An accident in a snowstorm brings three unlikely people with painful pasts together who embark on an adventure.

Allende is a good writer that knows how to bring characters to life. In fact, each of the characters' back stories were interesting and heartbreaking--unfortunately, the current story that the three were involved in together was totally unrealistic and especially the ending was so hard to buy into that it really left me with an unsatisfied, cheated feeling.

I enjoyed getting to know these three people and their rich international lives. I also enjoyed watching their relationship blossom. You have to suspend disbelief for much of the book but if you can do that, it is well worth the read. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Isabelle Allende is as always at the top of her game in the latest novel. Her prose are always lyrical and emmersive. The psychology of her characters are astute, and the idea of delving into the romantic lives of older people is lovely. Her strengths though are as always, when she writes about South America and the immigrant experience. In a nutshell, delightful as always.

Towards the beginning there is an accident between Richard a scholarly type professor with a checkered past and Evelyn a young girl from Guatemala that had to flee because of gang violence directed at her family. While the accident seems innocent enough later Evelyn shows up at Richard's and thus begins the adventure that entwines Richard, Evelyn, and Lucia, who enters as a needed translator.
There were times I felt the frequent flash backs to tell the main characters stories we're a bit tiresome, overall I still think it worked.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in recent Latin American history, or the current immigration issues.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this arc through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the Midst of Winter features three distinct individuals who are brought together during a crippling blizzard. All of Brooklyn is shut down. Richard Bowmaster, a 60-year-old academic, is on his way home from the emergency vet clinic when he rear-ends a vehicle driven by Evelyn Ortega, a youthful, fragile-looking undocumented Guatemalan. To his surprise and chagrin, she knocks on his door later that evening seeking help. Claiming limited Spanish-speaking skills, he enlists the aid of his tenant, 62-year-old Chilean lecturer and writer, Lucia Maraz. In truth, it is not so much Lucia’s language ability he requires as her presence, for he has long admired and desired her; in this situation, he feels uncomfortable about dealing with his obviously disquieted visitor. She is wide-eyed and fearful. She is silent, numb, and appears shell-shocked. When she does speak, she stammers. He needs wisdom and experience of a Latina woman.

What Evelyn reveals shocks him. Scares him. But he knows there is something else, something she is not saying. I must say, it startled me.

In alternating chapters, each character shares bits of his and her past while passing the time. Lucia grew up in Chile; she was in high school in the late sixties when her brother Enrique joined a group supporting Salvador Allende’s Socialist Party candidacy for president. She was a bit of a radical herself. In the chaos following Allende’s death, she fled Chile.

Richard Bowmaster is only slightly younger than Lucia. A widower now, he married a Brazilian woman and lived there so she could be near her family. A human rights scholar, he lives a solitary, seemingly lonely life in Brooklyn. He has a stomach ulcer that gives him trouble and plenty of quirks; mostly he is unable to forgive himself for the mistakes of his past and considers himself unlovable.

Evelyn seems like a broken doll – until you hear her entire story. Then you realize just how strong this young woman really is. She was raised by her grandmother is a poor, tiny village in Guatemala. After suffering a terrible ordeal, the local priest arranged to have her smuggled to the US to be reunited with family. Since arriving in New York, she has been working as a nanny for a boy with cerebral palsy. The boy’s father, Frank Leroy, has rejected him, ignores him. He beats his wife. The mother, Cheryl, dotes on her son but works out incessantly and drinks to escape the tortures of her marriage. Young Frankie and Evelyn are practically inseparable.

The present day story, frankly, is weak by comparison. I have to say that while not a total surprise, I liked the twist at the end. The whole thread just didn’t fit well with the other pieces of the story. However, I do think that Ms. Allende successfully created discomfort, certainly for me as a reader, and for Richard and Evelyn, forcing them to think and act outside their comfort zones. Evelyn, despite everything she had witnessed and survived, is still terrified. Why? For one, she has no credentials. Also, in her experience, law enforcement personnel are not friends of people like her. She doesn’t know who is trustworthy and who is not. Yet, she forges ahead. And Richard – he wants to do what is legal and moral and safe. He also wants Lucia in his life, and he is scared to death. He, too, keeps moving. Lucia. I love Lucia. She seems fearless. She’s a “just do it” kind of gal.

