The Wind Knows My Name

By Isabel Allende and Frances Riddle

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “The lives of a Jewish boy escaping Nazi-occupied Europe and a mother and daughter fleeing twenty-first-century El Salvador intersect in this ambitious, intricate novel about war and immigration” (People), from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea and Violeta

“Timely, provocative . . . emotionally satisfying . . . [a story about] the kindness of strangers who become family.”—The New York Times Book Review

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother.

Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9780593598115

Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende, born in Peru and raised in Chile, is a novelist, feminist, and philanthropist. She is one of the most widely read authors in the world, having sold more than eighty million copies of her books across forty-two languages. She is the author of several bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, and Paula. In addition to her work as a writer, Isabel devotes much of her time to human rights causes. She has received fifteen honorary doctorates, been inducted into the California Hall of Fame, and received the PEN Center Lifetime Achievement Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and in 2018, she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. She lives in California with her husband and dogs. You can visit Isabel Allende at IsabelAllende.com or follow her on Instagram @AllendeIsabel, on Facebook at Facebook.com/IsabelAllende and on X @IsabelAllende

Book preview

THE ADLERS

Vienna, November

1938

A sense of misfortune hung in the air. From the early morning hours, a menacing breeze had swept through the streets, whistling between the buildings, forcing its way in through the cracks under doors and windows.

Just winter settling in, Rudolph Adler murmured to himself in an attempt to lighten his mood. But he couldn’t blame the weather for the tightness in his chest, which he’d felt for several months now.

The stench of fear, like rust and rotting garbage, clung to his nostrils; neither his pipe tobacco nor his citrus-scented aftershave lotion could mask it. That afternoon, the stink of dread stirred up by the wind was suffocating, making him feel dizzy and nauseous. He decided to turn away the patients left in his waiting room and close up early. Surprised, his assistant asked if he was ill. She’d worked with the doctor for eleven years and had never known him to shirk his duties; he was a punctual, methodical man.

Nothing serious, only a cold, Frau Goldberg. I’ll go home and rest, he answered.

They tidied the office and disinfected the instruments, then said goodbye at the door as they did every evening, neither suspecting that they’d never see each other again. Frau Goldberg headed to the streetcar stop and Rudolph Adler walked the few blocks to the pharmacy at his usual brisk pace, hat in one hand and doctor’s bag in the other, his shoulders hunched. The sidewalk was damp and the sky cloudy; it had been drizzly and he predicted they’d soon see one of those autumn rainstorms that always caught him unawares, without an umbrella. He’d walked those streets a thousand times and knew them by memory, but he never stopped admiring his city, one of the prettiest places in the world with its Baroque and Art Nouveau buildings coexisting harmoniously, the majestic trees that had begun dropping their leaves, the equestrian statue in the neighborhood square, the bakery’s window display with its spread of delicate pastries, and the antiques shop crammed with curiosities. But that afternoon he barely raised his eyes from the pavement. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

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The troubling rumors had begun that morning with news of an assault in Paris: a German diplomat shot five times and killed by a young man, a Polish Jew. Spokespersons for the Third Reich called for revenge.

Since that March, when Germany had annexed Austria and the Nazi Wehrmacht paraded its military pomp and circumstance through the heart of Vienna to a cheering, jubilant crowd, Rudolph Adler had been plagued with fear. His worries had begun a few years prior and only worsened as Nazi power was consolidated through increased financing and a growing stockpile of weapons. Hitler used terror as a political tactic, taking advantage of discontent over economic woes after the humiliating defeat in the Great War and the Great Depression in 1929. In 1934, Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated in a failed government coup, and since then eight hundred others had been killed in various attacks. The Nazis intimidated their detractors, provoked disturbance, and pushed Austria to the brink of civil war. At the start of 1938, internal violence was so untenable that Germany, from the other side of the border, exerted pressure to annex the troubled country as one of its provinces. Despite the concessions that the Austrian government had made to German demands, Hitler ordered an invasion. The Nazi party had laid the groundwork for the invading force to be met with open arms by the majority of the population. The Austrian government surrendered and two days later Hitler himself entered Vienna, triumphant. The Nazis quickly seized total control. Opposition was declared illegal. German laws and SS and Gestapo oppression, as well as antisemitic policies, went into immediate effect.

Rudolph’s wife, Rachel, who had always been rational and practical, without the slightest tendency toward catastrophic thinking, was now almost paralyzed with anxiety and only functioned with the help of medication. They both tried to keep their son, Samuel, in the dark about what was happening, to protect his innocence, but the boy, who was about to turn six, had the maturity of an adult; he observed, listened, and understood without asking questions. Rudolph had initially prescribed his wife the tranquilizers he used to treat anxious patients, but when they seemed to have no effect, he turned to other, more powerful drops, which he obtained in opaque unmarked bottles. He could’ve used the sedatives as much as his wife, but he would not risk jeopardizing his professional acumen.

The drops were provided to him in secret by Peter Steiner, a pharmacist and friend of many years. Adler was the only doctor Steiner trusted with his own family’s health, and no government decree forbidding interaction between Aryans and Jews could change the respect they had for each other. In recent months, however, Steiner had been forced to avoid Adler in public, since he couldn’t afford any trouble with the neighborhood Nazi committee. In the past, they’d played thousands of games of poker and chess, exchanged books and newspapers, and taken regular hiking and fishing trips together to escape their wives, as they said jokingly, and in Steiner’s case to flee from his horde of children. Now Adler no longer participated in the poker games in the back room of Steiner’s pharmacy. The pharmacist met Adler at the back door of his shop and provided the medication for Rachel without registering it on the books.

