This book was received as an advance review copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Isabel Allende’s novel about leaving one’s home and the often-harrowing journeys that migrants take could not have been published at a better time. With immigration issues dominating the public discourse (as Title 42 ended in the US in May 2023) this book’s publication could not be more opportune.

Synopsis:

The book weaves together multiple stories centered around migration. In 1938 Samuel Adler is only six years old when he is forced to flee from Vienna as violence against Jews in Nazi-occupied Austria escalates. Arriving alone in the UK, Samuel uses his violin to make a place for himself first in the UK and then in the US.

In 2019, Anita Diaz is also forced to flee her home, in El Salvador, with her mother looking for safety in the US. Arriving at the border she is soon separated from her mother as the family separation policy is put into effect. Waiting for her mother she struggles to deal with traumas chasing her from home as she bounces from migrant shelter to foster care. Her social worker Selena Duran seeks help from a renowned lawyer, Frank Angileri to reunite her with her mother while navigating the US immigration system.

As Selena finds Anita’s distant relative Leticia Cordero in the US, she develops a bond with Samuel Adler who is now eighty-six years old and is being cared for by Leticia. As these stories intersect, the devastating impact of being forced to leave one’s home and the sacrifices our loved ones make for our safety are revealed.

What’s to like:

For readers interested in migration issues/ current affairs and how these impact lives, this book is a great read. The first few chapters are especially interesting as Samuel’s childhood and Leticia’s ancestor’s stories are shared. Through the first half of the book, one wonders how the different stories will come together and that makes the last few chapters even more interesting as the paths of all the characters intersect.
If this is your first Isabel Allende novel, you will also notice how her writing style is so straightforward and refreshing. In a matter-of-fact way, she describes even the most heartbreaking circumstances and yet it does not fail to elicit an emotional effect on the reader.

What’s not to like:

Some of the side stories can get boring. Selena and Frank’s story did not seem as interesting and although the existence of Anita’s imaginary place, Azabahar, helps the reader learn about her, the relevant chapters describing it could only be skimmed.
Another aspect of the book I did not appreciate as a reader was the recurring mention of infidelity. Samuel and his wife’s relationship seemed very strange and made her particularly unlikeable to me. It always disappoints me as a reader to read about such vices discussed so casually and even normalized.

Book Review Rating: 4/5 – Recommended

Clean Content Rating: Intermediate. Contains references to premarital and extramarital relations, violence, and death.