by Isabelle Allende, 2021, Audiobook narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, Random House Audio

We listened to this book as we traveled north to our summer home this year.

The novel spans decades and crosses continents following two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home. They go to Chile, although they also spend some years in exile in Venezuela. Allende uses her knowledge of the history of Chile to weave a tale of hardships and displacement. Unfortunately, the book didn’t hold my interest as much as I thought it could. I just didn’t get into it.

The history presented was interesting as I didn’t realize the impact of the Pinochet regime as well as the shortcomings of the Allende regime in Chile. The circumstances in the Spanish Civil War that caused these persons to flee to Chile were also quite interesting.