveys her strong, memorable message of feminism through the power of words, translated for the rest of the world to read. An extraordinarily wonderful book, and a must for anyone who has read her other books before.

Maria-Sofia dice "Excelencia inolvidable", 10 Mar 2008
De parte de mi hija, Maria-Sofia, disfruto muchisimo del nuevo mundo de Las Amazonas. La riqueza del lenguaje, la serie de imagenes inspira un mundo alcanzable. Ojala que sera para la proxima generacion. La ciudad de Las Bestias introduzca a la generacion joven de los problemas sociales y el conflicto del mundo indigeno con las presiones y gula del occidente. El encanto de los anmales y mitologia de los simbolos quedan implantados en la mente. Ya estamos listos por ir a Butan.

amazing book, 08 Mar 2006
this book is amazing with all the adventure that has happends.

A Mind Bending Amazonian Fantasy, 17 Oct 2005
Firstly, this is a children's book but none the less appealing for adults. Fans of Allendes's 'adult' writing will be surprised at the terseness of the porose style - nothing is allowed to get in the way of the plot, which rips along at a breathtaking pace. However, there are interludes of pure magical invention which trip the reader up and invert all your pre-conceptions. The characters are vividly drawn and likeable; and with a clever twist at the end of the story, it's a perfect book to fill the gap for 14 - 16 year olds. Plus you can borrow it after them!

Read this!!!!!!!, 01 Oct 2005
This is my favourite book ever, and I've read thousands. I read this a few years ago when I was 13 and nothing has topped it since, except maybe its sequels. Everytime I re-read it I love it even more. It genuinely is brilliant, and you get completely lost in the far-off worlds and ideas. The imagery is just too beautiful. It's a book you can get totally lost in- I remember finishing a chapter, looking up and being momentarily surprised that there wasn't a tropical rainstorm outside! Seriously: if you're only going to read one book in your life, this is it. Everyone must read it, it's pure magic through and through.

City of the Beasts, 04 Apr 2005
I didn't particularly like the opening of this book and was tempted to stop reading but I'm glad I persevered as it improved dramatically after the first couple of chapters. Most of the characters were very likeable and the plot was beleivable for the most part. I did find that it became a bit monotonous towards the end but on the whole it was a very original and well told story.

Fantastic, 10 Oct 2008
I have never read a book where so many characters are delved into so deeply. Allende is a wonderful story teller, and the narrative being interspersed with individual character opinions makes it all the better. I had to limit my reading every day so I would not get through it too quickly. Even if you have no interest in the Chilean revolution, this book is a must read. It's a shame that the rest of her books never quite made it up to this standard.

Clara, Clearest Clairvoyant!! Magical visitations in Isabel Allende's House!, 01 Sep 2008
I can still remember reading Allende's opening lines in Liverpool's Bold Street Waterstones. 'Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.' I tingled all over, bought the book and barely managed to get off the train at Bolton Station. Literary purists always gesture knowingly towards their copies of Marquez's One Hundred years of Solitude. Leave them to it. Allende was born to write this book. She centres her story on a family's experience of Pinochet's savage regime in Chile. The House of the Spirits is as the title suggests, a family saga but a saga marvellously suffused by 'other' ways of knowing about events and futures. Part of the magic of the novel is that the 'spirit' co-exists powerfully with the 'material' in an unapologetic and finally redemptive way. The epigraph by the poet Pablo Neruda says it all for me:

How much does a man live, after all?

Does he live a thousand days, or one only?

...What does it mean to say 'for ever'?

Fantastic, 01 Aug 2008
I absolutely loved this book! It was colourful and political, about love and family, sadness and tragedy, all wrapped into one heart-warming story. For me it was one of those books that once I started, I didn't want to do anything else but see what happened next.

Allende has become my favourite author as a result of this book. I would advise anyone to read it.

My first favourite book!, 31 Mar 2008
We can all remember that book that showed us how reading can be genuinely enjoyable. For me, The House of the Spirits was that book. I was to read this book in 11th grade when we were given 2 months to finish it. Back then I had better ways to distract myself from homework by the time I realised it was 2 days before the deadline I had only read about 4 chapters. Of those two days, I forced myself to read as much of it as I could, and the first night I ended up reading just over 100 pages, leaving the remaining 250 pages for the following day. Needless to say, it was not a struggle and I actually enjoyed reading the whole thing, even though it took most part of day and night.

Isabelle Allende is Chilean, and very proudly molds her stories around her knowledge of her country and her ancestry. She has extremely powerful ways of describing expressions and feelings in detail, and will write in words what some of us wouldn't be able to describe. Love is one of those, and this book is full of it. Love for the country, love for the family, love for that one special person, and the power it has over you, giving you the strength to accomplish anything.

Like all memorable novels, The House of the Spirits is a mixture of melancholy, joy, sadness, laughter; an array of powerful feelings that grasp the reader's heart. Tragedy has a continuous presence in this story as it evolves around Chile's civil war and the way the characters lived, or died, through it. Some of the characters used were based on real relatives, adding a biographical touch to the story, enhancing the power of the novel.