Before the annexation, Peter Steiner had never questioned Adler’s roots and considered the doctor to be just as Austrian as he was. He knew the family was Jewish, as were 190,000 other Austrian citizens, but that meant nothing to him. He was agnostic; the Christianity he’d been raised with seemed to him as irrational as all other religions, and he knew that Rudolph Adler felt the same way, though he upheld some Jewish customs out of respect for his wife. Rachel felt it was important that their son be raised in the Jewish community and traditions. On Friday evenings, the Steiners were often invited to Shabbat at the Adler home. Rachel and Leah, her sister-in-law, spared no detail: the best table linens, new candles, the fish recipe that had been passed down from a grandmother, fresh loaves of bread, and abundant wine. Rachel was close to Leah, who had been widowed young and had no children. Leah was devoted to her brother Rudolph’s small family, and although Rachel begged the woman to move in with them, she insisted on living alone, visiting often. Leah was sociable and participated in various programs at the synagogue to help the neediest members of the community. Rudolph was the only brother she had left, since the youngest had emigrated to a kibbutz in Palestine, and Samuel was her only nephew. Rudolph presided over the Shabbat prayer, as was expected of him as head of household. With his hands on Samuel’s head, he asked God to bless and protect him, to grant him grace and peace. On more than one occasion Rachel caught a wink exchanged between her husband and Peter Steiner after the prayer, but she let it slide, knowing it wasn’t meant in mockery but merely a gesture of complicity between two nonbelievers.

The Adlers belonged to the secular and educated middle class that characterized Viennese society in general and Jewish society in particular. Rudolph had explained to Peter that for centuries his people had been discriminated against, persecuted, and expelled from many lands, which was why they valued education over material wealth. They could be robbed of their belongings, as had occurred repeatedly throughout history, but no one could take away their intellectual assets. The title of doctor was more highly prized than a fortune in the bank. Rudolph came from a family of craftsmen, proud to count a physician among them. The profession afforded him prestige and authority, though in his case it indeed did not translate to material wealth. Rudolph Adler was not a sought-after surgeon or a professor at the storied University of Vienna, but a family physician, hardworking and generous, who treated more than half of his patients for free.

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The friendship between Adler and Steiner centered around mutual affinities and deeply held values. Both men had the same voracious curiosity for science, were lovers of classical music, inveterate readers, and clandestine sympathizers of the Communist Party, which had been outlawed in 1933. They also shared a visceral repulsion to Nazism. Ever since Adolf Hitler had moved from chancellor to proclaiming himself absolute dictator, they would meet in the back room of the pharmacy to lament the state of the world and the century they’d been born into. They consoled themselves over glasses of brandy so strong it could’ve corroded metal, which the pharmacist distilled in the basement, an underground cavern neatly organized with everything needed to prepare and bottle many of the medications sold in the pharmacy above. Sometimes Adler would bring Samuel to the basement to work with Steiner. The boy could entertain himself for hours mixing and bottling leftover powders and liquids of all different colors, which the pharmacist gave him to play with. None of the pharmacist’s own children was granted such a privilege.

Steiner was deeply pained over each new law aimed at destroying his friend’s dignity. He’d purchased the doctor’s apartment and office, in name only, to keep them from being confiscated. The office was very well located on the ground floor of a stately building, and Adler lived above with his family. The doctor’s life savings were invested in those properties; transferring them into someone else’s name, even if it was his friend Peter, was an extreme measure that he took without consulting his wife. Rachel would’ve never agreed to it.

Rudolph Adler had long tried to convince himself that the antisemitic fervor would soon die down. This vulgarity had no place in Vienna, the most refined city in Europe, birthplace of the world’s greatest musicians, philosophers, and scientists, many of them Jewish. Hitler’s incendiary rhetoric, which had become increasingly extremist in recent years, was yet another expression of the racism that his ancestors had suffered, but it had not kept them from living together and prospering. Still, as a precaution, he’d removed his name from the sign outside his office, only a minor inconvenience since he’d been treating patients there for many years and was well known in the neighborhood. He’d lost his Aryan patients, who’d had to stop seeing him, but he was certain they’d return once the political climate shifted. Adler was confident in his professional abilities and his well-earned reputation. Nevertheless, as the days passed and things grew ever more tense, he began to weigh the notion of emigrating to wait out the tempest unleashed by the Nazis.

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—

Rachel Adler dropped a pill into her mouth and swallowed it without water as she waited for her change at the bakery. She was dressed fashionably in beige and burgundy tones, with a jacket that cinched at the waist, hat perched on one side of her head, silk stockings, and high heels. She was not yet thirty and very pretty, but her grave expression made her look mature beyond her years. She tried to hide her trembling hands in her sleeves and respond lightly to the baker’s comments about the attack in Paris.

What was that boy thinking, killing a diplomat? Stupid Pole! the man exclaimed.

She’d just come from the final class with her best student, a fifteen-year-old boy to whom she’d taught piano since age seven, one of the few who took music seriously. Sorry, Frau Adler…you must understand, the boy’s mother had said when she let Rachel go. The woman paid Rachel three times what was owed for the class and leaned in for a hug before seeming to think better of it. Yes, Rachel understood. She was thankful that the woman had employed her for several months more than she should have. She swallowed her tears and walked away with her head high; she was fond of the boy and didn’t judge him for proudly donning the black shorts and brown shirt bearing the slogan blood and honor of the Hitler Youth. All the young men belonged to the movement; it was practically obligatory.

Look at the danger that Polish boy has put us all in! Have you heard what they’re saying on the radio, Frau Adler? the baker continued pontificating.

Let’s hope they’re only empty threats, she said.

You should get home quickly. Groups of boys are causing a ruckus on the streets. You shouldn’t be out alone. It’ll be dark soon.

Good evening. See you tomorrow, Rachel muttered, placing the bread in her bag and depositing the change in her coin purse.

Once outside she filled her lungs with cold air and tried to shake off the sense of foreboding that had plagued her since dawn, well before turning on the radio or hearing the alarming rumors circulating through the neighborhood. She looked up at the black clouds that threatened rain and tried to recall the errands she had left. She still needed to buy wine and candles for Friday, when her sister-in-law would be coming over for Shabbat, as she did every week, along with the Steiners and their children. But she worried that despite the medication she’d just taken, her nerves might betray her—she needed her drops—so she decided to leave the shopping for another day. Two blocks farther she arrived at their building, one of the first built in the pure Art Nouveau style at the end of the nineteenth century. When Rudolph Adler first purchased the office on the street level for his practice and the apartment for his family above, the organic lines, curved windows and balconies, and delicate stained-glass flowers had been considered bad taste to polite Viennese society, accustomed to Baroque elegance. But Art Nouveau soon caught on and the building quickly became something of a landmark.