Even though the plot seemed incongruous to me, I think that it served its purpose. During the time that Evelyn, Lucia, Richard (and the Chihuahua, Marcelo) spent together, we learn who each of them is, what he or she has been through, and what makes each one strong. If you don’t want to read tough details about life in Central and South America or about immigrants crossing the border and adapting to life in America, then you may want to skip this book altogether. Allende writes with grit, with heart and spirituality, and also with humor. One of my very favorite scenes in the book was when Lucia’s mother Lena was dying. It felt like a sacred moment, and I was in the room. There is another moment like this near the end of the story that involves Evelyn. Although Richard was my least favorite of the characters, I love the image about his hibernating heart. In retrospect, one of the things that strikes me most about the characters is the contrast between the real life experiences of the two women and Richard’s understanding of human rights as a scholar. While it is true that he lived and worked in Brazil and his wife Anita was Brazilian, he didn’t experience first-hand the poverty, torture, and rape that Lucia and Evelyn witnessed, suffered, and feared in their daily lives. Yet, he is damaged by tragic events of his own past and shelters himself from anything that might cause him discomfort. Then comes the thaw, in the form of Lucia. In the Midst of Winter was my introduction to Isabelle Allende’s writing, so I cannot compare to any previous works. Is it perfect? No. But I found it a very worthwhile read.

Thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books, and the author for making this book available to me. The views expressed in this review are my own.

4 stars

Since first reading The House of Spirits, Allende has never disappointed me. Another beautiful book, that takes you across many times and places.

Thanks to the book's publisher, Atria, for an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I've enjoyed other books by Isabel Allende. She seems to always pick an interesting concept and her new novel is not only interesting but sad, scary, and timely. It's about three immigrants, one from each of the following countries: Brazil, Chile, and Guatemala. When they come together in Brooklyn after an auto accident, we find out their backstories and some of it is hard to read with gang warfare, poverty, murder, rape, disappearing people, and other atrocities.

The three immigrants are gainfully employed, two in academia and one as a nanny. They have their own problems but manage to become friends over several cold, snowy days while trying to find a way out of a difficult situation. At times, the weather seemed like a main character! There is some suspense while their plans seem to go astray, just enough to keep you wondering what would happen.

There are some engaging minor characters but the three protagonists carry the novel. Ms. Allende writes a tender love story between two people in their 60's, both of whom had given up on ever finding love again. The talented author ties it all together very nicely and I was pleased with the ending.

It's frustrating to read a book that feels like it could be so much better. Isabel Allende's latest book, In The Midst Of Winter, has a lot of promise but as it turns out I felt like it delivered a fairly disjointed uneven narratives. Lucia is a 62 year old Chilean, living temporarily in New York. Richard is Lucia's landlord, and he had lived for many years in Brazil. Evelyn is from Guatemala. One stormy night, Lucia, Richard and Evelyn are thrown together, and they end up telling each other their life stories. So Allende structures this one to be three stories within the story of what brings these three characters together. Unfortunately, it doesn't hang together very well. Parts of the characters' back stories -- especially Evelyn's and to a lesser extent Lucia's -- are deeply moving. They highlight the realities of what has brought so many people to leave their home countries to move the the U.S. -- no doubt a timely topic. But the event that brings these three characters together and keeps them together feels almost farcical. The lightness doesn't mesh well with the darkness. It feels like Allende had a good story to tell about the different experiences of immigrants, but not enough work went into polishing this one so it stands well as as a novel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy. Thanks also to Diane and and Angela for the experience of reading this together -- the buddy read aspect made this one much better than it would have been otherwise.

This was the monthly buddy read between Angela,Esil and I. I love many of the books this author has written, although I thought her earlier novels were the most powerful. The first few chapters of this one are meant to familiarize the reader with the characters. Then we started exploring their back stories,and at first I thought this might be her most powerful book yet. Unfortunately didn't feel that way the end. She introduced something that seemed like a gimmicky artifice to me.