A must read, and if you like Isabel Allende, I strongly recommend PAULA, Isabel's autobiography, but be prepared for a very powerful and captivating book.

Magical..., 09 Jan 2008
Really magical book that follows a family through four generations. A strange mix of fantasy and reality. Didn't get 5 stars as it took me a long time to get through (not because I'm lazy, just sometimes could only get through a few pages at a time). The authors description of characters is brilliant, I really felt like I knew them. Becomes extremely political towards the end (which would usually stop me reading) but Allende's writing style and dashes of fantasy throughout kept me going. Strange book but very very good!!

The story of a strong woman, 17 Oct 2008
Ines of my soul is a book about the Spanish conquest of Chile. Ines is a woman that decided to go after her man though this process. Written in first person, Ines retells all the struggles they have to go through in order to conquer this territory. It describes many battles with the aborigines.

The whole book is based on real historical events, which makes this book even more interesting.

Every person who has read other Isabel Allende's books knows hers are always worth reading. So this one will deffinitely not disappoint you.



Typical Allende, Fantastic story telling, 02 Jun 2008
I have read the majority of Allende's output and love her compelling narrative style. The thing about Allende is that she really knows how to tell a fascinating story that sucks you in. This is no exception.

Based on the history of the first Spanish woman to settle in Chile in the New World this is Allende's fictionalised firsthand account of Ines' life. Ines is a great character and there is a lot of meat on the bones here. The story moves fast and is bloodthirsty, passionate and in the main, well told.

My main grumble was the fact that Ines had a remarkable capacity for recounting events that she wasn't present for. Most of the time this is fine and well handled with reasons for her being able to add such events into her narrative, but there are times, particularly towards the end of the novel where it seems more stretched and unrealistic, particularly regarding the motivations and activities of the barbaric enemy warrior Felipe becomes. I found this stretched my belief a little too much in what was otherwise a fine story.

The Sum of our Days, 30 Apr 2008
I have read almost all of Allende's books-The Sum of our Days is a follow up of family events following her book PAULA, a riveting account of her beloved daughter's tragic death.

I have laughed and cried whilst reading this book. Allende's talent for writing is amazing. She remains her passionate, volatile self and is humble enough to admit her very human failings. I always say I've put 2 lifetimes into my one, Allende has put 4 into hers!

A must for Allende fans, 07 Aug 2007
If you liked A Portrait in Sepia and Daughter of Fortune, you will almost certainly appreciate this tale, which as the other reviews say, is hard-hitting and passionate. For me this was a welcome return to Allende's more usual punchy style of story telling, which The City of Beasts etc. sadly lacked. Great stuff!

Bloodthirsty tale. , 14 May 2007
These are fictional memoirs of Ines Suarez who was the first Spanish woman to live in Chile in the 1500s. The historical details in this book are astounding, and some of the tales are extremely bloodthirsty and brutal to read. To think that some of the events they describe actually took place is almost inconceivable. Allende has a marvellous way with words and her writing style is so easy to read.

Passionate, breathtaking and bloodthirsty, this is historical fiction at is very best.


Once again a beautifully written masterpiece by Isabel Allende, 23 Apr 2008
I have always enjoyed reading Isabel Allende novels and this one does not fail - It had me gripped from page 1 right to the end.
Following on from Paula - Isabel write's from the heart for Daughter informing her of the changes that have taken place since she passed away.
The book is so well written in true Isabel Allende style - a must read for all fans and new readers to will enjoy this wonderful story.

Beautiful Magic, 21 Jul 2008
For many years I have been curious of the genre of magical realism. A lover, decades ago, gifted me 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', but I struggled to read this dense book at the time. This novel by Isabelle Allende is not her first, 'The House of Spirits' takes this place, but it is said to be the easiest to read, one of her most accessible books, and I have not been disappointed.

She sows the seeds of stories of heightened reality throughout the first chapters of Eva Luna's life . Mainly based around a confusion of characters which are lost then re-emerge in Eva's life at a later date. Rolf Carle and Eva Luna are the central protagonists. The book begins first describing Eva's childhood, and then switches to Rolf's, detailing at the beginning that he is the man that Eva will fall in love with and marry - in some way joining the end to the beginning of the book and almost at once giving the plot away.

The book is much more dependent of the characterisations of individuals, especially in the context of how they touch Eva Luna's life. A number of Eva's significant others are carefully drawn and re-occur, during key events in Eva's life, for instance - Huberto Naranjo is the romantic tear-away street-child / guerrilla leader that rescues Eva after she rips off her madame's hair piece as a young girl and supports her financially; Melesio / Mimi who is very close to Eva and becomes a most beautiful and celebrated transexual entertainer; and Zulema and Kamal - incidental to the skin deep ugly that the kindest and most expansive character of Riad Halibi is afflicted with. It is not necessarily the plot that creates suspense but the behavoiur of these characters that involves the reader with the text and throw out cameo scenes of a strongly dreamlike almost surreal nature. .

