Published in
Feb 27, 2021
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BOOKS I READ: A Long Petal of the Sea (2020) by Isabel Allende. A love story, the novel tracks the long lives of Victor Dalmau and Roser Bruguera, Catalonian refugees of the Spanish Civil War. Evading Franco’s dictatorship, they secure passage on the Winnipeg, a rescue ship organized by the poet, Pablo Neruda. The couple and son restart their lives in Chile, only to see their new world upended by another right-wing strongman, Pinochet.
The dynamics of class, abetted by the powerful Catholic Church, is like a musical drone underscoring the story. If you listen closely, you notice it is always there.
NB: using Medium’s shortform posts to chain my recent reads. Follow the chain; go to previous book:
