Violeta

A Novel

By: Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle

Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi

Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This sweeping novel from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.

“An immersive saga about a passion-filled life.”—People

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar, Real Simple, Reader’s Digest

Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family with five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

Through her father’s prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses everything and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling.

She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting times of devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life is shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women’s rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and ultimately not one, but two pandemics.

Through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humor carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.

©2022 Isabel Allende (P)2022 Random House Audio

Same great way Allende involves us

Amazing how the author always manages to bring us inside the historical facts she mentions.

Allende never disapoints

Allende never disappoints, always giving the characters life in their negative and positive traits. Bravo!

It took a long time for me to realize there wasn’t really one singular plot

The very end was a fascinating interpretation of time, life, death and legacy. But the entire story leading up to it was not gripping or even very fluid. Lacked focus.

What a voice...

I could listen to Yareli Arizmendi all day. A great story and a fabulous reading.

Excellent !

It’s a wonderful story that depicts struggles and triumphs, over the course of a century of a woman called Violeta.
It provides a clear description of the duality we experience here on earth.

Hermoso

Un libro lleno de emoción y fluido simplemente otro gran ejemplo de lo bien que escribe Isabel

Incredible journey

Thank you for this incredible journey. An amazing story that touched me in so many ways and painted so many of life’s kernels of wisdom and life’s experiences, painful real and deep, into the expressions of love which are life.

Classic Allende

Follows a Chilean family saga over 100 years beginning in the 30’s when the Spanish family fled Spain during the Spanish flu & the Great War. As with all Allende books the reader can’t help but form an attachment to this family through all their trials & tribulations. Excellent. I think I read somewhere it has autobiographical elements from the Allende family.

Allende never disappoints

When reading her descriptions of various places she writes so beautifully that I feel transported. Love her vivid description of people and circumstances, so engaging I didn’t want this book to end.

Interesting but very long

Very long story but it managed to keep my interest. I don’t really agree that it is better than House of Spirits.