One of the larger issues in this book is against machismo, the fight for sexual equality. In the end it is not just about the guerilla politics towards equality of class, wealth and education; Eva does not identify with Huberto's cause as her own, because it is a strictly male battle ground. A fight between men to wrest male power - woman's opression is not part of the subversive war, it is not a principal that they are fighting for in this patriarchal society. She touches on dictatorism, but the most highly drawn male politician is not interesting for his views or political party, but from Eva's point of view, he is regularly and digustingly obsessed with his stinking bowel movements into a potty that she has to empty.

Eva uses her ability as a "modern day Scheherazade" to tell stories and concoct tales to help cope with the oppressive atmosphere in Latin America directly preceding World War II.

Isabel Allende, (niece of Salvador Allende who was elected the first socialist president of Chile), writes in the tradition of "lo real maravilloso" - marvelous reality. She was not in the vangarde of writers of the Latin American "Boom" with whom this style emerged in the 1960s, but she continues this tradition and is a professor of literature.


Magic Unrealism, 21 Oct 2006
Isabel Allende's Eva Luna manages to be about many diverse things: a picaresque soap opera; the story of Latin America; the tale of a woman coming to self-determination; an autobiography; a description of the creation and nature of fiction: and yet never loses its narrative fascination. Allende uses very little dialog, and the characters, Eva herself included, are more 'imaginary' than most novelists attempt: but believable and in the end quite moving.

This was narrative at its most magical. It bore the signs of great art, at least for me: the resonance of other times and places, the sense of recognition...

Eva Luna at first reminded me strongly of Fina Estampa by Caetano Veloso, so much so that I went looking for a song called Eva Luna on the CD which wasn't there.

I read recently an exact parallel of the episode of the bald patrina in a story in Ihara Saikaku's Life of an Amorous Woman written in 17th century Japan (basis for Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu for those interested), which was odd.

huge and mad, 06 Apr 2003
The only reason I read this book was because my wife bought it for Valentibes day for me. I really enjoyed reading it. It is a story about storytelling and the two roles get whipped up and mixed together. Eva is a fun person that everyone would love to be with, always taking the best and the most out of the worst sutuations.

It has a wonderful twist in the end and it leaves you feeling sorry for all those soap addicts when you could be reading a book like this.

An amazing insight into Venezeula in a wonderful novel, 01 Sep 2001
I read this book whilst travelling in Venezeula and it really enhanced my experience of the country. Although Allende doesn't actually name the country its set in its becomes quite obvious that its Venezeula. Eva Luna's dramatic life-story perfectly mirrors the historical events in the background. An excellent novel which gives a real insight into Latin America.

Eva Luna clearly reflects the author herself, 20 Mar 2001
This is a truly engaging tale. Eva means life, and Luna, meaning moon in spanish, establishes her strong feminine, even matriachal, identity early in the book. As she takes on the different roles of daughter, mother and sister through the span of the book, we see her strong will and ability to survive in a country that is dominantly male. Eva Luna's gift of narration is very similar to Allende's own, only the latter conveys her strong, memorable message of feminism through the power of words, translated for the rest of the world to read. An extraordinarily wonderful book, and a must for anyone who has read her other books before.

Maria-Sofia dice "Excelencia inolvidable", 10 Mar 2008
De parte de mi hija, Maria-Sofia, disfruto muchisimo del nuevo mundo de Las Amazonas. La riqueza del lenguaje, la serie de imagenes inspira un mundo alcanzable. Ojala que sera para la proxima generacion. La ciudad de Las Bestias introduzca a la generacion joven de los problemas sociales y el conflicto del mundo indigeno con las presiones y gula del occidente. El encanto de los anmales y mitologia de los simbolos quedan implantados en la mente. Ya estamos listos por ir a Butan.

amazing book, 08 Mar 2006
this book is amazing with all the adventure that has happends.

A Mind Bending Amazonian Fantasy, 17 Oct 2005
Firstly, this is a children's book but none the less appealing for adults. Fans of Allendes's 'adult' writing will be surprised at the terseness of the porose style - nothing is allowed to get in the way of the plot, which rips along at a breathtaking pace. However, there are interludes of pure magical invention which trip the reader up and invert all your pre-conceptions. The characters are vividly drawn and likeable; and with a clever twist at the end of the story, it's a perfect book to fill the gap for 14 - 16 year olds. Plus you can borrow it after them!

Read this!!!!!!!, 01 Oct 2005
This is my favourite book ever, and I've read thousands. I read this a few years ago when I was 13 and nothing has topped it since, except maybe its sequels. Everytime I re-read it I love it even more. It genuinely is brilliant, and you get completely lost in the far-off worlds and ideas. The imagery is just too beautiful. It's a book you can get totally lost in- I remember finishing a chapter, looking up and being momentarily surprised that there wasn't a tropical rainstorm outside! Seriously: if you're only going to read one book in your life, this is it. Everyone must read it, it's pure magic through and through.

