Violeta

I have read and enjoyed several books by Isabel Allende, and this one is no exception. Told as the (fictional) autobiography of a 100 year old woman on her deathbed, this book nonetheless has a large cast of characters and settings. As usual, Allende deals with the topics of revolution and politics in South America, and I was interested enough to do some searching to determine what nations she referenced.

Violeta was born in 1920 during the influenza pandemic, and is now living in our current time of the coronavirus pandemic. These two events bookend her life, which is also touched by revolution, war, natural disasters, and personal/family tragedies. This book reads like hearing someone reminisce about their life, which could be boring but in this case I found it to be entertaining and thought-provoking. Because we only hear Violeta's point of view, it is interesting to consider if the other characters would tell their parts of the story consistently or not.

I found myself wishing a bit for some of Allende's magical realism, but aside from that, I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it for fans of Allende.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.