Rachel was tempted to stop into the office to confer with her husband but immediately discarded the notion. Rudolph had enough worries of his own without her loading him down with her troubles as well. Also, it was time to pick Samuel up from his aunt’s house. Leah was a teacher and had begun giving classes to a group of Jewish children who could no longer attend school. Samuel was a few years younger than the others but was easily able to keep up. So many children had been badly mistreated in school that the mothers of the community had arranged to have the younger ones instructed privately at home, while the older students received an education at the synagogue. It was a temporary emergency measure, they were certain. Rachel continued on her way without noticing that her husband’s office was closed up at that unusual hour. Rudolph generally treated patients until six o’clock in the evening, except for Fridays, when he went up for dinner before sunset.

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Leah’s apartment, modest but well located, consisted of two rooms filled with secondhand furniture, framed photographs of her prematurely deceased husband, and souvenirs from the trips they’d taken together. On the days she received students, the air always smelled of fresh-baked cookies. Rachel Adler walked in to find three other mothers who had come to pick up their children and stayed for tea. They were listening to Samuel play A Song of Joy. The child was adorable, small and thin with scraped-up knees, untamable hair, and a wise expression of concentration, swaying to the music of the violin, unaware of the effect he had on the audience. A chorus of exclamations and applause exploded with the final notes. It took Samuel a few seconds to stir from his trance and return to the circle of mothers and children. He thanked them with a slight bow and as his aunt rushed to give him a kiss, his mother hid a smile of satisfaction. It was a fairly easy piece, which the boy had learned in under a week, but Beethoven always sounded impressive. Rachel knew that her son was a prodigy, but she hated boasting of any kind so she never mentioned it, waiting instead for others to do so. She helped Samuel put on his coat and place his instrument safely in its case, bid her sister-in-law a quick goodbye, and left for home, estimating that she’d have just enough time to pop the roast in the oven and have it ready by dinnertime. For the past few months she hadn’t had any domestic help, since her Hungarian housekeeper, who had been with them for several years, had been deported. She hadn’t had the heart to search for a replacement.

The mother and son passed the doctor’s office without stopping and stepped into the building’s wide foyer. Water lilies on the glass lampshades lit the space in blue and green tones. They walked up the wide staircase, waving to the concierge, who watched from her cubicle at all hours. The woman made no response—she rarely did.

The Adlers’ apartment was spacious and comfortable with heavy mahogany furniture designed to last a lifetime but that clashed with the delicate, simple lines of the building’s architecture. Rachel’s grandfather had been an antiques dealer and his descendants had inherited an array of art, rugs, and adornments, all of exceptional quality, all out of fashion. Rachel, raised with luxury, managed to live in elegance despite the fact that her husband’s salary, supplemented by her music lessons, did not compare to her grandparents’ wealth. Hers was a discreet refinement, since ostentation repulsed her as much as arrogance. The risks associated with provoking envy in others had been instilled in her from a young age.

In the corner of the living room, near the window overlooking the street, sat her grand piano, a Blüthner that had been in her family for three generations. She used it to give most of her lessons and it was also her main source of entertainment in her hours alone. She’d played it with great skill from a young age, but in adolescence, when she’d realized she lacked the talent necessary to become a concert pianist, she turned to teaching, for which she had a natural ability. Her son, on the other hand, possessed a rare musical genius. Samuel had sat at the piano from age three and could play any song by ear after hearing it only once, but he preferred his violin, because he could take it with him wherever he went. Rachel could not have more children and she had invested all her motherly love in Samuel. She adored her son and couldn’t help indulging him because he never gave her any trouble; he was kind, obedient, and studious.

Half an hour later, Rachel heard a commotion on the street and peered out the window. It was getting dark. She saw half a dozen young men shouting Nazi slogans and insulting the Jews, calling them disgusting bloodsuckers, parasites, and murderers—epithets she’d heard many times and even read in the press and in German propaganda. One of the boys was carrying a torch and others were armed with sticks, sledgehammers, and pieces of metal pipe. She ushered Samuel away from the window, closed the curtains, and headed for the stairs to call her husband, but the boy clung to her skirt. Samuel was accustomed to being alone but was now so frightened that his mother could not leave him. The noise outside soon quieted and she assumed that the crowd had passed. She took the roast out of the oven and began to set the table. She didn’t want to turn on the radio. The news was always terrible.

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—

Peter Steiner chatted with his friend in the back room of the pharmacy, where the game of chess they’d started the previous afternoon sat beside a bottle of brandy, half full. The well-respected Steiner Pharmacy had been in the family since Peter’s grandfather established it in 1830, and each subsequent generation had worked to maintain it in perfect working order. It still had the original carved mahogany shelves and counter, the bronze accessories brought over from France, and a dozen antique crystal jars, which more than one collector had offered to purchase and which, according to Steiner, were worth a fortune. The window displays were framed with painted flower garlands, the floors were Portuguese tile worn down from more than a century of use, and a tinkling of silver bells on the door announced each customer’s arrival. The Steiner Pharmacy was so picturesque that it was visited by tourists, and had even appeared in magazines and a book of photography, as a symbol of the city.

Peter had been surprised to see Rudolph Adler so early on a workday.

Is something wrong? he asked.

I don’t know. I can’t breathe. I think I might be having a heart attack.

You’re too young for that. It’s just nerves. Have a drink; it’s the best remedy I know, Steiner replied, serving his friend a double shot.

We can’t live in this country anymore, Peter. The Nazis have us fenced in, they’re drawing tighter and stricter circles around us. We can’t even enter certain restaurants and stores. They bully our kids in school, they’re firing us from jobs in public office, confiscating our businesses and properties, prohibiting us from exercising our professions or loving a person of another race.

The situation is utterly untenable. It will have to get better soon, said Peter, without much conviction.

I’m afraid you’re mistaken. Things will only get worse. It takes selective blindness to think that we Jews will ever be able to live here with anything resembling normalcy. Violence is inevitable. There are new restrictions every day.

I’m so sorry, my friend! Is there anything I can do?

You’ve done a lot already, but you won’t be able to save us. To the Nazis we are a malignant tumor that has to be excised from the nation. My family has lived in Austria for six generations! The humiliations only pile up. What else can they take from us? Only our lives. We have nothing else left.

