If there is a region which understands the current anxiety in the United States over populist authoritarian regimes, manufactured coup d’états, the hope of resilience and the resilience of love, it’s Latin America. Specifically, Chile. And if there’s a writer whose gifted stories are the mortar of tenacity linking our two continents, she is Isabel Allende. Her new book, A Long Petal of the Sea — translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson — is another gift of epic storytelling. Only this time, that gift isn’t just a beautiful story well told. Now, it’s the solace of wisdom when we need it most, wrapped in a love story which reminds us, as abiding love always does, that grace takes many forms — yet its core is not faith, but truth. This story begins during the Spanish Civil War, and spans oceans and continents’ worth of political upheaval. When Franco’s fascists defeat the Republican army, an exodus of thousands escapes into France. One refugee is Roser, a young pianist, widowed and
The Y'allywood Reporter
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