Long Petal of the Sea

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'A powerful love story spanning generations… Full of ambition and humanity' - Sunday Times'One of the strongest and most affecting works in Allende's long career' - New York Times Book ReviewOn September 3, 1939, the day of the Spanish exiles’ splendid arrival in Chile, the Second World War broke out in Europe.Victor Dalmau is a young doctor when he is caught up in the Spanish Civil War, a tragedy that leaves his life – and the fate of his country – forever changed. Together with his sister-in-law, the pianist Roser, he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile.When opportunity to seek refuge arises, they board a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda to Chile, the promised ‘long petal of sea and wine and snow’. There, they find themselves enmeshed in a rich web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations, destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world.A masterful work of historical fiction that soars from the Spanish Civil War to the rise and fall of Pinochet, A Long Petal of the Sea is Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.'A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile and belonging' - Independent Online'A defiantly warm and funny novel, by somebody who has earned the right to argue that love and optimism can survive whatever history might throw at us' - Daily Telegraph'A grand storyteller who writes with surpassing compassion and insight. Her place as an icon of world literature was secured long ago' - Khaled Hosseini'A novel not just for those of us who have been Allende fans for decades, but also for those who are brand new to her work: what a joy it must be to come upon Allende for the first time' - Colum McCann'Allende's style is impressively Olympian and the payoff is remarkable' - Guardian‘Epic in scope, yet intimate in execution’ - i

Allende has everything it takes: the ear, the eye, the mind, the heart, the all-encompassing humanity, Isabel Allende is a grand storyteller who writes with surpassing compassion and insight. Her place as an icon of world literature was secured long ago. She will be celebrated, by readers and writers alike, for generations to come, A historical saga that sweeps from the Spanish Civil War to the rise and fall of General Pinochet, Although this is fiction, Allende’s epic is deeply rooted in fact, and often reads like a biography – of her homeland not least . . . [The characters] are brought alive by Allende’s generous imagination and brisk, vivid prose, A decades-spanning tale of war, exile and belonging . . . Grounding the novel is the love story between Victor and Roser, all the more touching for being unconventional . . . The book is all-encompassing, both in its sweep through history and the sheer number of lives crammed into it . . . The writing is unadorned but affecting, shot through with sad details

Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende is the author of twenty-four bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The House of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune and City of the Beasts. A Chilean immigrant herself, Allende devotes much of her time to human rights causes and in 1996 founded the Isabel Allende Foundation. She lives in California.