City of the Beasts, 04 Apr 2005
I didn't particularly like the opening of this book and was tempted to stop reading but I'm glad I persevered as it improved dramatically after the first couple of chapters. Most of the characters were very likeable and the plot was beleivable for the most part. I did find that it became a bit monotonous towards the end but on the whole it was a very original and well told story.

Allende on top form - but a harrowing central theme, 02 Dec 2004
I read this book for two reasons. Firstly, because I love Allende's writing. I have all her books and I have even bought three of her novels in Spanish, as an incentive to make progress with the language. The second reason is that my secretary's daughter died in '02, after many years of slow decline, at the same age as Paula.

I hoped I might find something in the heart-wrenching account that Allende gives us of Paula's plight that might help me help my friend in her grief. The description of Paula's illness and death is masterfully written. Allende spares herself and us nothing in the intensity of her description: this comes through even in the midst of the dreadful pain that Allende suffered and continues to suffer. On finishing the book, completely wrung out by the end, I felt that there is nothing comparable to the grief of a mother bereaved. What Allende has described with such searing clarity, the furious, inconsolable grief of a mother whose child has died, is what I see in the eyes my friend. Those without children, as I am, cannot visit that place.

Her description of her family and Chile and life, alternating with the passages of the account of Paula's passing, are intriguing and colourful in the best Allende fashion. An interesting aspect, for me, is in trying to gauge how much Allende the story-teller is predominant over Allende the factual writer. After all, she admits that she has 40 versions of how she met her second husband - and he says they're all true. However embroidered her account of her family and life in Chile and elsewhere might be, it's rich in atmosphere and spirit, as we have come to know of Allende's writing - and it is blessed relief from the rigours of her account of her daughter's final year.

A tough and touching book.

very touching but a bit pretentious, 21 Oct 2004
I've read a number of Isabel Allende books and found them all a very good read. Paula was the last one I read and felt really touched by the tragedy of Allende's daughter. The first part was written during Paula's stay in a hospital in Madrid and makes you feel as if you were there Allende and listened to her stories from the past. However the second part was written some years after Paula's death and seems to me a little pretentious and concentrates on the life story and greatness the author. Still a very good read, but however difficult it might be to criticise when someone writes about their own personal tragedy it is not the best of Allende's books.

Moving and Inspiring, 03 Sep 2003
I have read Allende's work before and was aware of this particular book. But I was not sure what led me to read Paula. My motivation most probably would have been trying to deal with an illness that has befallen a family member close to me. What Allende did do was allow me to better understand the complexities, mysteries and anger of dealing with such tragic events.

Paula is very accesible to read, yet operates on many levels. It allows the reader to take out of the book both deep emotional meaning or just enjoy, albeit with great sorrow, the amazing and unique style of Allende.

Read this if you are interested in how national and international politics and changing social mores affect one family; how humans confront the manifold experiences, good and bad, laid before us. As trite as it sounds, Paula reminded me there is more to life than the immediate moment and surroundings. It shows us to both live life to the fullest, but also be patient when times are hard. Or simply read Paula if you are after a great piece of writing that would be fitting for a fictional novel, if it were not for the real tragedy that inspired it.

Befitting Allende's style of writing, magic-realism transcends the book, especially Allende's references to the spirits of her family that come to her at certain times. The meaning I drew from this was that we can draw inspiration, reflect and use our memories of those past to guide us forward and assist us in times of sadness, or emphasise the happiness we feel other times.

Beautiful, 16 Oct 2001
I have never cried so much with a book. In this book Isabel Allende talks about her own life and the life of her family with the same magic as if she was talking about one of the characters in her books. It is interesting to see how some members of her family and people she has met have inspired her to create the characters of her other books.

Possibly her best book, wonderful !, 13 Jul 2001
Although being an admirer of Allende and having red all her previous books (in addition to being hispanophile with several trips to S-American countries including Chile) I decided in advance not to read this book. "Nobody can well write about such a tragedy as losing her/his own child, it must be depressing." was my bold statement. My wife red it and recommended it warmly so I gave it a try. How wrong I was ! All about love and good and bad things in life (and death) of persons and a whole people, so humane it makes you cry and laugh... and think about the great gift of life and love. Possibly and in my opinion probably her best, leaving the reader deeply touched and wiser about life and love.

