Description: Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family of five boisterous sons. 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. As the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known, Violeta's family loses all and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life will be 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.--
Review Quotes: Praise for Isabel Allende and A Long Petal of the Sea
"One of the strongest and most affecting works in [Isabel Allende's] long career."--The New York Times Book Review
"Another gift of epic storytelling . . . A Long Petal of the Sea is a love story for these times."--NPR
"A return to the time and setting of the book that jump-started her literary career, The House of the Spirits . . . a page-turning story rich with history."--Los Angeles Times
"Love and war shape everything in Allende's sweeping, splendid new novel. . . . This is her best book in years, one she has poured all of her prodigious passion and talent into."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune "[Allende] 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."--Khaled Hosseini
"This gorgeous novel, like all the best novels, transports the reader to another time and place and sheds light on the way we live now. Allende is a legend, and this might be her finest book yet."--J. Courtney Sullivan
"Majestic . . . both timeless and perfectly timed for today."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"In this transporting novel, Allende is as transcendent and life-affirming as ever."--Esquire