I have not read any of Ms. Allende's books in a while. This is because she tends to slant towards the mystical, which is not my type of book. After reading the premise, I was intrigued especially because I do a lot of volunteer work in Guatemala.

The challenges are great and treacherous for those escaping poverty and violence. At the same time, the boarder situation is complex and not always humane, like separating children from parent(s). This is the case of little Anita who fled with her mother from El Salvador.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The story starts with another migration during the Nazi occupation of Austria. A young boy is sent away to live in England as part of the kinder transport.

Eventually, these two lives intersect.

The chapters are based on the different stories of the main characters, which also include the US social worker and the pro bono lawyer. There is just enough of clairvoyance but not over the top for me. I only wish that the character development was much better. The stories are pretty basic and not very nuanced. Definitely a quick read.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

This is an amazing novel. I waited to read it since Allende is one of my favorite authors. I was not disappointed, since this is perfection. Allende manages to blend the stories of children separated from their families during times of unspeakable horror.

The first story is that of Samuel Adler, sent from Vienna to evade death at one of Hitler’s camps. The second story is about Anita, caught in the maelstrom of the Trump policy of separating parents and children. Allende manages to tell us their stories and create a magical connection that leaves the reader both smiling and crying.

Without a doubt, I confidently recommend this to all my readers. It is a reminder of the endless cruelty and trauma that is visited on our most vulnerable population, our children.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this superb and beautiful book.

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

This five star masterpiece by Isabel Allende will charm you and horrify you. Readers of her previous works know that Allende leans toward controversy. This story centers around two children, decades apart, separated from their families during time of war or conflict “for their safety” and less so, the politics of the 2020 pandemic.

Sadly, the results are the same for these two children and thousands more. Governments which promised to help them have no plan to reunite them with their parents. New languages must be acquired, talents are lost and forgotten, help is a fantasy.

You will admire the characters who actually work to do their best for these loveable, yet lost youngsters.There are many problems that Allende points out in America’s current immigration policies. Cruelty abounds within our own borders, and Isabel Allende suggests there’s a better way to treat immigrants.

My sincerest thanks to #BallantineBooks and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel.

This was EXCELLENT! It was interesting because it started in Austria, and the characters never went to South America, as many of her other books do. It also follows several character's lives, from Samuel, a young Jewish boy sent on Kindertransport to England during WW2, Selena, a young Mexican woman who helps children separated at the border, Anita, a blind young girl who immigrated to the US from El Salvador, and Leticia, who moved to the US from El Salvador herself as an infant. I was curious how they would all connect, and it comes together beautifully. Felt very relevant in today's news, as it touches on immigration and Covid, and the connections to WW2 are startling. What a fantastic book!

I like Isabel Allende's writing. I like that she connects characters with different backgrounds and brings them together through shared experiences. This novel, didn't do it for me. I felt like the pacing was a little bit off and that I didn't get enough time with some of the characters to truly be satisfied with the ending.

Going into this book, I knew very little about the Kindertransport train that evacuated Jewish children from nazi-occupied Austria. The book is about the life of one six year old little boy and his love of music. His story is extremely touching and inspiring. As he faces his final years, he is given the opportunity to help another child who is facing dire circumstances as he once had.

I appreciate the author’s voice on the pertinent topic of immigration and bringing it’s history to the pages. The inclusion of all things bad in 2020; specifically the pandemic and the US political climate, was an important part of the current era timeline but I didn’t enjoy the reminders of masking and sanitizing.

The Wind Knows My Name
By Isabel Allende

This novel deals with three people who have suffered tragedy and horror as young children. Samuel Adler, an Austrian Jew, was sent via kindertransport to England to escape the Nazi terror with the promise that his parents would join him later. Unfortunately, both his parents die in the concentration camps, leaving Samuel with feelings of abandonment.

Leticia Cordero lived with her large family in a small village in El Salvador until her whole village was massacred by government forces in the early eighties. Leticia and her father escaped and swam across the Rio Grande to make a life in the United States.

Anita Diaz, a Salvadoran child also crossing the border with her mother, Marisol, was detained and then separated from her mother. Added to Anita's plight, she is virtually blind from an earlier accident.

All three stories are fictional but they are based on true stories which have happened – and continue to happen today. Human cruelty, especially against women, never ends. Allende gives us reason to hope that there is also goodness and love in this world.

Isabelle Allende focuses her title on the plight of immigrants, particularly children, fleeing harrowing situations of abuse, political unrest, war and/or discrimination. These children are separated from families, culture, language, traditions, and homelands to enter a world where they have no knowledge, uncertain expectations, bureaucracies which they cannot navigate alone and a future which may not reunite them with family. They are too young to comprehend a system and a world that is even incomprehensible for adults.

To underscore the plight of children, she begins with a Jewish violin protegee, Samuel Adler fleeing 1938 Vienna as he travels alone on a Kindertransport for the UK. She then shifts her gaze to modern times, Arizona, 2019 to Anita Diaz, a seven-year-old blind girl forcibly separated from her mother when they flee El Salvador.

