Reviews
With The Japanese Lover , Allende reminds us that, while not everyone has a true love, we all have loves that are true. Whether they be passionate, familial, unrequited or timeless,the one constant in our lives is love. And Isabel Allende celebrates them all, beautifully., "TheJapanese Lover" erects two thematic pillars of love and prejudice toproduce a story that strikes a masterful emotional balance. More importantly,the novel crafts characters that are profoundly compelling in their complexstruggle to value love despite forces-youth and age, proximity and distance,society and self-beyond their control.", "TheJapanese Lover" erects two thematic pillars of love and prejudice toproduce a story that strikes a masterful emotional balance. More importantly,the novel crafts characters that are profoundly compelling in their complexstruggle to value love despite forces--youth and age, proximity and distance,society and self--beyond their control.", Nothing short of astonishing... Isabel Allende has indeed shown us the relationships between past and present, family and nation, city and country, spiritual and political values. She has done so with enormous imagination, sensitivity, and compassion., With end-of-life issues looming over Alma, "The Japanese Lover" can't be called lighthearted. But it's often wryly funny, and always an absorbing argument for the power of love., Irina is a young Moldavian immigrant with a troubled past. She works at an assisted living home where she meets Alma, a Holocaust survivor. Alma falls in love with Ichi, a young Japanese gardener, who survived Topaz, the Japanese internment camp. Despite man's inhumanity to man, love, art and beauty can exist, as evidenced in their beautiful love story., Spectacular...An absorbing and distinguished work...The House of the Spirits with its all-informing, generous, and humane sensibility, is a unique achievement, both personal witness and possible allegory of the past, present, and future of Latin America., Moving and powerful...Her novel captivates and holds the reader throughout...The House of the Spirits is full of marvelous and unforgettable women who add a special dimension to the book., Themes of lasting passion, friendship, reflections in old age, and how people react to challenging circumstances all feature in Allende's newest saga, which moves from modern San Francisco back to the traumatic WWII years. As always, her lively storytelling pulls readers into her characters' lives immediately... the story has many heart felt moments, and readers will be lining up for it., There are few trips more thrilling than those taken in the imagination of a brilliant novelist. That experience is available in The House of the Spirits ... The characters, their joys and their anguish, could not be more contemporary or immediate., Both an engrossing narrative and an impassioned testimony to the people of Chile... Allende has her own distinctive voice [with] a whimsical charm...Richly and meticulously detailed., [A] fairy tale of a novel...As in all of Allende's fiction, we find a large, colorful cast of characters..., Allende is a talented writer who deftly uses the techniques of magical realism but also shows great sensitivity in the delineation of character., [A] lovely, easy-to-read novel...Like a perfect onion, the book slowly reveals the secrets of Alma's past, which primarily revolves around a secret, decades-long affair with a Japanese gardener., Like the incomparable storyteller she is, Isabel Allende does not release us from the novel's spell until the last pages, with a brief but bittersweet hint of her famed magical realism., The latest from the writer who's been called Gabriel Garcia Marquez's successor. It's a love story that covers a lot of ground, from Nazi-occupied Poland to present-day San Francisco. You won't want to put it down., "With her engaging new novel, "The Japanese Lover," Allende brings us a tale at once global and rooted deeply in Bay Area history, sweeping through time and across continents to explore the inner lives of two very different women in contemporary California.", Isabel Allende's oeuvre ranges widely...but The Japanese Lover , her lushly detailed new work, may be her most expansive yet..., Allende's magical and sweeping tale focuses on two survivors of separation and loss...Befitting the unapologetically romantic soul bared here-the poignant letters to Alma from Ichimei are interspersed throughout-love is what endures., The Japanese Lover is animated by the same lush spirit that has sold 65 million copies of her books around the world... a novel that's a pleasure to recommend., Themes of lasting passion, friendship, reflections in old age, and how people react to challenging circumstances all feature in Allende's newest saga, which moves from modern San Francisco back to the traumatic WWII years. As always, her lively storytelling pulls readers into her characters' lives immediately… the story has many heart felt moments, and readers will be lining up for it., Allende's writing is so inventive, funny, and persuasive that in the process of creating a stimulating political novel she has also created a vivid, absorbing work of art. Her characters are fascinatingly detailed and human., An alluring, sometimes magical tale...In its tumultuous story of rebellion and love among three generations, it is an allegory in which any family should be able to recognize a bit of itself., Thespectre of the war and the illicit treatment of Japanese-Americans are neverlost on the reader, although Allende is too subtle a writer to do any realproselytizing. It is a beautiful and significant love story that she tells,although I was so much more interested in her than in Ichimei as a character., Praise for New York Times Bestselling Author, Isabel Allende "Spectacular...An absorbing and distinguished work...The House of the Spirits with its all-informing, generous, and humane sensibility, is a unique achievement, both personal witness and possible allegory of the past, present, and future of Latin America.", The Japanese Lover is a poetic and profound meditation on the power of love: a common theme, sure, but in Allende's capable hands this trope is made utterly new., The only cause The House of the Spirits embraces is that of humanity, and it does so with such passion, humor, and wisdom that in the end it transcends politics...The result is a novel of force and charm, spaciousness and vigor., Allende's engrossing narrative spans 70 years of tumultuous world history, but the powerful message you'll take away is that love -- all kinds of love -- will take root and endure under the most harrowing conditions., [Allende] is a dazzling storyteller, with a wry, sometimes dark, wit and a great eye for society's changing fashions. She may be writing a fairy tale for adults, but like the best of the genre, it's almost irresistible., She is a dazzling storyteller,with a wry, sometimes dark, wit and a great eye for society's changingfashions, Allende's magical and sweeping tale focuses on two survivors of separation and loss...Befitting the unapologetically romantic soul bared here--the poignant letters to Alma from Ichimei are interspersed throughout--love is what endures.
Synopsis
Named one of the most anticipated novels of the year by New York Magazine , The Wall Street Journal , Entertainment Weekly , Cosmopolitan , Harper's Bazaar , Publishers Weekly, The Huffington Post , and more. From New York Times and internationally bestselling author Isabel Allende, an exquisitely crafted love story and multigenerational epic that sweeps from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during the Second World War. In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family-like thousands of other Japanese Americans-are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world. Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco's charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years. Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents, The Japanese Lover explores questions of identity, abandonment, redemption, and the unknowable impact of fate on our lives. Written with the same attention to historical detail and keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits , The Japanese Lover is a profoundly moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change., Named one of the most anticipated novels of the year by New York Magazine , The Wall Street Journal , Entertainment Weekly , Cosmopolitan , Harper's Bazaar , Publishers Weekly, The Huffington Post , and more. From New York Times and internationally bestselling author Isabel Allende, an exquisitely crafted love story and multigenerational epic that sweeps from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during the Second World War. In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family--like thousands of other Japanese Americans--are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world. Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco's charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years. Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents, The Japanese Lover explores questions of identity, abandonment, redemption, and the unknowable impact of fate on our lives. Written with the same attention to historical detail and keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits , The Japanese Lover is a profoundly moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change.
