Book Beginnings quote:
When Irina Bazili began working at Lark House in 2010, she was twenty-three years old but already had few illusions about life.
Friday56 quote:
With apocalyptic hurricane force, war had descended on Europe.
Summary: Three people: Irina Bazili, Alma Belasco, and Ichimei Fukuda are all victims of war and politics. They live in a world blinded to their predicaments, too. This is their story, as they all come together later in life at a place called Lark House.
Review: Isabel Allende has got to be one of the best writers living today. Her stories always touch on the impact of politics or war, racism or poverty have on people's lives. In this story, which centers on the life of Alma Belasco, touches on the lives of Jewish children separated from their families because of the Nazi's detemination to exterminate all Jews during WWII. Alma reaches America and lives with her aunt and uncle in San Francisco, seemingly untouched, but profounded changed by the circumstances of her life. While living with her relatives she meets and befriends the Japanese gardener's son, Ichimei. After the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese, Ichimei and his family are sent to an internment camp (called a concentration camp in the book). The two friends lose contact until many years later when they meet up by chance and renew their bond. Separated by race and financial status the two cannot/do not marry, though there is deep love between them. Fast forward fifty years and we meet Alma again, this time living in Lark House where Irina works. The two women form a bond and we learn details of their back stories as they get to know each other.
The story has many plot lines and moves forwards and backwards in time but eventually everyone's story comes out and the reader is left with a sense of the lingering sadness in all three characters lives. Allende does a masterful job drawing all the lives together into a touching story. This was a book club selection and it was rated as the groups second favorite read of the year.
My rating: 4 stars.
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First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.
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