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Sunday 3 July 2016

The House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende


The House of the SpiritsThe House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A wonderful, engrossing tale of a family through three generations - from grandmother to granddaughter. Each character is complex, with none being truly evil or truly saintly. Even the fierce-tempered patriarch, Esteban Trueban, gains your sympathy by the end of the book (I won't spoil the book by saying why he's an unlikely candidate for sympathy...).

While the family are always the centrepiece of the story, The House of the Spirits also explores the devastating effects of a violent revolution on a country. What makes these passages all the more poignant is that Allende was probably writing from her own experience; she had to flee Chile after the president, her cousin, was deposed in Pinochet's CIA-backed coup. (actually the book, in general, is seen as at least semi-autobiographical.)

I am rubbish explaining why I love a book, so I will just say this - I feel like this book has changed my perspective of the world; I am not sure how, or if my perspective will stay changed, but it has. I do know that if at this moment, I was asked to compile a list of my favourite books of all time - this would be on it.

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