A review by audjmo91
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I'm a sucker for a epics like this one, in which we follow a family over a period of many years and see the rise and fall, push and pull of people entering and leaving, and how that affects the fates of the characters you grow to love. While it took me a little time to warm to Victor and Roser's world (such as it is our own cruel one but before I was born), I felt such compassion for them as they moved through civil wars, years in exile, family separations and reunions, showing the remarkable, but not uncommon, resilience that so many people in these situations must endure. To read this in a time where there is debate about ethnic cleansing and genocide happening in real time shows how much history repeats, and how much more we have to learn.