Violeta [English Edition]: A Novel

Isabel Allende

Jan 2022 · Sold by Ballantine Books

About this eBook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This sweeping novel from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.

“An immersive saga about a passion-filled life.”—People

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar, Real Simple, Reader’s Digest

Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family with five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

Through her father’s prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses everything and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling.

She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting times of devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life is shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women’s rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and ultimately not one, but two pandemics.

Through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humor carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.

Ratings and reviews

This story starts in 1920 with the birth of Violeta during the Spanish Flu pandemic and ends in 2020 with the Covid 19 Pandemic. It covers all the years in between. It is the story of one woman, her family, her friends, her lovers and business partners. Through all the stages of her life daughter, wife, mother, lover and business partner Violeta strived to be an independent woman and leading a life of her own choosing. She was one that could not be caged, could not be held back. She campaigned for women's rights to birth control, abortion, divorce and against domestic abuse. Even though at times she was herself a victim of abuse. She found wealth in the city and peace in the country where she felt most at home. Through hurricanes, floods, dictators and social unrest she lived and raised her two children and her grandchild. She gambled with the mafia and traveled the roads and back roads with her lovers. She lived and loved in her own way, built an empire with her brother in the pre-fab housing market and left most of her money to her son who became a priest. I liked the story as it described the different parts of the country she lived in the Canary Islands, the politics, the people that lived there and their different customs and ways of living. The rich, the poor, and the crooked. The good, the bad and the indifferent. It was a good story and I enjoyed reading it. I would recommend it. Thanks to Isabel Allende for writing the story, Random House for publishing it and NetGalley for making it available to me.

Allende mailed this one in. Languid plot, no energy, boring dialog. Did Allende even write this? She’s 80 years old and maybe employed a ghost writer. Or her own plot put her to sleep.

y la edición en español... cuando

About the author

Isabel Allende won worldwide acclaim in 1982 with the publication of her first novel, The House of the Spirits. Since then, she has authored twenty-six bestselling and critically acclaimed books, which have been translated into more than forty-two languages. In addition to her work as a writer, Allende devotes much of her time to human rights causes. In 1996, following the death of her daughter, Paula Frias, she established a charitable foundation in her honor, which has awarded grants to more than one hundred nonprofits worldwide on behalf of women and girls. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Allende the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and in 2018 she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. She has also received PEN Center USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Raised in Chile, she now lives in California.