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Violeta by Isabel Allende



Published: 2022, Bloomsbury

Genre: Fiction

Themes: South America, family relationships, business

My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤


If I ever tell my life story, I will take a leaf out of Violeta's book and make sure you understand that everybody loved me, and despite all sorts of questionable behaviour on my part, I leave the world as a winner.

This is the story of a hundred year life.  Violeta is approaching the end, but before she goes she is determined to write out her life story for someone she loves dearly.  You don't get to know who that special someone is for most of the book, but that just serves to give the narrative a little twist.

I didn't much like the character of Violeta but I understand that people who don't go round upsetting the apple cart don't make for very interesting stories.  With such a great time span to play with, Isabel Allende had plenty of scope for changing Violeta's circumstances and adding in references to world events to keep the reader's interest.  The story begins at the time of the Spanish Flu pandemic just after the First World War and comes to a close as the world is paralysed by the Covid virus and Violeta's life has come full circle.

Set in an un-named country in South America, Violeta and her family have to deal with the rise of a dictatorship and work out how to survive and prosper with few resources. Not everything they do is legal and, although Violeta navigates the various financial and emotional storms, some must pay a terrible price.  It is not possible to change the past but lessons can be learned and some reparations made through greater understanding.

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