Violeta English Edition, Isabel Allende
Violeta English Edition, Isabel Allende
26 Rating(s)
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Violeta [English Edition]

Bestseller

Author: Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle

Narrator: Yareli Arizmendi

Unabridged: 11 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/25/2022


Synopsis

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.

About Isabel Allende

It is a good person who is a world renowned author, but says her best achievement is not her books, but the love she shares with a few people, especially her family, and having always tried to help people. Such are the thoughts of Isabel Allende, a Chilean author who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Hussein Obama. She has written: The House of the Spirits, and City of the Beasts. Her novels are considered to be the genre of magical realism. They are usually based on her own experiences, historical events, and pay homage to the lives of women. She also uses elements of myth and realism.

Allende was born in Lima, Peru. Her father was a cousin to Salvador Allende, the President of Chile from 1970 to 1973. Her father left her mother, so Isabel ended up moving to many places when her mother married a diplomat. In 1962 Isabel married an engineering student, when she moved back to Chile to complete her secondary education. She then led a dual life as obedient wife and mother, but in public was Barbara Cartland, well-known tv personality, a dramatist, and journalist with a feminine magazine.

Allende had jobs with the United Nations in Santiago, then Brussels and elsewhere. In Chile she translated books from English to Spanish, but was fired because she made some changes on her own (which were not appreciated) and was altering some endings from "happily ever after", to allow the heroine some independence to do good in the world.

She now runs the Isabel Allende Foundation, founded in 1996 to honor the author's daughter Paula Frias, who passed away at age 29. They award life-changing grants to women to improve their care.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on January 14, 2022

It's been a long time since I've read an Isabel Allende novel, but I do recall loving The House of the Spirits back in the day. My memory of that book is nothing at all like my experience with Violeta. The best way I can describe this book is that it narrates events without passion or urgency, in an......more

Goodreads review by Angela M on January 10, 2022

4.5 If I didn’t know better, I would have thought I was reading a memoir; it’s so intimate and detailed. But then, it’s an Isabel Allende novel and I wasn’t surprised to find the heart and soul of her main character, Violeta del Valle in these pages, seeming to me like a real person. With the back dr......more

Goodreads review by Nilufer on June 02, 2022

Happy pub day to this marvelous historical fiction 🥳🍾🎈 Since I’ve read House of Spirits I became a true fan of this brilliant author and her well written, mind spinning historical novels with magical realism vibes and realistic chapters based on true events. Violeta is another heartfelt, intense stor......more

Goodreads review by Bookishrealm on January 25, 2022

This was my first book by Isabel Allende and she made me cry like a baby. I didn't expect to have such an emotional reaction to this novel, but I did and it was worth every single tear. I was provided an advance copy of this title; however, all thoughts are my own. Violeta is a story that travels thr......more

Goodreads review by Canadian Jen on February 13, 2022

Back to the Allende world and the beauty of Chile. Allende has a natural talent for weaving a story of such vibrant colours, language, culture, traditions and of course characters. This is another breathtaking one. An epic story that begins with the birth of Violeta in a storm during the Spanish flu.......more


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

“A historical love story penned in the lush and propulsive prose familiar to Allende’s millions of fans worldwide, it . . . feels excitingly new and unerringly timely for this international superstar of an author.”San Francisco Chronicle

“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