The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

 

Publisher: Ballantine Books

On Sale Date:  June 6th 2023

Pages: 260

I reviewed a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com

Vienna, Austria, 1938; Samuel Adler is a five year old boy when the apartment where he lives with his Jewish parents, is destroyed during the Kristallnacht. Samuel's father never made it home alive, and his mother can't leave Austria anymore. He will never see his parents again. On a cold december day he is put on a childrens train to England, where he lands in the loving care of a childless couple and who become his second parents. There he lives happily and safe untill he is 35, when he leaves for San Francisco, to become a professional violinist in a symphonic orchestra.

Decades later, in 2019, seven year old Anita Diaz and her mother Marisol flee for the violence in El Salvador to the United States. But they get seperated from each other at the American border. Marisol is sent back to El Salvador, while Anita is sent to a dirty refugee camp with lack of any care for her. Months later, a social worker named Selena Duran, picks up her case and tries to get Anita out of the camp. This works, and months later, Anita finds a safe place in the foster home of Samuel Adler. For Samuel it is if history repeats itself. Together with Selena, they work hard to find Anita's mother Marisol, but if seems like Marisol has gone missing, as there is no trace of her to be found, and the question arises, if just like Samuel in his past, Anita will ever see her beloved mother again..

I truly didn't know what to expect of this book and it is the first book by author Isabel Allende I've read so far. But it truly is a book that I like!

The start of the story where the reader meets Samuel Adlers family in the start of WWII , it truly is gripping and sad, then the story takes a completely different turn and takes you to present time El Salvador to the story of Anita and Marisol. This part felt very realistic because of Anita's sad stay in the refugee camp, which are the sad reality of many immigrants from Central and South America.

At firsthand, it truly made me wonder what the two seperate stories meant, as I was truly curious what happens next to Samuel. It truly takes the reader to  far over the middle part of the middle part to find out there is going to be a connection between the two main characters, as other previous parts are sometimes told from Selena's point of view. So it takes a while to figure out how exactly the storyline is build op, but afterwards you can only conclude that this setup of the storyline is truly original and different in a good way than any other book. The characters are very well developed and the conclusion of the book, altough it was not a very happy one, was good. Overall I can say that I truly enjoyed reading this new book by Isabel Allende and I recommend reading it.