Both stories underline the impact of immigration policies on the most vulnerable, the children. Allende depicts how both children attempt to cope with their lives and forge connections. The stories of Samuel and Anita come together in an unlikely way.

The writing is excellent, particularly in depicting the situations the children flee, how they attempt to cope and how they discover who they can be in this new world. But Allende is always an advocate against the harsh realities of the immigration systems, so at times the book seemed more of a strident call for action than a novel grounded in the story of its characters. Leticia, the housekeeper for the now aged Samuel, the social worker Selena Duran and her lawyer boyfriend (both attempting to help Anita) had roles that moved the narrative but often in unbelievable ways. So mixed feelings there, a 3.5 rounded up to a 4. But this is an important book which will generate much discussion in book clubs. Recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this title.

This review will be posted on June 6, 2023 to: https://instagram.com/amandas.bookshelf

Isabel Allende has done it again! I think this might be my favorite novel of hers. The novel opens on Kristallnacht in 1938 Vienna. Shortly after, young Samuel Adler is sent out of Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport with the promise he'll be reunited with his parents once his mother can secure their travel visas. In 2019, young Anita is separated from her mother at the US/Mexico border. Anita now faces deportation, despite the fact that she and her mother were seeking asylum from violence and danger. Allende takes these characters, and others, to weave a breathtaking tapestry of exploration of war, violence, and seeking refuge when home isn't safe. This is difficult but moving subject matter, one meant to spark understanding of the very real humans we talk of when debating the immigration crisis. Do be sure to read the Author's Note at the end to understand Allende's motivation for this story and the real people who inspired composite characters. #TheWindKnowsMyName Rating: 😍 / loved it
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This book is scheduled for publication on June 6, 2023. Thank you Ballantine Books and @randomhouse for providing me this digital ARC via @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. Allende is a masterful storyteller who does not shy from traumatic and difficult themes. In her newest novel, she weaves plot lines from Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany 1938 to refugees fleeing El Salvador in 2019 during the outbreak of a global pandemic. The theme that brings these stories together is children separated from their families during times or turmoil/war/unrest and the humanitarian efforts to rectify this unjust and unnatural occurrence.

I was captivated by each plot line, moved to tears, disgusted by the abject hatefulness of some and rejoiced in the hope and fight of others. This book is poignant, relevant, and inspiring. Lovers of literary fiction will be moved and left with a lasting impact of Allende’s characters and prose.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for my advanced e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Isabel Allende new novel The Wind Knows My Name is a heartfelt story that the world could use right now . It's a novel about people trying to survive wrongs done to them. It brings together the story of Kristallnacht with the situation on the US border. The main characters are Samuel Adler and Anita Diaz. As you start the novel you wonder how their worlds will collide. As you turn the pages you see Samuel growing up as an oprhan and then into the man he becomes. With Anita you see her mother trying escape El Salvador with Anita who is blind. You learn about the struggles with people trying to flee their countries to escape the hell that is their country and get into the US where things will hopefully be better. You meet people who work with these agencies to unite families separated at the border. This ripped from the headlines story is so important for people to read right now because with bad news coming at us 24 hours a day this novel takes one case and makes us understand one person's struggles trying to flee their country. It makes you have empathy for the people involved. Truly appreciative that Ms. Allende wrote this novel. It was a beautiful experience reading this novel even though it is a difficult subject. The more we hear stories like this, maybe the world will be less harsh to people dealing with issues at the border. Also that we have to be careful that we don't allow history to repeat itself with big lessons learned from The Holocaust. Great book for book clubs and groups that care about human rights issues. Thank you to #ballantine and #randomhouse for the ready #netgalley,

Important content to be out there in regards to immigration. I love her storytelling so powerful and touching. It’s hard to read something like this and not come out with so many emotions and wishing for change.

The separation of children from their parents is the top level of this novel- first Samuel immediately after Kristallacht and Anita who is blind, during immigration to the US. Social worker Selena finds that Anita has a relative in the US- Leticia- who works for- wait for it- Samuel. Allende struggles a bit, I think, to draw parallels and loses her characters to it. There's a lot in this relatively slim novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For Allende's fans.

The Wind Knows My Name started off fast, introducing a small Jewish family in the lead up to Kristallnacht in November 1938. Their young son is saved by the Kindertransport to England. Then the narrative shifts to a young woman from El Salvador who as a child had crossed the border to the U.S. with her father. A third narrative strand focuses on a Latina lawyer working on border issues. All of this occurs in the first third of a 250-page book, and there are additional narratives/characters as well.

I can see what Allende was attempting with The Wind Knows My Name, but I'm sorry to say this is a misfire. She has tried to stuff too many stories into too short a novel. The result is a fast-moving but superficial collection of refugee stories. The characters are people we have met many times before and their stories are overly familiar. The book feels rushed, with far too much exposition and summary. Allende should have expanded the book to a length appropriate for all these narratives and characters so that she could work her usual magic.

It seems like Allende has been rushing her books out in the last several years, with the result that they are hit and miss. This could have been an outstanding book but instead it feels like a draft.