I asked myself why she told the story in this way? Why another body? All I can think is that she was trying to include interludes between the back stories. Quite frankly I think she included too much, too much grimness, too much sorrow. Why do we have to learn everyone's back stories, Evelyn's employees horrible story. Why to explain the body of course. I think any one of these individuals could have made their own story, their own book.
The writing is wonderful, I even liked the characters, how could you not. But it lacks cohesiveness, taken as a whole it is overkill. The few places where humor is displayed, the old dog, the moose, is only a small relief for which is a terribly sad story of a group of people who have suffered greatly.

Also, I am getting a little tired of all these so called timely novels, about refugees, not that I am unsympathetic, but the theme has been way overdone. Think how many we have read lately, Exit West, Salt house, the authors are even putting this subject in their mystery novels.

Will probably also rate three just for the writing, but I am very disappointed. I'm sure many will have a different opinion, and as I said it could be the surfeit of refugee/immigrant writing out there. Have just read too many lately, but really I think even if that was not the case, my opinion would be little changed.

ARC from Netgalley.

I'm a fan of several of Allende's earlier books and this one seemed so promising at the start . Two fascinating, heartbreaking stories of Lucia and Evelyn both making their way to the US from horrific circumstances from two different places and two different times. They become connected through Richard whose story was intriguing and heartbreaking in its own right.

Richard is a university professor, landlord, acquaintance, and employer of Lucia , originally from Chili and a visiting lecturer. Evelyn is a young woman from Guatemala working as a Nanny. Their three lives converge when during an awful snow storm in Brooklyn, Richard's car hits the car that Evelyn is driving. It is when the three of them are together that we get the stories of their pasts. I really liked each of these characters, and was taken by their experiences, but what didn't work for me was the present circumstances that keep these three characters connected over the course of several days. That part of the narrative just felt contrived and in some way it took away from the importance and gravity of the issues covered here - the horrible experiences of Evelyn in fleeing poverty and drugs and gang violence in Guatemala. Her story as a refugee was so relevant, and I was most drawn in to what happened with her. Lucia, too had a tough life with precarious political situations in Chili.


I can't give it more than three stars because of the thing I couldn't quite buy which made this a little disappointing. Thanks once again to Esil and Diane whose thoughts on the books we've read together are so much appreciated, as well as the ones we don't read together.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Atria through NetGalley.

In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
I received this advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
For me this book had two distinct stories, one I liked , one I didn't. Richard, Lucia and Evelyn are the three main characters in this book. Richard is a university professor, in his 60's, lives with his three cats in a basement apartment in. Brooklyn, NY In the present day. He rents another apartment to Lucia, a visiting professor, also in her sixties. Evelyn, an undocumented immigrant taking care of an autistic son of a rich family, from Guetamala completes this triumvirate. On a snowy winter day in Brooklyn, Richard rear ends a car Evelyn drives. A minor accident ends up to have significant consequences. This accident is what brings these three together. During a course of the weekend, we learn about the lives of these three protagonists. Lucia is from Chile and lived through the civil unrest and military regime in that country. Evelyn had a very difficult life in Guetamala , prior to be able to leave that country and immigrate to the United States. Both Lucia and Evelyn leave loved ones behind. Richard has also seen heartache and disappointments. The background of these three is what I enjoyed, I learned about Central and South American unrest, people trafficking, immigration, and what it means to be undocumented. Without giving away the story, what I didn't like is how these three handled the current situation. I found it totally contrived and unbelievable and totally unnecessary. The romance between Richard and Lucia was very predictable, but believable as both were lonely, looking for company in their senior years. Overall, it's a good read, no more than 3-3.5 stars.
Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and Isabel Allende for the advanced copy.

Smiling ear-to-ear!!!!! Awwwwww that was fun!!!

