I never know if I'm going to love or hate it when I start a book by Isabel Allende. I loved this one, loved Violeta and her long stories that reflect the story of a country.
There's plenty going, there's a lot of characters and a century of life and experiences.
Ms Allende is a talented storyteller and this book kept me turning pages as I savoured the great descriptions and the fascinating characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. This really is an epic saga spanning a lifetime and very much character driven. Beautifully written it’s a story well told and an enjoyable read.

When I got the opportunity to review Violeta I was absolutely thrilled as I used to love reading Isabel Allende novels with House of Spirits being a real standout for me.
Violeta is a novel that takes an epistolary form as she is chronicling her life at her deathbed, in a letter to her much loved grandson Camilo. She was born in Chile in 1920 during the Spanish Flu pandemic and dies 100 years later during the latest pandemic. The commonality with the public health recommendations such as mask wearing and staying home really resonated with me with our current realities.
The story covers huge historical moments that took place during her lifetime – The Great Depression when her family lost their fortune, WW2, the military dictatorship in Chile when some of her loved ones disappeared, the Dirty War in Argentina . I learned a lot about Chilean history by reading this book and I did some online research as I was reading to learn more about some of the key socio-historical events that Allende documents through Violeta’s life
I did find that the story lacked passion though, I felt that the narrator was emotional detected from her story and it was just flat. It read like a third person writing about a historical figure, rather than the person recounting their own life, loves, losses and lived experiences.

I would like to thank @netgalley and @bloomsbury for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review

‘There is a time to live and a time to die. In between there’s time to remember.’

Isabel Allende’s beautifully written Violeta has her titular heroine look back on a life that spans a hundred years from her birth during the Spanish flu to her death during the Coronavirus pandemic. This novel follows Violeta’s family’s fall from fortune, her education from an Irish governess, early marriage, several love affairs and attempts to maintain her independence and self sufficiency. We also follow events in the unnamed Latin American country Violeta inhabits - American interference and political turmoil leads to a regime that practices torture, human rights violations and murders. The protagonist and her family also experience domestic abuse, drug addiction and prostitution with tragic results. Yet our heroine is a survivor, which becomes clear as she recounts her life for Camilo, whose identity is revealed near the end of the book. This is an immersive and captivating read.

My favourite part was the backdrop of South American history spanning over 100 years, told through one person's life. The writing style was descriptive and beautiful, however it slowed the story down and made such an interesting life with so many tumultuous events quite dull to read about. The characters were also a little hard to keep track of and I wasn't particularly connected to any of them.

A lovely meandering but informative yarn with delightful characters and also for me a mystery. A mystery because I’m fairly sure the country the tale is being written about is never named. I thought I must have missed it at the start so read carefully for any clues. One reviewer says Chile and that does fit the narrative but I’m unsure where the information came from.

Another unforgettable story by Isabel Allende. Fans of Homegoing and Beloved will enjoy this. Violeta’s life is vibrant, turbulent and beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her upbringing, her family, relationships and ambitions.

An epic saga of sweeping proportions that the reader has come to expect from Ms Allende. Beautiful and thoughtfully written it covers a centenary of global struggles against human and viral enemies seen through the lens of Violeta, a feisty and independent South American woman
Thank you to netgalley and random house for an advance copy of this book

This mesmerising book was written as a letter towards the end of Violeta's long and extremely challenging life..

A beautifully descriptive easy read. There are many characters spanning over 100 years to follow. Each individual has great significance to Violet.

The book has everything to keep me enthralled.

Violeta, by Isabel Allende, is a beautiful and sweeping portrait of a woman’s life through one hundred years of history. It is both vast in scope, but also extremely intimate.

Violeta came into the world one stormy day in 1920 in South America, in the midst of the Spanish flu pandemic and she leaves the world 100 years during the Coronavirus pandemic. Her life is shaped not only by the extraordinary, and often horrifying, events happening around her, but by poverty and wealth, heartbreak and passionate affairs and some very special individuals who show her great kindness and compassion.

Violeta’s story is told as a letter that she writes to the person most important to her. She writes this letter as she nears her final days as a way to tell the story of her life. The way that Allende gives Violeta her voice is just beautiful. In reading Violeta’s story you come to think of her as being a very real person. That her life is marked by some of the very real events of the 100 years with which she lived only adds to this authenticity. The way Allende combines factual events in Violeta’s fictional world is just magical, and makes everything come to life that bit more.

As you would expect from a story that spans 100 years, Violetta knows a lot of people and there are a lot of characters to this story. Yet never is the reader lost over who is who or how they are connected. Each key person is so beautifully drawn and their significance on Violeta’s life carefully distinguished. I grew particularly fond of the quiet presence of Torito and the kindness and mystery of Roy Cooper.

This is a really stunning and sweeping character driven story. We learn so much about Violeta and the changing world in which she lived. As a character she writes with great warmth, humour and humility, something that she learned along the way. This is a beautiful tale that I really recommend.