No one can take away your medical degree. And your assets are safe. It was a good idea to put your office and apartment in my name.

Thank you, Peter, you’ve been like a brother to me. But I’m very worried. Baser instincts seem to have taken root. Hitler is going to be in power for a long time and he wants to conquer all of Europe. I think he’s leading us straight into war. Can you imagine what that would be like?

Another war! exclaimed Steiner. That would be collective suicide. No, we learned our lesson from the last one. Remember the horror…the defeat…

We Jews are the new scapegoat. Half the people I know are trying to get out. I have to persuade Rachel that we should go too.

Go? Where? asked Steiner, alarmed.

England or the United States would be the best options, but it’s almost impossible to get visas. I know of several people who have gone to South America…

How can you think of leaving! What would I do without you?

I suppose it will only be for a time. And I still haven’t made up my mind, nor will it be easy to convince Rachel. She can’t imagine leaving this life we’ve built over years of hard work, abandoning her father and her brother. My sister won’t like the idea either, but I can’t leave her here.

It seems like a very drastic decision, Rudy.

I have to think of Samuel. I don’t want my son to grow up as a pariah.

I hope you don’t have to leave, but if you do, I will take care of your things, Rudy. When you return, it will all be safe, waiting for you.

They were on their second glass of brandy when they heard the commotion outside. They looked out the door and saw a crowd had filled the street: men, boys, and even some women shouting obscenities and Nazi party slogans as they brandished sledgehammers, clubs, and other heavy objects. To the synagogue! To the Jewish Quarter! shouted the ones in front. Rocks flew through the air and they heard the unmistakable sound of breaking glass, met with a clamor of celebration. The mob moved in unison like a single animal blazing with murderous glee.

Help me close up the pharmacy! Steiner exclaimed, but Adler was already in the street, running toward his house.

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—

Terror invaded the night. It took Rachel Adler all of ten minutes to comprehend the gravity of the situation. She had closed the curtains so that the noise outside was muted and at first she thought that the gang of boys had returned. To distract Samuel, she asked him to play some music, but the boy seemed paralyzed, as if he were witnessing a tragedy that she was still unwilling to acknowledge. Suddenly something exploded against the window and glass rained across the floor. Her first thought was of the cost to replace the beveled glass. Immediately a second rock crashed through another window and the curtain fell from the rod, hanging loose from one corner. Through the splintered glass she glimpsed a fragment of orange-tinted sky and inhaled a whiff of smoke and fire. A wild racket howled through the apartment and then she understood that they were dealing with something much more dangerous than a group of drunk boys. She heard furious shouting and shrieks of panic amid the continuous din of shattering glass. Rudolph! she exclaimed, terrified. She took Samuel by the arm and dragged him to the door, the boy reaching for his violin case on the way out.

Only the wide marble staircase with its bronze handrail separated the apartment from the doctor’s office below, but Rachel didn’t make

Reviews for The Wind Knows My Name

[santhony_35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read Isabel Allende’s House of the Spirits and was blown away. I followed up with The Island Beneath the Sea, which I found equally as well written, though not quite as compelling. It was for this reason that I ordered The Wind Knows My Name.

Now, I knew by its description that this book would definitely include some social commentary, but I must admit, I was not prepared for the political screed that ensued.

This book is divided into two distinct threads. One involves the life of a Jewish man who, as a child, was smuggled out on pre-war Nazi Germany in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. I found this thread to be vintage Allende, beautifully written and captivating.

The second thread involves the present-day southern border and the immigration crisis that developed post-COVID. This thread is so jarring and heavy-handed that I question Allende’s authorship. The dialog is forced and cliched. The simplistic political analysis is embarrassing, which is a shame, because the story could have been handled with finesse much more effectively.

You might ask, “What is the connection between the two threads?” The elderly Jewish gentleman “adopts” a blind Salvadoran girl who was forcibly separated from her mother. The author attempts to draw a comparison between the two cases in order to more fully condemn the activities on the border, which again, is not necessary. The situation is bad enough without such gymnastics.

Isabel Allende is an incredibly gifted writer. In this case, she sacrifices those skills in order to make a political point, which in my opinion could have been more effectively made had she maintained her normal writing style.

[dele2451 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tales of forced immigration past and present.

[literaryfeline · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When I finished The Wind Knows My Name, I felt so many things. I had so many thoughts. And I am having a hard time putting any of them in writing. I was glad it was a book club pick because I needed to debrief afterward, and we had a really good discussion about the many themes in the novel, including forced displacement and separation of parents from their children, sacrifice, trauma, loss, and healing. We discussed the parallels throughout history up to today, including the role U.S. politics and policies have played in much of it.

Isabel Allende is a beautiful writer and has a way of creating characters that get under your skin and bringing settings and events to life. Is that not what fiction is supposed to do though? She does it so effectively. That first chapter, the lead up to and the events of the infamous Kristallnacht in Vienna 1938 was harrowing with the amount of violence and destruction, the hate and fear. Allende's descriptions of the political events leading up to that night played a part in that, I am sure. Hitler's rise, rhetoric, propaganda, and the ease with which he had walked into Austria and took it over helped pave the way and set the tone for what was to come. How easily those who committed the violence turned on their neighbors. We would like to believe that would not happen today, but the truth is it very will could.

Allende writes about the El Mozote Massacre in El Salvador in 1981, in which farmers and villagers, among them women and children, were rounded up to be tortured and murdered all under the guise of a military act of rooting out leftist guerillas. Over 800 people killed, over half of them children. Allende's fictional character Leticia was fortunate. She was not there at the time her family was slaughtered. Her father was able to get her out of the country and they fled to the United States. Decades later, seven year old Anita and her mother would make their way to the United States from El Salvador, fleeing their own horrors.

Isabel Allende weaves these three stories together seamlessly, their lives intersecting at just the right moments. Although each of their experiences are different, there are also many parallels among their narratives, especially that of Samuel and Anita. Samuel was forced onto the Kindertransport, leaving his mother behind, just as Anita was separated from her mother at the border, not knowing what happened to her. Samuel and Anita were young children, alone in foreign countries, not knowing the language, and forced to live in questionable, sometimes horrible conditions. Allende paints a very realistic view of what life was like for children in Samuel and Anita's shoes. The abuses they suffered are all too real. Anita has the added struggle of being blind, making her even more vulnerable. The interactions between Anita and Samuel were among my favorite scenes in the book. Anita was such a great character. She reminded me a bit of Anne Frank in her outlook on the world--both young girls, still hopeful despite everything going on in their lives.

