by Isabel Allende
This book starts in Spain during the Civil War. It starts with one family, two brothers, their mother and a young women the family "adopted". The two brothers go to fight in the war, one of them becomes a soldier, the other brother who had been studying to become a doctor, goes off to be a Medic. The soldier brother and adopted sister fall in love and the girl gets pregnant. Her lover is killed in the war. The other brother knows this but can't bring himself to tell her.
As the war is winding down and Franco is winning, the medic brother arranges for an ambulance driver to take the girl and his mother over the border to France. On the way the mother disappears, the driver gets the girl to a refugee camp. The refugees are not welcome in France and conditions in the camp are terrible, with men taking most of the food.
The medic contacts a "nurse" he knows and she is able to find the girl and get her to a safe location to have her baby. She is taken in by a family.
The medic and girl eventually get reunited and are granted permission to move to Chile. This infulx of refugees is supposedly the idea of Pablo Neruda. The man convinces the girl to marry him because they will only be accepted for entry if they are married. It seems that refugees will not be welcome there either but they find that they are welcomed warmly. The man completes his medical training and becomes a highly regarded surgeon. The woman becomes a musician and founder of an ancient music orchestra which tours around South America. The man becomes a friend of Pablo Neruda and many years later helps Neruda escape from Chile.
The man treats the baby as his own. The couple are married but it is initially just a marriage of convenience. The medic eventually tells her that the father of her child died in the war.
The man has an affair with a woman, above his social class, who is engaged to someone else.
She gets pregnant and her family send her off to a convent to have the baby, to avoid scandal to the family. They tell her the baby, a boy, dies at birth. She initially calls off her engagement but her fiance loves her so much he agrees to marry her anyway.
Overtime the Doctor's wife reconnects with the driver who got her out of Spain and they have a seven year affair. Eventually the woman tells the Doctor about this affair. And eventually they do end up consummating their marriage and realizing they do love each other.
The book then switches to the political time when Salvador Allende, the socialist gets into power. The Doctor is a friend of his and plays chess with him. Allende is killed/commits suicide in a coup attempt. Soon after the doctor is arrested and sent to a concentration camp where he sees great cruelty again (like in the Spanish Civil War). He saves the life of the cruel camp Commander.
Eventually the doctor is rescued from his imprisonment with the help of his wife and they move to Venezuela. They eventually move back to Chile and live in a small house in the country. The man's wife dies and he is devastated. One day a young woman shows up and tells him that she is daughter. The woman he had an affair had a girl, not a boy, and the child lived and was adopted by a German couple. The arrival of this "new" member of his family jolts the man out of his despair and he is eager to include her in his life. It turns out the girl's mother was and continues to be a very self-centred, not very nice person.
This was a great book. It was interesting to learn about the history of Spain and Chile. It too demonstrated how cruel people can be. But more importantly it shows how people can be kind and loving. The author is the Goddaughter of Salvador Allende
No comments:
Post a Comment