Until Isabel Allende burst onto the scene with her 1985 debut, The House of the Spirits, Latin American fiction was, for the most part, a boys' club comprised of such heavy hitters as Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, and Mario Vargas Llosa. But the Chilean Allende shouldered her way in with her magical realist multigenerational tale of the Trueba family, followed it up with four more novels and a spate of non-fiction and has remained in a place of honour ever since. Her sixth work of fiction, Daughter of Fortune, shares some characteristics with her earlier works: The canvas is wide, the characters are multigenerational and multiethnic, and the protagonist is an unconventional woman who overcomes enormous obstacles to make her way in the world. Yet one cannot accuse Allende of telling the same story twice; set in the mid-1800s, this novel follows the fortunes of Eliza Sommers, Chilean by birth but adopted by a British spinster, Rose Sommers, and her bachelor brother, Jeremy, after she is abandoned on their doorstep.

"You have English blood, like us", Miss Rose assured Eliza when she was old enough to understand. "Only someone from the British colony would have thought to leave you in a basket on the doorstep of the British Import and Export Company, Limited. I am sure they knew how good-hearted my brother Jeremy is and felt sure he would take you in. In those days I was longing to have a child and you fell into my arms, sent by God to be brought up in the solid principles of the Protestant faith and the English language."

The family servant, Mama Fresia, has a different point of view, however: "You, English? Don't get any ideas, child. You have Indian hair, like mine." And certainly Eliza's almost mystical ability to recall all the events of her life would seem to stem more from the Indian than the Protestant side.

As Eliza grows up, she becomes less tractable and when she falls in love with Joachin Andieta, a clerk in Jeremy's firm, her adoptive family is horrified. They are even more so when a now-pregnant Eliza follows her lover to California where he has gone to make his fortune in the 1849 goldrush. Along the way Eliza meets Tao Chi'en, a Chinese doctor who saves her life and becomes her closest friend. What starts out as a search for a lost love becomes, over time, the discovery of self; and by the time Eliza finally catches up with the elusive Joachin, she is no longer sure she still wants what she once wished for. Allende peoples her novel with a host of colourful secondary characters. She even takes the narrative as far afield as China, providing an intimate portrait of Tao Chi'en's past before returning to 19th-century San Francisco, where he and Eliza eventually end up. Readers with a taste for the epic, the picaresque and romance that is satisfyingly complex will find them all in Daughter of Fortune.--Margaret Prior, Amazon.com

Fantastic, 10 Oct 2008
I have never read a book where so many characters are delved into so deeply. Allende is a wonderful story teller, and the narrative being interspersed with individual character opinions makes it all the better. I had to limit my reading every day so I would not get through it too quickly. Even if you have no interest in the Chilean revolution, this book is a must read. It's a shame that the rest of her books never quite made it up to this standard.

Clara, Clearest Clairvoyant!! Magical visitations in Isabel Allende's House!, 01 Sep 2008
I can still remember reading Allende's opening lines in Liverpool's Bold Street Waterstones. 'Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.' I tingled all over, bought the book and barely managed to get off the train at Bolton Station. Literary purists always gesture knowingly towards their copies of Marquez's One Hundred years of Solitude. Leave them to it. Allende was born to write this book. She centres her story on a family's experience of Pinochet's savage regime in Chile. The House of the Spirits is as the title suggests, a family saga but a saga marvellously suffused by 'other' ways of knowing about events and futures. Part of the magic of the novel is that the 'spirit' co-exists powerfully with the 'material' in an unapologetic and finally redemptive way. The epigraph by the poet Pablo Neruda says it all for me:

How much does a man live, after all?

Does he live a thousand days, or one only?

...What does it mean to say 'for ever'?

Fantastic, 01 Aug 2008
I absolutely loved this book! It was colourful and political, about love and family, sadness and tragedy, all wrapped into one heart-warming story. For me it was one of those books that once I started, I didn't want to do anything else but see what happened next.

Allende has become my favourite author as a result of this book. I would advise anyone to read it.

My first favourite book!, 31 Mar 2008
We can all remember that book that showed us how reading can be genuinely enjoyable. For me, The House of the Spirits was that book. I was to read this book in 11th grade when we were given 2 months to finish it. Back then I had better ways to distract myself from homework by the time I realised it was 2 days before the deadline I had only read about 4 chapters. Of those two days, I forced myself to read as much of it as I could, and the first night I ended up reading just over 100 pages, leaving the remaining 250 pages for the following day. Needless to say, it was not a struggle and I actually enjoyed reading the whole thing, even though it took most part of day and night.

Isabelle Allende is Chilean, and very proudly molds her stories around her knowledge of her country and her ancestry. She has extremely powerful ways of describing expressions and feelings in detail, and will write in words what some of us wouldn't be able to describe. Love is one of those, and this book is full of it. Love for the country, love for the family, love for that one special person, and the power it has over you, giving you the strength to accomplish anything.

Like all memorable novels, The House of the Spirits is a mixture of melancholy, joy, sadness, laughter; an array of powerful feelings that grasp the reader's heart. Tragedy has a continuous presence in this story as it evolves around Chile's civil war and the way the characters lived, or died, through it. Some of the characters used were based on real relatives, adding a biographical touch to the story, enhancing the power of the novel.

A must read, and if you like Isabel Allende, I strongly recommend PAULA, Isabel's autobiography, but be prepared for a very powerful and captivating book.

