Allende deplores the reactionary vengeance of General Francisco Franco in Spain, mocks the Chilean aristocracy for its provincial arrogance, and decries the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet for its unspeakable atrocities. I’ve been a foreigner without realising I had deep roots,” he says. “I have had to imagine very little,” Allende notes in her acknowledgments, and it’s true that her research is evident on every page, some of it harrowing. Translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson. I’ve travelled from one side of the world to the other. Acting out of fraternal loyalty rather than lust, Victor marries Roser so that she and his nephew can begin a new life with him in Chile. To order a … When his parents take in one of his father’s best piano students, Roser Bruguera, it’s Guillem that she falls in love with. With his bulky shoulders and sharp gaze, Neruda sometimes threatens to do the same to Allende’s novel. A Long Petal of the Sea (a reference to the geography of Chile) weaves a love story spanning the Spanish Civil War and the coup that toppled the leftist Chilean president Salvador Allende in 1973. Separately, Victor, too, is imprisoned there, before escaping to track her down in Perpignan, where she and her baby son are sheltering with a Quaker family. After a month at sea, they arrive on the day that the second world war breaks out in Europe. A Long Petal of the Sea (a reference to the geography of Chile) weaves a love story spanning the Spanish Civil War and the coup that toppled the leftist Chilean president Salvador Allende in 1973. Get in-depth analysis delivered right to your inbox, From the In the novel, she reimagines the real voyage of a cargo ship, the SS Winnipeg, that in 1939 ferried desperate refugees from the Spanish Civil War to Chile. publishers of To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Vivid vignettes serve as reminders here, among them an opening scene in which Victor brings a smooth-cheeked young soldier back to life by massaging his heart, and another in which he feels his own break. Towards the end of Isabel Allende’s expansive new book, its protagonist, Victor Dalmau, looks back over his 80 years. • A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson) is published by Bloomsbury (£16.99). Over the coming decades there will be plenty more challenges for Victor and Roser, not least General Pinochet’s coup, which will see them exiled again, this time to Venezuela, like Allende herself. Along with some half a million other Spaniards fleeing Franco, Roser makes it to France, where she’s interned in the Argelès-sur-Mer concentration camp. Decades later, 80-year-old Victor will come to appreciate that while displacement has shaped his life, it’s the connections he’s made with Roser and others – ties stronger than any national border – that define it. Free UK p&p over £15, A doctor and his brother’s wife connect in exile in a sweeping story informed by real events, Isabel Allende: ‘It’s easy to forget what a trailblazer she was.’. When many countries were closing their doors to European immigrants, the progressive Chilean government tasked the diplomat and poet Pablo Neruda with selecting the Winnipeg’s lucky 2,200 passengers. The prolific and celebrated author also happens to be related to the deposed president. Isabel Allende. Lanky Victor is in many ways the opposite of his brother, Guillem, a handsome militiaman. • A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson) is published by Bloomsbury (£16.99). “It was at that moment he understood the profound meaning of that common phrase: he thought he heard the sound of glass breaking and felt that the essence of his being was pouring out until he was empty, with no memory of the past, no awareness of the present, no hope for the future,” Allende writes. At this point in Allende’s long career, it’s easy to forget what a trailblazer she was, a rare female voice in a wave of Latin American literature that was overwhelmingly male. But before that happens, they will have the chance to repay Neruda, hiding him in their home after communism is outlawed and a warrant is issued for his arrest. When the poet moves on to another safe house, Victor realises how “his guest had filled every nook and cranny with his huge presence”. ©2020 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. In its simplicity and sagacity, it’s an observation that typifies Allende’s approach to one of her work’s most cohesive themes, a theme sharpened by her own life story: displacement. His verse provides her title and each chapter’s epigram, and invades her cast’s thoughts, adding welcome bursts of colour in a narrative that, for large chunks, reads like well-paced but highly condensed nonfiction. This site uses cookies to improve your user experience. By His family are staunch republicans, and though he himself is no zealot, he’s soon engulfed in the bloody chaos of frontline medicine. Victor is still training to be a doctor in Barcelona when the Spanish civil war breaks out. That both scenarios feature the human heart is instructive. Almost 15,000 people perished in the French camps, for instance, among them nine out of every 10 children. Yet by the time the war is over, Roser is heavily pregnant and alone, and it will be a slower, infinitely more pragmatic – and more interesting – love that the novel ultimately celebrates. Foreign Affairs, Published by the Council on Foreign Relations. Her strong-willed protagonists endure historical tragedies, eventually setting aside their youthful utopian idealism for professional accomplishments and enduring love. As happened in real life, Neruda has persuaded Chile’s president to provide asylum for a number of Spanish refugees, defying rightwing opposition and the Catholic church. Neruda fills the Winnipeg, a cargo ship built for 20 seamen, with more than 2,000 Spaniards. The prolific and celebrated author also happens to be related to the deposed president. Get the latest book reviews delivered bi-weekly. Please enable JavaScript for this site to function properly. Click here to learn more. Throughout, her characters are buffeted by history’s facts, and it’s a testament to her seasoned craft that their story doesn’t sink entirely. “My life has been a series of journeys. It’s thanks to the poet Pablo Neruda that they get there.

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