This is my favorite Isabel Allende book! As soon as I began reading, I felt drawn into the story. I felt so invested in every character that I actually hated to have the plot switch to a new character. I honestly would have liked a couple of separate books that followed each character in a linear time frame. Of course, all of these characters' lives begin to intersect as the story progresses through various wars and across numerous borders.

I do not like spoiler reviews, so I will simply say that all of the characters lives are woven together by wars and immigration with an emphasis on the lasting effects as well as immediate trauma in the lives of children. This story is heartbreaking and powerful historical fiction spanning decades from Kristallnacht up through the end of the Covid pandemic lockdown. It is not a Covid story or a Nazi story or a parental sacrifice story or any one particular story at all. It is a human drama story. In all honesty, the only thing that was a little disappointing to me was the ending; a part of me would like to know a couple of things for sure. However, life is not like that, and the author knows this, so perhaps it is the best ending there can be.

Thank you to NetGalley for the privilege of reading, The Wind Knows My Name. It held my attention through various timelines and countries.

It addressed some themes that our nation is still facing - the large number of immigrants from Central America who are seeking asylum in the US. It's not a pretty story to tell of children and babies being ripped from their parents' arms. Couple that with the pandemic and the lost time in the judicial system and you have an atrocious mess.

It was compared in the book to the Kindertransport that found homes for jewish children in the English countryside.

In two different times, in two different places, under different and horrible circumstances, two children are separated from their families - a young boy during the Holocaust, a little girl during the recent pandemic at the border. Allende beautifully brings them together, when the boy is now an elderly man. This is a story that moved me with touching and sad times in their lives, moved me with their shared grief and the goodness of people who care. Allende, still a masterful storyteller.

I received a copy of this book from Ballantine Books through NetGalley

Isabel Allende has written a very sad tale of children caught up in the immigration system. Her story begins in Austria in 1938 where a young Jewish boy named Samuel Adler is put on the Kindertransport heading to England where it is hoped he will be kept safe from the Nazi oppression. He never sees his parents again and eventually settles in San Francisco, CA.

Then there is Leticia who is brought across the Rio Grande on her father's back in January, 1932, 24 days after the El Mozote, Salvadorian massacre. She has a US passport and citizenship and has settled in Berkeley, CA. She remembers little of her childhood and her father never talks about the tragedies that brought them to the US.

But things are harder for immigrants at the US border in November, 2019, when little Anita and her mother try to illegally enter the country. The mother is fleeing for her life from a violent killer in El Salvador but she and her nearly-blind daughter are caught in the desert, detained at the border and separated. Anita is put into the system and bounced between foster homes; she will never see her mother again.

Yet in the midst of these sad times, there is hope. There is Selena Durán, a middle-aged woman who works for the Magnolia Project for Refugees and Immigrants. She goes to the law firm of Larson, Montaigne & Lambert in San Francisco, hoping to convince at least one of their lawyers to volunteer to help with the serious humanitarian crisis at the border. Frank Angileri, a rising-star at the firm, steps forward to volunteer. Okay, maybe it's because he's attracted to Selena but hey, whatever works. These children need all the help they can get. Selena and Frank quickly zero in on Anita's case. Can they find her mother? Or find a way to keep her in the states? Surprisingly all these threads eventually tie together with a satisfying ending.

The story is quite touching and humanizes the news stories everyone sees. One quibble: Allende has a tendency to 'tell' the details of her various characters' lives rather than weave a story which reveals their character. I've noticed that in some of her other books and again in this one. I find it prevents me from becoming more deeply immersed in the story.

I received an arc from the publisher and author via NetGalley. Many thanks. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

This novel was generally enjoyable and exactly what I have come to expect from Isabel Allende's later novels. There's a heavy dose of stereotypical characters, or the kinds of characters that seem familiar because you've read versions of them a million times before. Then there are the exceedingly quirky ones. The plot relates historical events with current ones in a very clearcut way. It's easy enough to get, which makes it accessible, but it's not fluff. It has substance to it, but not so much that you feel as if you need a degree in history or politics to be able to understand it. Allende balances all of these elements well.

Allende’s theme in this book is the separation of children from their parents. We begin with Samuel, a musical savant, sent from Austria on a Kindertransport train to England by his Jewish parent as Hitler invaded Vienna. Next, we meet Leticia, who fled with her father from El Salvador when everyone in her rural village was massacred by CIA trained military operatives. And then there is Anita Diaz, a blind child separated from her mother at the Southern border, as they try to seek asylum in the US.
Allende brings the story into the present day: unrest in South American countries, illegal immigration, and the pandemic. She examines love in all its forms: familial love, passionate love, love for mankind. As her trademark, she introduces magical realism into the story as the ghosts of those lost and as the place where Anita escapes when things become too traumatic for her to handle.
Her diverse characters held my attention throughout the book. They came together in the end in a Win
My gratitude to NetGalley, Ballentine Books and Isabel Allende for an advanced copy of this book. My opinions are my own.