Of all the characters, I think Leticia was among my favorites. She went through so much in her own right, but at times she seems the most grounded later on in the novel. She was an anchor for the aging Samuel, there for him during the pandemic, and he was there for her when Anita came into their lives. I also really liked the social worker, Selena, whose determination and heart knew no limits. I was less enamored by the attorney, Frank, although he did grow on me after awhile. Then there was Nadene, Samuel's wife, who at times seemed larger than life. Nadene was such an interesting character. She and Samuel are almost polar opposites. She was so full of life while he spent much of his life quiet and unassuming. I loved how Allende ties all the characters together, sometimes in unexpected ways.

The Wind Knows My Name brings the refugee experience front and center, making it more personal through the eyes of her characters. This is a subject close to the author's heart, as she knows all too well what life is like being forced to flee your home country and try to acclimate and be accepted in a new one. As much as this is a novel of tragedy and loss, it is also one of endurance, hope, healing and found family.

I read and listened to this novel at different intervals. Edourdo Ballerini narrates the majority of the novel with occasional narration by Maria Liatis as the character of Anita woven through. The narrators did a good job of making me feel like I was right there in the novel.

[tangledthread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Inspired by a play on the Kindertransport project of WWII, the author uses that story to illuminate the parallels that continue today at the US southern border.
Beginning with 6 year old Samuel Adler in Austria in 1938, who is sent to England as part of the Kindertransport project and never sees his family again.
In 1981 Letitia and her father escape the El Mozote massacre in El Salvador and emigrate to the US illegally.
In the present day 7 year old Anita has been separated from her mother at the border and is in foster care. She is legally blind as a result of an auto accident in which her younger sister died. The mother and daughter were fleeing a human trafficking gang in El Salvador.
Ultimately all three of these characters wind up together, isolating in the pandemic.

The story is interesting and illuminates the issue of child asylum seekers and the way they are treated. It is an old and heart breaking story. However, the writing is not at the same level as some of the author's other works.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Book on CD performed by Edoardo Bellerini and Maria Liatis
4****

Allende explores the immigrant experience, and particularly the heart-wrenching separation of children from their parents with a dual timeline. In 1938 the Adlers send their son Samuel to Britain from Austria after the events of Kristallnacht make it clear that Jews are no longer safe in Nazi-occupied areas. And in 2019 in Arizona a Anita Diaz and her mother seek asylum after an arduous journey from their native El Salvador, only to be separated. How these two children handle the trauma is the focus of the novel.

My heart broke for both these families, though Allende gives us a dedicated social worker and attorney who passionately advocate for the disadvantaged youth. I particularly liked how the two storylines eventually connect, improbable though that may be.

Still, this was an emotionally difficult book to read. It pains me to recognize the similarities in the ways governments treat “others.” Apparently, we have learned nothing from history.

The audiobook is marvelously narrated by two very talented voice artists. Edoardo Bellerini handles most of the novel, while Maria Liatis gives voice to the seven-year-old Anita.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Two families, two immigrant stories. Samuel Adler was sent away from Austria on the Kindertransport after Kristallnacht in 1938, first going to England and eventually settling in the U.S. Anita Diaz came to the U.S. from El Salvador with her mother, Marisol, in 2019 but they were separated and she's in the foster care system while waiting for her court case to potentially grant her asylum.

It's obvious that Allende cares deeply and knows a lot about asylum seekers immigrating to the U.S. Unfortunately, the story here is superseded by her theme, and the result is an expository, clunky, didactic book that I wouldn't have finished if it weren't for book club. I could pick a sentence or two almost at random to illustrate the style, so here's a random taste from early on: "That afternoon, the stink of dread stirred up by the wind was suffocating, making him feel dizzy and nauseous. He decided to turn away the patients left in his waiting room and close up early. Surprised, his assistant asked if he was ill. She'd worked with the doctor for eleven years and had never known him to shirk his duties; he was a punctual, methodical man." Information about every character is presented in a similar way, and we get an extensive back story for everyone by this detached omniscient narrator that randomly tells readers things that happened before, filling in blanks between time periods (the story spans 1938 to 2020 and jumps in time a little, while mostly focusing on 2019-2020), and even sharing what will happen to a character in the future. The point of view changes among various characters: besides Samuel himself, a woman named Letitia who came to the U.S. after a massacre in El Salvador, Anita - whose first-person narration, as she talks to her (dead) younger sister Claudia, was the only one I could connect with - and Anita's social worker Selena. And then, because I was so focused on the mechanics of the story instead of the plot itself, little things that didn't make sense, like how a Californian lawyer is suddenly practicing law in Arizona with no explanation, really bothered me. I could go on, but I'll stop there. I read and enjoyed [Zorro] several years ago, and I know that Allende's work is highly regarded, but this one was a miss. Not recommended.

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel begins with the story of a six year old boy in Vienna in 1938, beginning with the terrible night when his father disappears and he and his mother take shelter in the upstairs apartment of a war veteran while their own apartment is vandalized. He is later placed on a train filled with other Jewish children and sent to live out the war safely in England.

Then, in 1981, another child it taken to the city by her father for healthcare. While she is there, the residents of her village in El Salvador, El Mozote, are all murdered by the military. She and her father flee north to the United States and attempt to put together a life in this new country.

And in 2019, another young girl and her mother arrive in Arizona after a dangerous journey from El Salvador. They are quickly separated and while Anita is terrified, she ends up with allies, an immigration advocate and the lawyer working pro bono. Their first task is to find her mother.

The stories of these three children intertwine over time, and that story is both harsh and lovely. Allende is making a point here, about how damaging being left alone can be for a child, but also how desperate a parent has to be to let a child go in the hopes that they will at least survive. She is interested in what happens in the new, strange place, when the people around that child are not necessarily nurturing or welcoming and the lasting damage done, but also the people who are willing to open their hearts to these children. Allende herself founded a non-profit helping children immigrating to the US and her knowledge of the situation is clear in her writing.

