Living a long life,bookends by pandemics,Violeta is a great story.
Full of bold characters,some loveable,some not so much.
There's going to be someone you root for the whole way (miss Taylor for me)

I hadn't enjoyed the book before this,but this restored my faith that I do need to read every book Allende publishes.
It's sad and its funny,and hits the right note many many times.

Violeta Del Valle now 100, writes to her much loved grandson Camilo and tells him the story of her incredible life. Violeta was born in 1920 in the midst of the Spanish Flu epidemic which like everywhere else ravages Chile and she will die in 2020 during the Coronavirus pandemic, a strangely symmetrical coincidence of a life circle completed. It’s an amazing story of riches to rags following the 1929 Wall Street Crash and her family’s exile from the capital to Nahuel in the south of Chile where she blossoms. She tells of her loves and losses, her marriages, her passionate affairs one of which has a brutal element to it but which gave her children and her grandson Camilo, ‘her greatest love’. It charts her success as an astute business woman, we view women’s rights, political rights through which there’s a snapshot of Chile’s dramatic changes which have been well documented in her books and in others. The historical context is superb, it’s written with real clarity and includes stories of great bravery such as that of Albert Benoit.

This is a beautifully written, intense, dramatic sweeping saga of a colourful life well lived through some astounding events and I love every word of it. It’s written in the typical Allende visual style so you can see the characters and events spring to life before your eyes which simply enthrals me. The quality of the writing and the story of Violeta leads to a multitude of emotions as her highs are yours and the lows are deeply felt. I love the moments of humour but there’s also the other end of the scale with personal darkness for Violeta, for Chile and the world. The characterisation is fantastic, all are exceptionally well crafted and you get a strong sense of the personalities springing from the pages. The settings are beautiful especially Nahuel (google it, it’s absolutely stunning!) and there are some wonderful descriptions. I especially like the indigenous element which is extremely powerful especially the spirituality which plays an important role in the storytelling.

Overall, I’ve read most of Isabel Allende’s books and in my opinion she’s one of the best authors around as she never fails to take me on a literary journey. This one is spellbinding, captivating and absorbing and is storytelling at its best. What a beautiful cover too, matching the contents.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Isabel Allende is an author I drift back to every now and then, despite her not generally working in genres I favour. I have always liked the clarity of her writing (here in an unshowy translation from Frances Riddle) , compared to the messiness of her characters and the empathy that runs through her work. I have always enjoyed the weave of intimate stories with that of history – particularly where I don’t know much about the country – and I probably have got more Chilean history from her work than any other source. And Violeta is slap bang in that wheelhouse – perhaps its century story of a life from pandemic to pandemic (an accidental but surprisingly solid framing device) is a bit of an Allende greatest hits, but I am happy with that.

Violeta is the eldest daughter of a middle class, oldish money, Chilean industrialist – much of the book is about the stratifying complexities of the class system. The father goes bust in the depression, they move to the country and we get a sense that this life will mirror some of the fortunes of the country. This becomes quite difficult when you have a seemingly decent and progressive heroine living through the fascism of the 70’s and 80’s, but in many ways that helps the broader theme about how good people let bad things happen. Whilst the last fifty years of this life end up getting a little bogged down in a self-reflexive hagiography about fighting misogyny, the book is never sparing about how society and social mores allow abuse to happen in the first place. I forgive most of that as it makes narrative sense and also is not without a broad sense of playfulness. The book is written as a story told directly to her grandson, who as the book slowly reveals, is a priest – something Violeta is not exactly happy with.

What Violeta lacks in fireworks it gains in a sense of quality and comfort. It flirts with mysticism, but never falls into magical realism, and is quite harsh about the realities of the Chilean regimes, though it sometimes over generous to the fleshed out characters who play a part (her second partner and father of her children holds a role of strange fascination, clearly a terrible person but addictively so – and the book just about squares that circle with its narrative viewpoint and familial frame). There is a temptation to see a book about a made up life and ask “so what” – and certainly the dramatic highs and low here feel relatively safe. But there is also something in the perspective of 100 years, a stoicism that cannot quite sum up the horrors of a child’s death, smooths over childhood fancies and accept our old self is sometimes unknowable to our current self. Reliably good is the damning faint praise I am left with.

A sweeping epic of a book, covering the 100 years between the 20th century flu pandemic and the coronavirus pandemic of the 21st. It is written in the form of a letter from a grandmother to her grandson, and is the story of a continent (South America) and its disasters, tragedies and triumphs. The protagonist, Violeta del Valle is an extraordinary woman, but one with the same passions and faults as any other, and the book reads as an autobiography of extraordinary frankness and beauty. It is peopled by a large cast, every one of whom is completely vivid and believable, and the book has been thoroughly researched from a historical perspective. Isabel Allende is one the very finest living writers and it is a privilege to read and review this wonderful book.

I knew from the first page I would enjoy this book. Isabel Allende isa wonderful storyteller and entwines her characters in a history lesson of South America. The similarities are striking between the current pandemic and spanish flu of the early 20th century. She portrays the brutal regimes ruling the country and the terrifying impact on the population. A great story.

From the first sentence you fall straight into familiar and beloved Allende territory, with the story of 100 years of Violeta from birth to death as a central theme surrounded by all the turmoil and tumult of the century she is born into.

A host of beautifully drawn characters, complex relationships described with empathy, passion and understanding, and the unerring ability to interpret with great maturity and wisdom the events that the novel bears witness to.

This is the most skilled storytelling at work, the thread of Violeta's life holding together the most wide-ranging and diverse events, characters and situations, all told with a simplicity that belies the complete mastery of the novel that allows Violeta's story to sing. I'm in awe, as ever, with just how great this writing is.

The masterful skill of being an enchanting storyteller is on full display here. Almost poetic at times, a truly stunning book.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book, it’s the second book I’ve read by Isabelle Allende and the style seems similar over both. This book is a narrative of a whole life, from the time of the Spanish flu, through childhood, the passions and regrettable decisions of youth, right through to the wisdom of old age. I loved this narrative, the depth of feeling she creates for her characters and the intertwining of the political turmoil of the time which in South America is never short of some conflicts and brutality.
A beautiful story, Violetta will remain with me for a long time to come.

Isabel Allende is a consummate storyteller. Each book pulls you in to the lives, loves , triumphs and tragedies of the key protagonists beautifully woven within the context of historical,events and locations. Violeta Del Valle is a strong formidable woman and the book tells the story of her life written in the form of a letter to her grandson at the age of one hundred. From the arrival of the “ Spanish flu” pandemic in the 1920s to the financial crash of the late 1920s onto the arrival of the German community in southern America and the facist regimes that controlled and ruined so many lives finally leading onto democratic freedom Violeta’s story weaves these events and wider social changes against the story of her family. Allende entertains, educates and enthrals. This is a great read and very enjoyable. The only personal wish is that some of the events within the story are so fleeting that I wish they could have been extended…. in fact Violeta’s life could have made two volumes.

A really enjoyable story that is almost poetic in writing style. It was gripping and I couldnt put it down. I really enjoyed reading it.

Born at the time of one pandemic snd dying 100 years later in the time of another the book tells of Violeta born during the Spanish flu on Chilie and dying during the covid pandemic of 2020 .
A long and fascinating life which allows the author to tel us a lot about the second half of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st in the South American country
I found the characters witty and memorable as the family is populated by almost Dickensian cast of oddballs .The people make the story and their relationships as they love hate and just get on with living life together made for a great entertaining read
The settings are as big open and interesting as the people
I read an early copy on NetGalley Uk the book is published January 2022