Violeta by Isabel Allende

Let me start with a disclaimer: I’m a long-time devotee of Allende’s, so this review might be tinged with a dash of bias. Along with at least 75 million other readers all across the globe, I simply adore her writing. Since reading her first book, The House of Spirits, all those years ago, I’ve admired the effortless and loving way with which she spins a yarn to unlock a section of history for me.

With her new sweeping historical novel, Violeta, published early this year and translated from Spanish by Frances Riddle, Isabel Allende does it again. She whisks the reader on a century-long journey through the aftermath of the First World War, the Great Depression, devastating earthquakes, revolutions, and a 30-year-long police state – all taking place in what she refers to simply as Violeta’s ‘South American homeland’, without bothering with further specifics. I reviewed this novel in the autumn 2022 issue of Journal Magazine and thought to share it here on Book Chats with Salome.

Allende has a penchant for personalising history and using her deep historical knowledge and research to illuminate past patterns that we (modern humans) are on the cusp of repeating. Some of these, such as the current rise of nationalism, and even fascism, in the world, are clear for all to see. She also delves into women’s rights and the dangers these face of once again deteriorating if we don’t keep our collective eye on the ball.

The narrator, Violeta del Valle, is a spirited and passionate woman whose life spans a hundred years, and who bears witness to some of the greatest upheavals of the 20th century. In an intimate autobiography, filled with confidences, confessions, anecdotes and wry humour, Violeta relates her life: an eventful childhood; a lacklustre first marriage; an adventurous affair with British RAF pilot Julian Bravo; and the tragic story of their drug-addled daughter who dies while giving birth to her grandson Camilo.

Allende bookends Violeta’s life story with two global pandemics (the Spanish Flu in 1918 and Covid-19 in 2020), which she weaves seamlessly into her protagonist’s tale. Against the backdrop of politics, revolutions, and the rise and fall of Cold War-era military dictatorships throughout Latin America, Allende sketches the interesting diversity of cultures, the beliefs, superstition and natural healing practices that characterise the small indigenous population of her homeland, and seasons it all with the spicy trials and tribulations of the del Valle family.

Some may consider the novel too much of a mixed bag, but for me, this brave woman’s hundred-year journey is a colourful meander that whisked me along until the last page. Of course, as all good writers do, Allende borrows much from her own life and lends it to her titular character. Having been around for nearly eight decades, Allende has experienced much of the turbulent history she describes in Violeta, including revolutions, political turmoil and human-rights challenges in her homeland Chile.

And, like Violeta, Allende knows loss. In 1973, her cousin, the socialist president Salvador Allende was unseated and killed by Pinochet during a violent coup, while she herself was blacklisted by the government and forced to flee her country. Allende also lost her daughter in 1991 when she fell into a coma from porphyria and died a year later, aged 29.

But it is the author and the protagonist’s shared passion for the rights of women that drives Allende’s narrative. Both grew up in patriarchal South American countries where women were repressed and disregarded. Drawing on her own work and experience as a dedicated feminist, Allende describes Violeta’s mission to help women by founding a foundation that focuses on women, their health, education, economic independence and protection from violence.

Through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, sense of humour and brave heart carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, With Violeta, Allende cleverly succeeds with a tale that is certain to entertain, educate and inspire her millions of loyal readers around the globe.