[Toni Hernandez · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Much of the novel deals with the internment camps for children and the family separations that remain newsworthy today. The focus of the novel is on the separations that occurred in 2018 under the Zero Tolerance Policy implemented by then-President Trump. The order, issued in April, was revoked in June of that year, although it was reported that separations continued to occur afterwards, and by October 2018 it was reported that 2,654 children had been separated from their families and placed in detention centers known for inhumane treatment (there were 4,500 reports of sexual misconduct against children from 2014 to 2018, including family detention centers prior to the Trump administration). Worse still, there was no plan to facilitate the reunification of families afterwards, and by February 2023, around 1,000 children had still not been reunited with their families. This is the political landscape through which the present characters are trying to navigate.

The novel works best when Allende allows us to experience the characters as characters and interact, letting us feel the political tensions rather than moments that seem a bit like political exposition. Samuel, for example, has many sections that feel somewhat flat, as we are told about him over long spans of time, but when it slows down a bit, Allende excels at infusing a bold emotional resonance into the reader. The terror of escape becomes violently overwhelming, the cultural shocks hitting him "like a slap in the face" when he arrives in the United States, or the frustrations with relationships, all of this makes us genuinely care for him.

Anita is undoubtedly my favorite character in the novel, and I love the way her character becomes a symbol of resistance. Moving through the world, nearly blind, she becomes a figure for all those navigating the treacherous political landscape innocently in their intentions, just looking for a safe space to be, never knowing what is coming their way. Her faith in stories is also charming, as she adapts the world and the events around her into fairy tales as a way to survive them and inspire others to hold onto hope as well. Unfortunately, she is a bit underutilized, which is a shame, as all the horrors and violence that filter through her childlike innocence in her narratives make them even more unsettling, disturbing, and emotionally effective.

Overall, The Wind Knows My Name becomes a sort of family tale of bittersweet tenderness amid a landscape of cruelty and despair. It is clear that Allende cares deeply for her characters, and that love shines through in the descriptions she gives of them, making them even more endearing to us. (Translated from Spanish)

[deslivres5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Two tragic stories from our near past, involving children put into peril and trauma, coalesce into a beautiful ending of survival and hope. The 2020 pandemic is also touched upon lightly.

[Jumadefe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book awakens emotions and opens minds that help to become better people. Although it starts with the worst of humanity, it gradually moves towards a path of hope. The first third is very addictive and has a good pace, then it slows down a bit and becomes a little heavy, to reach the final stretch where everything connects and makes sense. If you are someone who does not understand the good that humanity has and you are a lover of walls, it is better not to read this book. (Translated from Spanish)

[zachmontana · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good story that has many threads but all related to immigration from WW2 Austria Jewish people to todays US Southern Border crisis. Characters are well developed, interesting and empathetic. Unless the book is read straight thru or in a short period, it stretches the reader to remember what is going on until one is more than half way in because of the way it is written with chapters related to one time period and character changing. I had to keep going back and re-reading because I read this book over several weeks. The story is great on enlightening the reader to the issues of forced migration and perhaps helping people to have more empathy with the current very complex problem at the Mexico Border. But will US Citizens force our Congress to finally take on this issue and make some meaningful progress? I doubt it! The majority doesn't care enough and is too short sighted to see that our current progression of the rich getting richer and everyone else fighting to survive both in our Country and in the World will eventually end in conflagration with everyone losing!

[VaneSapiani · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors because she knows perfectly how to intertwine the stories of her characters, who, regardless of time or country, are part of the fabric that is the plot. And that is what she continues to do in this book, easy to read and interesting. From the Holocaust to the COVID-19 pandemic... how many events can a single person experience during their lifetime? (Translated from Spanish)

[saúl felipe ferreruela · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

28/23 ???
Title: The Wind Knows My Name
Author: Isabel Allende
Pages: 352
Synopsis:
It is a story of love and violence with great uprooting but with hope in the end. The novel takes place in the past in 1938 in Vienna, moving through London and the USA, and in the present in El Salvador and the USA. The plots and protagonists intertwine in the two stories until they converge into one, focusing in particular on two of them, but it also gives very interesting brief glimpses of many others that you wish were more extensive.
Opinion:
She is one of my favorite authors. Her books are very interesting and read easily with dynamic and simple language, and in this case with social and advocacy themes.
Rating: 9/10 (Translated from Spanish)

[kayanelson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A nice readable book that comes together in the end. Allende is a prolific writer but I don’t think I need to read more of her books.

[srms.reads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.75⭐️

In I938 Vienna, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, six-year-old Samuel Adler is sent to England via Kindertransport – his mother’s final gesture of love in a bid to save her son’s life. Samuel, a violin prodigy and the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust spends time in foster care among strangers before finally finding a home with a kindly Quaker couple. We follow Samuel’s story into adulthood, his move to the United States, and his love and talent for music playing an important role in the life he builds for himself.

Letitia Cordero was seven years old when everyone in her family, save for her father, lost their lives in the El Mozote massacre of 1981. Letitia and her father fled El Salvador, crossing the Rio Grande to enter America, where they eventually make a life for themselves.

In 2019, seven-year-old Anita Diaz and her mother, fleeing from violence in El Salvador, is taken into custody at the US-Mexico border while trying to enter the United States illegally. Detained and ultimately separated from her mother Marisol, Anita, visually impaired after an accident that took the life of her younger sister, is left to fend for herself, shuttled between foster homes, alone and desperate to reunite with her mother. Anita copes with her fears and loneliness through conversations with her deceased sister and dreams of an imaginary magical world where she would be reunited with all of those she has lost. Selena Duran, a social worker attached to the Magnolia Project for Refugees and Immigrants, and Frank Angileri a lawyer from San Francisco who represents Anita’s interests pro bono, work together so that Anita is granted asylum while the search for her mother continues. After Anita endures a particularly traumatizing episode in foster care they manage to track down Anita’s distant relation, Letitia Cordero who is sheltering in place in her employer, the elderly Samuel Adler’s home during the pandemic. As the narrative progresses we follow Anita, Letitia and Samuel as their stories converge - three lives, impacted by similar circumstances, decades apart –– and how they impact and are impacted by one another- on a shared journey of hope and healing.