Magical..., 09 Jan 2008
Really magical book that follows a family through four generations. A strange mix of fantasy and reality. Didn't get 5 stars as it took me a long time to get through (not because I'm lazy, just sometimes could only get through a few pages at a time). The authors description of characters is brilliant, I really felt like I knew them. Becomes extremely political towards the end (which would usually stop me reading) but Allende's writing style and dashes of fantasy throughout kept me going. Strange book but very very good!!

The story of a strong woman, 17 Oct 2008
Ines of my soul is a book about the Spanish conquest of Chile. Ines is a woman that decided to go after her man though this process. Written in first person, Ines retells all the struggles they have to go through in order to conquer this territory. It describes many battles with the aborigines.

The whole book is based on real historical events, which makes this book even more interesting.

Every person who has read other Isabel Allende's books knows hers are always worth reading. So this one will deffinitely not disappoint you.



Typical Allende, Fantastic story telling, 02 Jun 2008
I have read the majority of Allende's output and love her compelling narrative style. The thing about Allende is that she really knows how to tell a fascinating story that sucks you in. This is no exception.

Based on the history of the first Spanish woman to settle in Chile in the New World this is Allende's fictionalised firsthand account of Ines' life. Ines is a great character and there is a lot of meat on the bones here. The story moves fast and is bloodthirsty, passionate and in the main, well told.

My main grumble was the fact that Ines had a remarkable capacity for recounting events that she wasn't present for. Most of the time this is fine and well handled with reasons for her being able to add such events into her narrative, but there are times, particularly towards the end of the novel where it seems more stretched and unrealistic, particularly regarding the motivations and activities of the barbaric enemy warrior Felipe becomes. I found this stretched my belief a little too much in what was otherwise a fine story.

The Sum of our Days, 30 Apr 2008
I have read almost all of Allende's books-The Sum of our Days is a follow up of family events following her book PAULA, a riveting account of her beloved daughter's tragic death.

I have laughed and cried whilst reading this book. Allende's talent for writing is amazing. She remains her passionate, volatile self and is humble enough to admit her very human failings. I always say I've put 2 lifetimes into my one, Allende has put 4 into hers!

A must for Allende fans, 07 Aug 2007
If you liked A Portrait in Sepia and Daughter of Fortune, you will almost certainly appreciate this tale, which as the other reviews say, is hard-hitting and passionate. For me this was a welcome return to Allende's more usual punchy style of story telling, which The City of Beasts etc. sadly lacked. Great stuff!

Bloodthirsty tale. , 14 May 2007
These are fictional memoirs of Ines Suarez who was the first Spanish woman to live in Chile in the 1500s. The historical details in this book are astounding, and some of the tales are extremely bloodthirsty and brutal to read. To think that some of the events they describe actually took place is almost inconceivable. Allende has a marvellous way with words and her writing style is so easy to read.

Passionate, breathtaking and bloodthirsty, this is historical fiction at is very best.


Once again a beautifully written masterpiece by Isabel Allende, 23 Apr 2008
I have always enjoyed reading Isabel Allende novels and this one does not fail - It had me gripped from page 1 right to the end.
Following on from Paula - Isabel write's from the heart for Daughter informing her of the changes that have taken place since she passed away.
The book is so well written in true Isabel Allende style - a must read for all fans and new readers to will enjoy this wonderful story.

Beautiful Magic, 21 Jul 2008
For many years I have been curious of the genre of magical realism. A lover, decades ago, gifted me 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', but I struggled to read this dense book at the time. This novel by Isabelle Allende is not her first, 'The House of Spirits' takes this place, but it is said to be the easiest to read, one of her most accessible books, and I have not been disappointed.

She sows the seeds of stories of heightened reality throughout the first chapters of Eva Luna's life . Mainly based around a confusion of characters which are lost then re-emerge in Eva's life at a later date. Rolf Carle and Eva Luna are the central protagonists. The book begins first describing Eva's childhood, and then switches to Rolf's, detailing at the beginning that he is the man that Eva will fall in love with and marry - in some way joining the end to the beginning of the book and almost at once giving the plot away.

The book is much more dependent of the characterisations of individuals, especially in the context of how they touch Eva Luna's life. A number of Eva's significant others are carefully drawn and re-occur, during key events in Eva's life, for instance - Huberto Naranjo is the romantic tear-away street-child / guerrilla leader that rescues Eva after she rips off her madame's hair piece as a young girl and supports her financially; Melesio / Mimi who is very close to Eva and becomes a most beautiful and celebrated transexual entertainer; and Zulema and Kamal - incidental to the skin deep ugly that the kindest and most expansive character of Riad Halibi is afflicted with. It is not necessarily the plot that creates suspense but the behavoiur of these characters that involves the reader with the text and throw out cameo scenes of a strongly dreamlike almost surreal nature. .