Violeta is a gorgeous historical fiction set in South America (I believe it is set in Chile, although I don’t think this is overtly confirmed in the book). We follow the life of Violeta from her birth during the 1920 Spanish flu pandemic through to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

The book deals with so many hard topics, but rounds them out in such beautiful ways, with the true heartache and romanticism that only the memoir style can offer. Violeta lives through World War Two, military coups and dictators states, and abusive relationships. She also finds love and family, and true meaning in her life.

This book is extraordinary, my largest criticism would be that it was over too soon and I’d have liked to have spent more time with each of the characters that we met. The memoir element often meant the book moved on to other things before I was ready, and there were a few times I’d have liked to just sit with something and deal with it before being whisked away.

Overall, I’d highly recommend it! It’s a historical fiction that reads like a contemporary, full of love and heartbreak. It’s honestly just gorgeous!

A well written and researched novel spanning the life of centegenarian Violeta who was born during the flu epidemic of 1920 and died midst the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. It is not a book about pandemics but a life well lived in far from ideal and varied circumstances.

Isabel Allende’s latest novel is epic, mesmerising and beautifully written with the authentic feel of a memoir. In 2020, in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, Violeta del Valle, now 100 years old and in her last days, writes to her grandson Camilo recounting her life story. Born in Chile in 1920 during the Spanish Flu pandemic, there is a fitting inevitability that a century of war, depression, struggle, discrimination, evil, selflessness, love, loss, illness, joy, and achievement should end at another watershed moment of global catastrophe. Violeta has lived through many joyful and horrific moments, and the complex nature of life is vividly portrayed for Violeta and those she encounters. A life exquisitely captured by the events of her country and Violeta’s journey with family and loved ones. While Chile is never mentioned by name, the geography, location descriptions, and events reflect the true nature of Chile.

The story weaves compelling characters with the history of tumultuous times in Chile, through military coups, authoritarian leadership, revolts, boom and bust economic cycles, and dubious connections to spies, criminals and drug cartels. Violeta spells out the relationships with her children, brothers, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbours and the men in her life. Some partners bring her joy, others pain and abuse, but they shape this fascinating woman. Being an astute businesswoman, she had to overcome commercial issues and discrimination that prevented her from directly owning her own business or bank account. She plotted her course with her eldest brother as they grew a successful business keeping the details hidden from the authorities and others.

Isabel Allende is masterful at her characterisation, and the related details are absorbing while never letting the story’s momentum ponder into over-detail. The significant events and range of characters keep this story engrossing from beginning to end.

To capture a thought in my mind using a famous and appropriate phrase:
She loved, laughed and cried
She had her fill, her share of losing
And now, as tears subside
She finds it all so amusing
To think she did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way
Oh no, no, not her
She did it her way

A fabulously entertaining story that I would highly recommend and I want to thank my Buddy Ceecee for recommending this to me in glowing terms - you are on point as usual. I also want to thank Bloomsbury Publishing, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, and NetGalley for providing a free ARC in return for an honest review.

'Magical realism' is often the genre given to the well established and admired author, born in Peru and raised in Chile whose books are often set within the boundaries of South America, once again provides a family epic that spans the 100 years of Violeta's life.
Born in 1920 the story spans being born in a storm at a time of pandemic (Spanish Flu post WWI) to her death during another pandemic (coronavirus) The novel also spans world events - based in mostly Sacramento but with episodes spent in the countryside of other South American countries and travel to Miami, Cuba during the time of the MAFIA and Frank Sinatra to the massacres in Argentina and rule of Peron to missionary work in the Congo. I learnt a lot about the history and politics of these surrounding countries through revolution/dictatorships and survival from war and the Great Depression.
The narrator is Violeta talking to someone very close Camilo (who we later discover is her grandson) and I did find her explicit descriptions of her sexually experiences hard to comprehend as something a grandson/priest would later enjoy to read!
Men form an important if contrasting role in Violeta's life and from her first suitor to her last long time love in travel and companionship in her 90s, Violeta often becomes a victim of her own impetuousness. Luckily she has a steely practical mind working and making money. Often this helps her avoid both catastrophe but also imprisonment as particularly the badly named Julian Bravo - James Bond meets the Krays character.
As a mother there is emotional distress through her life and the love but alienation from her children's lives (particularly her daughter Nieves) provide some of the most heart wrenching aspects of the novel.
Friendships remain important in much of Allende's work. I really liked the Aunts Pia and Pilar and Etelvina who is with her to the end.
Faith, lies, love and revenge also add to the epic nature of this book and although for my mind I felt it could perhaps have been edited down a little in parts the massive sweep of this saga lead us explore a life not perhaps always well lived but evoking long love and reflection.

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 unnamed country, through the eyes of a narrator we never come to know. I felt extremely distanced from the story's events throughout the whole book. Though tragedy strikes often-- suicide, life-or-death medical emergencies, to name a couple --I felt it was told in such a cold, detached way, almost as if the narrator was reading from a textbook, not describing the events that befell her own family.

