Author: Isabel Allende

I’ve had this book on my to-read list for ages but never came across it. Libby (my library download app) didn’t have it and neither is it on the shelf in the library. But while at the Cancer Centre in Vancouver it was sitting on the shelf so I grabbed it even before I was ready to start reading.

I have always loved Allende’s writing style and this is no different. Is it memoir or is it an autobiography? Pat and I had that discussion and I’m no clearer now on the definition.

The author is telling her life story to her daughter who is in a coma. It reads like fiction but it is a true story. Her daughter eventually dies without coming out of the coma so the second part of the book is written knowing her daughter won’t read it. Allende talks a lot about the novels she has written and some of them make a lot more sense when you know the background to them.

The book was worth the wait and however much I’d like to keep it for my own bookshelf I will return it to the library here.

Goodreads Rating: * * * * *