Violeta

Author: Isabel Allende
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2022
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: 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.

Review: A few years ago I read In the Midst of Winter by this author, and determined I would never read another book she wrote. In the Midst of Winter was absurdly farfetched. However, the cover of this book caught my eye, and it received good reviews. It also fit the Friends & Fiction January reading prompt - books with single word titles.

I loved this book. It captured my interest and attention early on, and I enjoyed the story. I don't plan to read everything Allende has written, but certainly, I would take a look at her novels and see if any sound good. 

I just loved Violeta the character and the telling of her story.