Touching upon themes of forced migration, sacrifice, loss, trauma, healing and found family, the author seamlessly weaves the three threads of this story together to craft a beautiful, heartfelt narrative that will touch your heart. Powerful prose, superb characterizations, fluid narrative, and the author’s masterful storytelling make for a compelling read. The pace is a tad uneven but not so much that it detracts from the reading experience. Though the three characters and their childhood experiences are set in different timelines, decades apart, the author draws out the similarities between historical events and contemporary politics and policies, in the context of the impact of the same on children whose lives are upended in the face of violence and war, forced migration and immigration policies and politics. The author paints a heart-wrenching picture of the plight of innocent children forced to flee their homeland with their fates and their lives in the hands of those who might not always be sympathetic to their cause. This is not a lengthy book (less than 300 pages) but definitely a timely and thought-provoking story. However, I would have liked it if a few aspects and characters in this story had been explored in a bit more depth and the ending did feel a tad rushed. But overall, The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende is an impactful read that I would not hesitate to recommend

Many thanks to Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this beautiful story. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Ferbz Cabrera · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Raw moments that immigrants go through, and in this case, being a woman made it more difficult. I liked the connection between the characters, quite unexpected for me. I enjoyed learning a bit more about Salvadoran culture. (Translated from Spanish)

[mojomomma_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another Allende home run! The Kindertransport program to get Jewish children out of Germany is compared to the current migration of families from Central America to escape violence. In the depths of the pandemic, Samuel Adler, who as a child was sent to England to escape the Nazis by his desperate parents, suddenly becomes part of a family to Anita, his housekeeper/companion's relative who is seeking asylum in the U.S. Anita's mother is missing and assumed deported back to El Salvador, but until her true status is known, Anita's future is up in the air. A great read.

[mykl8s · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very layered work, in the best sense of the word.
There are many characters and several storylines, all told in ways showing how lives are enmeshed in webs of connection, making it all one story.
Because of the novels depth, it's pages seem at first awkward, as each storyline comes and goes, and each character is located in their time and place.
There is much unhappiness in these stories about displaced persons from three continents, but in the end it is uplifting and hopeful.
Allende knows how to tell this kind of story, without a word out of place.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Wind Knows My Name, Isabel Allende, author; Edoardo Ballerini, Maria Liatis, narrators, Frances Riddle, translator
The author has very skillfully shone a light on America's broken immigration system. She has knitted together several tragic events to highlight the abuses. In the novel, Samuel Adler is a 7-year-old violin prodigy. He was separated from his family via the Kinder Transport that rescued children during the Holocaust. Families willingly gave up their children to save them from the horror they knew was coming. They hoped to be reunited, one day. There was poor record keeping and a genocide followed.
Another is Anita Diaz, aged 7, who was separated from her mother at the border of the United States and Mexico, as they left their country hoping to enter the United States to find safety. They were caught at the border due to circumstances beyond their control. They were running from Carlos Gomez, a man with a violent reputation. Mirasol Diaz believed their lives were in grave danger. Anita and her mother were forcefully separated at the border, ostensibly to keep Anita safe, since child trafficking had become a big business. They expected to be reunited.
The father of Carlos Gomez had once participated in the massacre in El Salvador that caused our third character, Letitia Cordero, to flee El Mozote with her father, during the Civil War, when she was just a young child. Years later, during the raging Covid 19 pandemic, we find Letitia in the home of Samuel Adler. She is the housekeeper and companion for Samuel, now a widower whom she calls Mr. Bogart, which was his wife's pet name for him. When she discovers that she is related to the young child, Anita Diaz, the threads of the novel connect as they each find a new purpose and discover a new direction in life.
For background, Samuel, Letitia and Anita, had something in common. They all suffered great loss. They all fled danger and they all wound up in Berkely, California. Because of the tragedies in their lives, they had to learn to adjust to a new land and a new language as they struggled to survive. All three had suffered the trauma of separation from those they loved. How they adjusted to the cruelties of life and built a new life, is one of the themes of this book. How manmade cruelties caused their trauma is a major theme of this book, as well. Does the author believe the United States played a part in all of these events leading to so much tragedy? What will you, the reader, believe? Man’s inhumanity to man is writ large on every page.
There are rules that must be followed in any civilized country, and the border of that country is usually considered sacrosanct. If the sheer number of immigrants that wish to come to America overwhelms the immigration system, the sanctuary country runs the risk of becoming a failed nation. Has the author given that issue any consideration? The fact remains that entering America illegally is a crime. If the border wasn’t overwhelmed by so many illegal entries, sponsored by “coyotes” and those who would defy our laws, the system would not break down and those who truly needed sanctuary would find it more easily. It is a known fact that not all immigrants come to escape danger. Some come for economic benefit. They need to wait their turn and enter legally. The United States owes its first responsibility to its own citizens, and illegal immigrants are stretching the ability of our health care, education and housing market to its breaking point. Many come to America for the free services we provide, but they are overwhelming the system, and therefore, some get trapped by the very system they hoped would save them.
Although the book was published in June of 2023, at a time when more facts were known about the flaws of our immigration system and who was responsible for them, the author chose to blame many who were not responsible, simply because of her progressive ideals. In some cases, she presented what seemed like flawed information, like when she pointed to the fact that children were kept in "cages" by the administration in power during the Pandemic. In fact, it started in 2014, during the administration of another President. Although the characters yearned for a vaccine, she did not give credit to the President who enabled it, and actually called someone who worked for that President a fascist. The author has used her bully pulpit to promote a political point of view, but not necessarily a totally honest one.
The book is heartbreaking, no doubt about it. She describes the "Night of Broken Glass" with precision and the massacre at El Mozote with authenticity. She exposes the flaws in our broken system, but she attributes them to the wrong culprits, often, to promote a progressive viewpoint. The failures in the system are caused by those who continue to allow system to flourish with idealistic remedies that fail. Simply put, America cannot save the entire world. She laments that serial killers have a right to a lawyer, but not immigrants, but she ignores the fact that one is a citizen of the country, and one has entered the country illegally. Both may be criminals, but both are not Americans; both are not entitled to the same rights.
Also, not all republicans and conservatives refused to wear masks and not all progressives and democrats obeyed the rules and got vaccinated, but she portrays the right and left according to her personal political views which lean to the left. Essentially, she has compared our border crisis to the Holocaust, which I find to be a contradiction of terms. In one case, you have people flooding our border, willingly, hoping to find safety, and in the other you have innocent people removed from a country, unwillingly, to be murdered. The mistakes of the past cannot be corrected by making bigger mistakes in the present.
I do not condone the tragedies that have occurred, but the problems of Central America must be solved by Central America. America must have a border and rules and regulations must be followed. We are witnessing the decline of our own cities because of progressive policies that are unrealistic, though well-meaning. Who is to blame? The author has one view, I have another. What will you, the reader, believe?

