The book’s timeline traces his rise from a doctor from Valparaíso to minister of health and co-founder of the Socialist Party, and finally, to his being “the first democratically elected Marxist head of state” in 1970. “Governments come and go, but poets remain,” Victor assures him, noting the unjust irony of the situation.īesides Neruda, the second relevant historical figure is Salvador Allende, the author’s godfather and a first cousin of her father. Victor repays the life-saving favor nine years later when, accused of treason, Neruda and his wife hide for two weeks with the Dalmau family until they can flee safely into exile. Allende opens each chapter with his verse in gratitude for writing those inspiring expressions of love and pride, particularly for Chile, which he called “the long petal of the sea.” Her handling of his role in the Winnipeg, a little-known historical fact, is endearing and a welcomed change after those detailed passages of Victor’s and Roser’s excruciating plights. Once it’s revealed that Roser is Guillem’s lover and with child, their will to escape into France becomes fortified.Īllende’s characterization of Neruda remains fixed throughout his appearances in the book: He is the venerable poet of the people. When his soldier brother Guillem goes missing, he must care for the safety of their recently widowed mother Carme and Roser Bruguera, the young pianist taken in by his family. This includes Victor Dalmau, a doctor in training whose unorthodox methods in the battlefield become legendary. Francisco Franco: “So much blood ran that the following year the peasants swore that when they pulled up their onions they were red, and that they found human teeth in their potatoes.”įranco’s victory ends Catalonia’s self-government and ushers in a dictatorship that sends survivors on the defeated side into exile.

“A Long Petal of the Sea” opens in 1938 at the height of the Spanish Civil War when Catalonia joins the fight against the Nationalist Party and its leader, Gen. Isabel Allende’s latest novel marks a return to the time and setting of the book that jump-started her literary career, “The House of the Spirits,” but with far less supernatural elements and a more expansive engagement of revolution, exile and the determination of the human spirit.

A long petal of the sea a novel