Isabel Allende - "QUEEN OF STORYTELLING"....born into a Chilean family - blends many of my favorite topics in this story .....
.......love, aging, pessimism, optimism, humor, seriousness ( political - social issues), history and personal background stories taking place in some of the most fascinating places on earth: Brooklyn, Brazil, Guatemala, Canada, and Chile,
.......chaos & drama, great chemistry between her characters, atrocious weather, ( challenges with the elements), fleas, ulcers, food poisoning, mystery of a dead body found in the trunk of a car, Magic Brownies, adventure trip with friends, crappy hotel, moose shit, and a chihuahua named Marcelo.

Richard Bownaster, is a human rights scholar at NYU. He lives in Prospect Heights. Lucia Maraz is his tenant - living in the basement -from Chile- a visiting professor teaching Latin American and Caribbean studies. Her one daughter, Daniela, lives in Miami. Richard is her boss.

Both Richard and Lucia have experienced the joys and failures, loss and grief of life. They aren't young puppies. They are in their 60's.

Richard has been living like a hermit.....he takes green pills for anxiety- is a vegetarian- stays away from gluten- has 4 cats ( their purpose is to digest the rodents), has stomach problems, and lives in a controlled careful environment.

Lucia might be close in age as Richard - also experienced loss and grief - failures and hurts - but she's clear she still wants to live passionately while aging...as much as possible. She's bright -outspoken -seductive- sensual - with contagious energy.

Evelyn is a very small thin young woman......a nanny for a young boy name Frankie with multiple sclerosis - also a diabetic. Her employers- Cheryl and Leroy have marital problems.
She is undocumented.
The weather was cold - windy - the road was icy.....when Evelyn takes Leroy's Lexus without permission to the drugstore--( Leroy - her boss -was out of town).

After the minor car accident.....an engaging, sometimes whimsical, adventurous enjoyable story, takes place between three memorable characters: Richard, Lucia. and Evelyn. ...... a little love touches your heart too!

I HAD A BLAST READING THIS STORY!!!! When's the movie coming out?

Thank You Atria Books, Netgalley, and Isabel Allende

Brooklyn was in the midst of an epic snowstorm when Richard Bowmaster drove his seriously ill cat to the local animal hospital. On the way home, his car hit another car, driven by Evelyn Ortega, a nanny. This began this tale of three troubled people who join forces to solve a serious problem and how two of them found love.

Richard was the someone neurotic head of the Latin American Studies department at NYU and he owned a brownstone in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Lucia Maraz was his lonely tenant and also a co-worker in that NYU department. Evelyn was an illegal alien working as a nanny for a local Brooklyn family.

Evelyn had used a car owned by one of her employers to run an errand in the snow. After Richard's car hit the car she was driving, she discovered the dead body of another family employee in the trunk.

Richard engaged Lucia's help with Evelyn who was traumatized by the accident and the discovery of the dead body. The three of them shared their life stories as they decided how to dispose of the dead body. We learned about Richard's life as an American teacher living in Brazil and his doomed marriage to a Brazilian woman. Lucia was college educated in Canada and had been writing about the "disappeared" in her native Chile before she came to America to teach. Evelyn escaped her native Guatemala to avoid the fate of her two brothers who died at the hands of MS 13 , an international gang.

Allende, herself an immigrant from South America, does an excellent job of exposing everyday life of people in these countries. Her description of Evelyn's escape from Guatemala through Mexico and finally into the US is memorable.

A man, a woman, a young girl and a corpse add up to one of the loveliest and most unexpected romances I have ever read. This unlikely combination brings the reader a reminder of the spirit and ability to love that is never lost, despite age and difficulties.

Lucia and Richard, long past their prime are colleagues but an unlikely car accident and a corpse hidden in a trunk bring them together to dispose of the body and protect the young, frightened undocumented alien who was in the car.

Sadly, it takes the discovery of a death to remind Richard that despite his very troubled past, he is still alive. Lucia, still vibrant, despite illness and other hardships is given the opportunity to find a caring life partner. This unlikely pair somehow manages to move rogether to protect the frightened Evelyn. Their trip to dispose of the body is their penance and an opportunity to cleanse and restart their lives.

Allende is a mesmerizing writer who gives these characters and their histories, an authenticity that makes the reader crave their happiness. It is a lesson in love, redemption and hope which left me with a sense of joy and optimism. What an enchanting novel.