A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

That September 2, 1939, the day of the Spanish exiles' splendid arrival in Chile, the Second World War broke out in Europe.

Victor Dalmau is a young doctor when he is caught up in the Spanish Civil War, a tragedy that leaves his life - and the fate of his country - forever changed. Together with his sister-in-law, the pianist Roser Bruguera, he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile.

When opportunity to seek refuge in Chile arises, they take it, boarding a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda to the promised 'long petal of sea and wine and snow' over the seas. There, they find themselves enmeshed in a rich web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations, destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea is Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.

318 pages (January 2020)

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Title Read-alikes: In the Night of Time by Antonia Molina Muñoz; Guernica by Dave Boling; The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste; The Treasure of the Spanish Civil War by Serge Pey; Uncertain Glory by Joan Sales; The Wrong Blood by Manuel de Lope; Love and Ruin by Paula McLain; Exit West by Mohsin Hamid; Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman; The Dutch House by Ann Patchett; The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See; Afterlife by Julia Alvarez; The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich and The Separate Rose by Pablo Neruda.