One of the larger issues in this book is against machismo, the fight for sexual equality. In the end it is not just about the guerilla politics towards equality of class, wealth and education; Eva does not identify with Huberto's cause as her own, because it is a strictly male battle ground. A fight between men to wrest male power - woman's opression is not part of the subversive war, it is not a principal that they are fighting for in this patriarchal society. She touches on dictatorism, but the most highly drawn male politician is not interesting for his views or political party, but from Eva's point of view, he is regularly and digustingly obsessed with his stinking bowel movements into a potty that she has to empty.

Eva uses her ability as a "modern day Scheherazade" to tell stories and concoct tales to help cope with the oppressive atmosphere in Latin America directly preceding World War II.

Isabel Allende, (niece of Salvador Allende who was elected the first socialist president of Chile), writes in the tradition of "lo real maravilloso" - marvelous reality. She was not in the vangarde of writers of the Latin American "Boom" with whom this style emerged in the 1960s, but she continues this tradition and is a professor of literature.


Magic Unrealism, 21 Oct 2006
Isabel Allende's Eva Luna manages to be about many diverse things: a picaresque soap opera; the story of Latin America; the tale of a woman coming to self-determination; an autobiography; a description of the creation and nature of fiction: and yet never loses its narrative fascination. Allende uses very little dialog, and the characters, Eva herself included, are more 'imaginary' than most novelists attempt: but believable and in the end quite moving.

This was narrative at its most magical. It bore the signs of great art, at least for me: the resonance of other times and places, the sense of recognition...

Eva Luna at first reminded me strongly of Fina Estampa by Caetano Veloso, so much so that I went looking for a song called Eva Luna on the CD which wasn't there.

I read recently an exact parallel of the episode of the bald patrina in a story in Ihara Saikaku's Life of an Amorous Woman written in 17th century Japan (basis for Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu for those interested), which was odd.

huge and mad, 06 Apr 2003
The only reason I read this book was because my wife bought it for Valentibes day for me. I really enjoyed reading it. It is a story about storytelling and the two roles get whipped up and mixed together. Eva is a fun person that everyone would love to be with, always taking the best and the most out of the worst sutuations.

It has a wonderful twist in the end and it leaves you feeling sorry for all those soap addicts when you could be reading a book like this.

An amazing insight into Venezeula in a wonderful novel, 01 Sep 2001
I read this book whilst travelling in Venezeula and it really enhanced my experience of the country. Although Allende doesn't actually name the country its set in its becomes quite obvious that its Venezeula. Eva Luna's dramatic life-story perfectly mirrors the historical events in the background. An excellent novel which gives a real insight into Latin America.

Eva Luna clearly reflects the author herself, 20 Mar 2001
This is a truly engaging tale. Eva means life, and Luna, meaning moon in spanish, establishes her strong feminine, even matriachal, identity early in the book. As she takes on the different roles of daughter, mother and sister through the span of the book, we see her strong will and ability to survive in a country that is dominantly male. Eva Luna's gift of narration is very similar to Allende's own, only the latter conveys her strong, memorable message of feminism through the power of words, translated for the rest of the world to read. An extraordinarily wonderful book, and a must for anyone who has read her other books before.

Maria-Sofia dice "Excelencia inolvidable", 10 Mar 2008
De parte de mi hija, Maria-Sofia, disfruto muchisimo del nuevo mundo de Las Amazonas. La riqueza del lenguaje, la serie de imagenes inspira un mundo alcanzable. Ojala que sera para la proxima generacion. La ciudad de Las Bestias introduzca a la generacion joven de los problemas sociales y el conflicto del mundo indigeno con las presiones y gula del occidente. El encanto de los anmales y mitologia de los simbolos quedan implantados en la mente. Ya estamos listos por ir a Butan.

amazing book, 08 Mar 2006
this book is amazing with all the adventure that has happends.

A Mind Bending Amazonian Fantasy, 17 Oct 2005
Firstly, this is a children's book but none the less appealing for adults. Fans of Allendes's 'adult' writing will be surprised at the terseness of the porose style - nothing is allowed to get in the way of the plot, which rips along at a breathtaking pace. However, there are interludes of pure magical invention which trip the reader up and invert all your pre-conceptions. The characters are vividly drawn and likeable; and with a clever twist at the end of the story, it's a perfect book to fill the gap for 14 - 16 year olds. Plus you can borrow it after them!

Read this!!!!!!!, 01 Oct 2005
This is my favourite book ever, and I've read thousands. I read this a few years ago when I was 13 and nothing has topped it since, except maybe its sequels. Everytime I re-read it I love it even more. It genuinely is brilliant, and you get completely lost in the far-off worlds and ideas. The imagery is just too beautiful. It's a book you can get totally lost in- I remember finishing a chapter, looking up and being momentarily surprised that there wasn't a tropical rainstorm outside! Seriously: if you're only going to read one book in your life, this is it. Everyone must read it, it's pure magic through and through.

