Island Beneath the Sea - Isabel Allende
After about two weeks, I just finished this novel.
Time and time again, Allende takes my breath away with her literary craftsmanship.
She weaves together many aspects of an era’s world; history, politics, religion, social.
Everything comes together so beautifully. She brings each of her characters to life better than any writer I’ve read. Their pain becomes your pain. Their joys become yours.
When I start reading an Allende novel, I always start so fast because I’m so excited to get into it, but by the end I savor every sentence, every word because I don’t want it to ever end. This novel was no different.
"Island Beneath the Sea" by Isabel Allende
I forgot to review my most recent book read!
I love Isabel Allende but not for her most known works—my favorite might be “Eva Luna”—and, honestly, I haven’t read any of her books in a while when this one caught me eye. This book is set in pre-revolution Haiti and is a fascinating history lesson as well as the story of a mulatta slave named Zarite. It spans the story of Zarite’s life and follows her as she seeks freedom and love. The novel alternates between narrative and chapters told from Zarite’s point-of-view which adds to instead of distracting from the story. I love when a book takes me somewhere and when I can feel like I am truly escaping into the story and “living with” the characters and this book did that for me. I really enjoyed it.
“I strike the ground with the soles of my feet and life rises up my legs, spreads up my skeleton, takes possession of me, drives away distress and sweetens my memory. The world trembles. Rhythm is born on the island beneath the sea; it shakes the earth, it cuts through me like a lightning bolt and rises toward the sky, carrying with it my sorrows so that Papa Bondye can chew them, swallow them, and leave me clean and happy.”
—The Island Beneath the Sea, by Isabel AllendeREVIEW: Island Beneath The Sea by Isabel Allende
This epic, generation-crossing story tells the story of late 18th Century Saint-Domingue and the Spanish and French power over it.Tété, a young woman born into slavery and sold to ambitious plantation owner, Toulouse Valmorain, to serve is wife, must escape with the family when violent revolution threatens all the plantations on the island. The story charts their course from Saint-Domingue to New Orleans in a tale of tragedy, abuse, love and bravery.