[AlfonsoReales · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

She is no longer the Isabel Allende I knew.
Regulating the book. (Translated from Spanish)

[tamidale · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Isabel Allende always writes some beautiful stories and this was no exception. It begins with a young boy named Samuel Adler who is living with his parents in Vienna. When Kristallnacht occurred, his father disappeared and life became very difficult for his family.

In desperation, his mother put him on the Kindertransport, where he was relocated to the UK and taken in by a nice family. Samuel ends up working with the Symphony and later as a college professor at Berkeley.

In another storyline, Anita has come illegally to the US with her mother. They are soon separated and her mother cannot be found. Anita, is seven years old and blind. Selena a social worker and a San Fransisco attorney work together to locate any of Anita’s family.

As luck would have it, Anita has a distant cousin who just happens to be the housekeeper for Samuel Adler. I loved the parallels between what Samuel endured as a child and what Anita has gone through.

As much as I loved the story, I could have done without the politics of illegal immigration. Numerous administrations have failed to address the issue in any meaningful way and for the author to subtly lay blame at any one of them added nothing to the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review.

[Cabrera Figueroa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Isabel Allende tells us a non-linear story that begins its journey from different stations. Throughout its development, the plot gives the impression of drifting apart and not arriving at a common point. However, here comes the theory of the red thread, which says it connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of the time elapsed, the distance of the place, or the adversities they must go through.
Samuel, a survivor of World War II; Anita, a survivor of the hatred that commits self-cannibalism in El Salvador; the elderly man saying goodbye to life and the girl wanting to be a part of it. They both need each other to heal their respective sorrows. Will they be on time? (Translated from Spanish)

[Tina Glez · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The novel begins with three heartbreaking stories: devastated parents forced to separate from their children due to migration issues and Nazi war; the parents and grandparents live with the uncertainty of reuniting with them every passing minute, but time and circumstances are often too adverse. Time runs out, and they will meet new people who change their lives and help them overcome the pain and violence experienced. It is a cruel and realistic story that is hard to put down, starting in Austria and traveling through countries in America where the pain is the same. Marked lives and broken hearts allow the reader to empathetically dive into them, with the grace and mastery of Isabel Allende. (Translated from Spanish)

[Anakachico · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The wind knows my name has enchanted me. Totally relevant to the topic of migration over the years. (Translated from Spanish)

[Nuryta · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Wind Knows My Name, by Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende surprises us with a different novel, where she briefly reviews immigration situations due to wars and guerrillas that begins in the early days of World War II and continues in North and Central America during the second half of the 20th century to the present.

She shows each character separately, which allows the relationships between them to be discovered by the end. The aim is to give us a nuance both of migrant children who find themselves alone for various reasons, and of migrant families who have worked hard to establish themselves in new lands, leaving their children a legacy of stories and pain from their place of origin.

Overall, it has been a beautiful story despite the difficult situations faced by its characters, as the author has strived to at least partly compensate for that suffering and to highlight the importance of having caring and conscious helping hands that provide opportunities to those who are victims of these immigration processes.

A novel worth reading. Recommended.

Read in September 2023
QUOTES
We all have fear many times. Brave men are also afraid, but they face it and fulfill their duty.
She landed in the reality of the immigrants among whom she lived and faced it without looking back, without thinking about what she had lost.
She took action, surprised by the tremendous mark that each person leaves in the world throughout their life.
Don't you think that by thinking so much about Mrs. Nadine, you are inventing a legend? We all have the right to invent our legend. (Translated from Spanish)

[Juan Carcelén · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

[ The Last of Isabel ]
(last?). Allende was lucky with her first novel, The House of the Spirits, which was masterfully adapted into a film, surpassing it. With her last novel, Isabel narrates the lives of dissimilar characters, from distant origins in time and space (from each other), whose fates converge in a predictable story. The extremes include an octogenarian Jew who escaped the Nazi Holocaust as a child, and Anita, the little girl who migrates to America with her mother in search of refuge from some damned Salvadoran murderers who want to kill her. An easy and light theme for a writer saturated with experience. Unlikely to have the luck of "The House" because it is not a script for a telenovela. Not very recommendable. (Translated from Spanish)

[EmilioLM · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It starts off pleasant and entertaining but ends up being a bore. I don't like leaving books unfinished; I didn't want to start another one until I finished this one, but I haven't been able to. I've been struggling with it for two weeks, and I've decided to abandon it. I'm sorry, it's a matter of taste. (Translated from Spanish)

[Tefi 1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent novel. I recommend it.
It is very sad and raw, but at the same time very tender due to the relationship of the protagonists: Samuel, Anita, Leticia, Selena, and Frank. (Translated from Spanish)

[carlosfher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Wind Knows My Name is a novel that deals with the processes of forced migration and integrates some elements of violence against women.

Among the many characters, it focuses on two main stories: Samuel Adler, who is separated from his parents and sent to England fleeing from Nazi Germany, and Anita Diaz, who flees with her mother from a stalker and is later separated from her while attempting to enter the U.S. in search of asylum.

Due to its themes, the story is filled with intense and emotional moments. However, the pace of the narration and perhaps some superficiality in "how each character experienced" certain events prevented me from fully connecting with the characters.

Overall, it is an entertaining and easy-to-read book, but without having read much of Isabel Allende, I feel that it is far from being one of her best stories. (Translated from Spanish)

[Fiura · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's an understatement to say that I feel excitement when reading to you. (Translated from Spanish)