Actually, that paragraph I just wrote is telling. I cannot help myself referring to Violeta as simply "the narrator" because that is how she came across. I often find books where an elderly person recounts their life story very effective, but something about it here made it difficult to ever warm to the characters or feel attached to their circumstances.

The story is that of 100-year-old Violeta's life, written for her grandson. It takes us from her childhood raised by an Irish governess somewhere in South America (never said where but contains oblique references to pandemics and military takeovers) to her marriage, an abusive relationship and the arrival of her two children.

Though the suicide of one's father, a whirlwind romance that turns abusive, and a child with a drug addiction are all horrific things for a person to experience, Violeta's narrative voice remains flat and unmoving from beginning to end.

Anyone got better Allende recommendations for me than this one?

Born in one pandemic, dying in another. This is the story of Violeta Del Valle who provides us with a rich and colourful testimony on her life.

On first picking up this book after reading The Fell and To Paradise I feared it would just be yet another pandemic novel opening as it does with the Spanish Flu epidemic of the 1920's . However as usual Isabel Allende gives us so much more. This work, which spans over a hundred years, is a chronicle of 20th century history - Spanish Flu, The Great Depression ,and the Cold War as reflected in the lives of an upper class South American family. Allende succeeds in making the historical feel personal as our intrepid heroine battles her way through personal challenges and societal injustices.

This is a beautifully written and intensely dramatic sweeping saga of a colourful life well lived through some outstanding events and I loved every word.

Just stunning. An absolutely beautiful, slow exploration of Violeta's life and all of the global events that have shaped it: everything from pandemics (two!) to the ongoing fight for women's rights. Violeta takes the form of a letter to the protagonist's greatest love and it's impossible not to be drawn into the vibrant, passionate world Allende has been gracious enough to invite us into.

Fascinating, captivating and a fantastic depiction of women in South America in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Violetta's life over a hundred years highlights the massive history and change, political upheaval, culture and community in Chile. Her family and friends, relationships and experiences are absolutely fascinating, painful and real.
So refreshing to read a whole life story filled with interesting history and stories. Surprisingly varied, from a women's view in a very patriarchal society.
Brilliant!! Loved reading this one and can highly recommend for your next book!
Thank you for the opportunity to read early NetGalley.

On a spellbinding novel that chronicles the life of a woman who has lived a century. A woman who was born in 1920, during the Spanish influenza pandemic, and would live until 2020, during the outbreak of coronavirus. So you can imagine how many extraordinary events of the 20th century she has witnessed. This epic novel that reads like a sweeping real-life memoir is the latest work by Isabel Allende. A book I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy for, as it's only due to be published in the UK towards the end of the month. ⁣
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The book is structured such that the heroine Violeta de Val, who is now 100 years old, writes to her beloved grandson Camilo and tells him the story of her life. There are stories of her childhood, the family's exile to the south of Chile, her various loves and losses, her children and their respective. Throughout the book, Allende brilliantly weaves in various key historical events and political upheavals impacting South America over the 20th century.⁣
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By the end of the book, I was left in awe, reflecting on Violeta has actually not lived one life, but many. How she has loved and lived with so much passion and determination. ⁣
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“My survival instincts keep me alive well beyond what dignity should allow. In the last three years Mother Nature, ever implacable, has stripped me of my energy, my good health, my independence, leaving me the ancient woman that I am today. I didn’t feel old when I turned ninety-seven, because I was actively involved with my projects, I had curiosity about the world, and I still got angry over a battered woman. I didn’t dwell on death because I was excited by life.”⁣
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What a great weekend read. It was my first novel of Allende, but it will not definitely not be the last.

Violeta by Isabel Allende
I have been reading Isabel Allende’s novels since The House of the Spirits was published in 1982. I have loved almost all of them and Violeta is now exception. It is a sweeping story which takes us from Chile in 1920 to the Chile of 2020 through the fascinating life of one woman as she tells her life story to her grandson , Camilo.
Her story begins in the family home where her father has locked the doors allowing no visitors in in order to try and evade the Spanish Flu pandemic. Her mother gives birth to her first daughter after giving birth to 5 sons.
Her life is impacted by world events and the Great Depression following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 means her family are reduced to living in Nahuel in the South of Chile as they struggle to evade their numerous creditors. They live a simple life and as she gets older Violeta accompanies the teachers who travel to the small communities to educate the local people in return for basic hospitality.
Violeta has a turbulent life there are stories of her husband her lovers and the passions of her life. These are accompanied by the struggles which are going on in the wider world, the war, the dictators who take over the country, the plight of the disappeared and the role of America in the destabilisation of their country. It is a sweeping story which is beautifully written, intense and dramatic. It is the story of a colourful life lived through some astounding events.
Isable Allende’s powerful writing enables you to become immersed in the lives of the characters. The settings are beautifully evoked through wonderful descriptions.
I would like to thank Isabel Allende, Bloomsbury and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review. I will be encouraging my book groups to read this book and I wholeheartedly recommend it.