City of the Beasts, 04 Apr 2005
I didn't particularly like the opening of this book and was tempted to stop reading but I'm glad I persevered as it improved dramatically after the first couple of chapters. Most of the characters were very likeable and the plot was beleivable for the most part. I did find that it became a bit monotonous towards the end but on the whole it was a very original and well told story.

Allende on top form - but a harrowing central theme, 02 Dec 2004
I read this book for two reasons. Firstly, because I love Allende's writing. I have all her books and I have even bought three of her novels in Spanish, as an incentive to make progress with the language. The second reason is that my secretary's daughter died in '02, after many years of slow decline, at the same age as Paula.

I hoped I might find something in the heart-wrenching account that Allende gives us of Paula's plight that might help me help my friend in her grief. The description of Paula's illness and death is masterfully written. Allende spares herself and us nothing in the intensity of her description: this comes through even in the midst of the dreadful pain that Allende suffered and continues to suffer. On finishing the book, completely wrung out by the end, I felt that there is nothing comparable to the grief of a mother bereaved. What Allende has described with such searing clarity, the furious, inconsolable grief of a mother whose child has died, is what I see in the eyes my friend. Those without children, as I am, cannot visit that place.

Her description of her family and Chile and life, alternating with the passages of the account of Paula's passing, are intriguing and colourful in the best Allende fashion. An interesting aspect, for me, is in trying to gauge how much Allende the story-teller is predominant over Allende the factual writer. After all, she admits that she has 40 versions of how she met her second husband - and he says they're all true. However embroidered her account of her family and life in Chile and elsewhere might be, it's rich in atmosphere and spirit, as we have come to know of Allende's writing - and it is blessed relief from the rigours of her account of her daughter's final year.

A tough and touching book.

very touching but a bit pretentious, 21 Oct 2004
I've read a number of Isabel Allende books and found them all a very good read. Paula was the last one I read and felt really touched by the tragedy of Allende's daughter. The first part was written during Paula's stay in a hospital in Madrid and makes you feel as if you were there Allende and listened to her stories from the past. However the second part was written some years after Paula's death and seems to me a little pretentious and concentrates on the life story and greatness the author. Still a very good read, but however difficult it might be to criticise when someone writes about their own personal tragedy it is not the best of Allende's books.

Moving and Inspiring, 03 Sep 2003
I have read Allende's work before and was aware of this particular book. But I was not sure what led me to read Paula. My motivation most probably would have been trying to deal with an illness that has befallen a family member close to me. What Allende did do was allow me to better understand the complexities, mysteries and anger of dealing with such tragic events.

Paula is very accesible to read, yet operates on many levels. It allows the reader to take out of the book both deep emotional meaning or just enjoy, albeit with great sorrow, the amazing and unique style of Allende.

Read this if you are interested in how national and international politics and changing social mores affect one family; how humans confront the manifold experiences, good and bad, laid before us. As trite as it sounds, Paula reminded me there is more to life than the immediate moment and surroundings. It shows us to both live life to the fullest, but also be patient when times are hard. Or simply read Paula if you are after a great piece of writing that would be fitting for a fictional novel, if it were not for the real tragedy that inspired it.

Befitting Allende's style of writing, magic-realism transcends the book, especially Allende's references to the spirits of her family that come to her at certain times. The meaning I drew from this was that we can draw inspiration, reflect and use our memories of those past to guide us forward and assist us in times of sadness, or emphasise the happiness we feel other times.

Beautiful, 16 Oct 2001
I have never cried so much with a book. In this book Isabel Allende talks about her own life and the life of her family with the same magic as if she was talking about one of the characters in her books. It is interesting to see how some members of her family and people she has met have inspired her to create the characters of her other books.

Possibly her best book, wonderful !, 13 Jul 2001
Although being an admirer of Allende and having red all her previous books (in addition to being hispanophile with several trips to S-American countries including Chile) I decided in advance not to read this book. "Nobody can well write about such a tragedy as losing her/his own child, it must be depressing." was my bold statement. My wife red it and recommended it warmly so I gave it a try. How wrong I was ! All about love and good and bad things in life (and death) of persons and a whole people, so humane it makes you cry and laugh... and think about the great gift of life and love. Possibly and in my opinion probably her best, leaving the reader deeply touched and wiser about life and love.

A new market, 31 Jul 2008
Isabel Allende has successfully allowed readers to experience the contrast of cultures. Some reviews say she has done well with her homework. Actually it is her background that has allowed her to write with such details despite some reviewers found the events unlikely. You will be surprised! (abit of advice do your research on the writer before making such assumptions).
Her novel is set during the period of Gold fever, where everyone sets off to seek gold. Her style is poetic and sometimes rythmic with touching pivotal moments of the various characters. The language is uncomplicated and a pleasure to read.
The story contains provocative moments, romance, philosophy, violence and heartbreak as the book takes you through the different cultures. Allowing readers to understand the meaning of growing up and understanding the complication of love.
Instead of comparing