Allende’s timeless tale

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

‘‘This was to be his most stubborn, persistent memory of the war: that 15- or 16-year-old boy, still smooth-cheeked, filthy with the dirt of battle and dried blood, laid out on a stretcher with his heart exposed to the air. Victor was never able to explain to himself why he inserted three fingers of his right hand into the gaping wound, gently grasped the organ, and squeezed it rhythmically several times.’’

The bloody Spanish Civil War is almost over. To fight the hopeless battles immediately preceding the victory of General Francisco Franco, the boy soldiers of what was called ‘‘the baby bottle conscription’’ were called in. Here, med student Victor Dalmau is about to raise one of them from the dead.

With this scene, master storyteller Isabel Allende opens the curtain on a story of war, love and displaced persons, 1938 to 1994, moving from Spain to France, Chile and Venezuela. Make that mostly Chile, that ‘‘long worm at the far south of the map’’ in the mind of a character Allende sends there in the aftermath of the war.

Though she earned her original fame in the 1980s with the magical realist bestsellers The House of the Spirits and Eva Luna, Isabel Allende’s 24th novel is rooted firmly in historical fact.

The specifics are rooted in events of the last century, but the theme could not be more timeless – and timely. This is a book about people tossed by fate into a country where they are not welcome, with their circumstances reduced and their gifts unappreciated, yet they replant themselves with open hearts, tenacity and optimism.