Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors. I am a fan of her sweeping, epic novels which all feature strong and courageous women, as well as her advocacy of women's rights. I was excited to see this new book by her and grabbed it immediately.

The Description:
Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler was six years old when his father disappeared during Kristallnacht—the night their family lost everything. Samuel’s mother secured a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, which he boarded alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz, a blind seven-year-old girl, and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. However, their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination she created with her sister back home.

Anita’s case is assigned to Selena Duran, a young social worker who enlists the help of a promising lawyer from one of San Francisco’s top law firms. Together they discover that Anita has another family member in the United States: Leticia Cordero, who is employed at the home of now eighty-six-year-old Samuel Adler, linking these two lives.

Spanning time and place, The Wind Knows My Name 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.

My Thoughts:
This is a heart-wrenching novel dealing with immigrants rights, love, loss, hope and most of all, humanity.

The story began in Vienna, 1938 where six-year-old Samuel Adler was forced to leave on the Kindertransport from Vienna to England without his parents during the Holocaust. He eventually was placed with a Quaker couple, but his original family was lost. I was heart-broken for Samuel.

My heart broke again for seven-year-old, nearly blind Anita and her mother. They were at a hospital I was on edge during Anita and her mother's flight from El Salvador to the United States, a journey that was fraught with hardship. Then they were faced with Trumps's family separation policy which had just gone into effect in the United States. Then I rooted for Selena in her quest to help Anita.

The timelines collide and I began to feel some hope for Anita's future as Selena teams up with Frank, a young attorney.

I highly recommend this book for those who like journeys of courage. Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on June 6, 2023.

I could not finish enough of this book to be able to leave a comprehensive review, but I hope it finds its audience and I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

The newest novel from Isabel Allende stretches from Nazi Europe to present day, examining families separated from each other. I was expecting more back and forth early on, but it really dives into Samuel's life for a while. Fans of Allende's previous books will find similar writing here and should enjoy it.

Poignant story about a small child separated from her mother by US iimmigration, a woman devoted to helping young refuges and a lawyer looking for meaning and how their lives intertwine.

The Wind Knows My Name, the prolific Isabel Allende's latest book, offers both too much and too little. The book tells ultimately interconnected stories of survivors of mass human tragedies, including the Holocaust and the current US immigration issue. The events are well-known and so much is left unsaid, especially about the Holocaust. While the stories are not exactly parallel, they tell of hardships, of childhood losses, of parental sacrifices, the help of strangers, and ultimately finding ways to live without the past overwhelming the future. To this reader, Allende tells too much of the stories without ever letting us penetrate the characters beneath their skins. I empathized with the characters but never really felt their pain. With more concise editing of the stories, there would have been plenty of room to expand the characters themselves. Instead, I felt as if I was floating in the winds above what was happening rather than living with the characters as they struggled with their enormous hardships and burdens.,

4.5/5

I swear Allende puts most authors that attempt a story like this to shame. She has a knack for telling stories that involve fascinating characters put into fascinating eras and events. How does she do this so well? I don’t know and I don’t care. I just relish it.

Multigenerational books are such a feat, Allende does such a wonderful job weaving together these lives into one masterful story. I loved it. She is such a delight and writes with such elegance.

I had previously read and loved Violeta by Isabel Allende, but this one didn't capture my attention. There were too many characters and they weren't super well-developed.

Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors. "The House of the Spirits," "A Long Petal of the Sea," and "Violeta" were all five star reads for me. Unfortunately, I can't place Allende's latest work, "The Wind Knows My Name" amongst my favorites. I loved the premise of the book; the parallels between the Jewish people in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s and the refugee crisis in South and Central America are spot on. I liked how the separate stories of the characters eventually came together. However, this booked lacked the character development and descriptive writing that would have made the story come alive, There was too much telling and not enough showing. I think this book had a lot of potential to be great, but it didn't quite get there.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I look forward to Allende's next book!

I have read several books by Ms. Allende and enjoyed everyone. She always takes you on a journey. This one was no different. I became invested in all the characters, she brings in multiple life stories of several characters and does a wonderful background presentation so we know how they got to where they are. I especially loved Samuel, he went through so much at a young age.

I would not consider this a fast paced page burner, it is more a sit back, relax and enjoy the ride kind of story.

I received an ARC from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for my unbiased review – This one comes in with 4 stars.

5.0 stars

Thank you to Isabel Allende, Ballantine Books, and NetGallery for the opportunity to read this book!

Full disclosure, I have only recently discovered Isabel Allende, and her books are masterpieces. I don't know how I missed reading her in high school or college, but I am glad I found her books when I did!! So of course, The Wind Knows My Name is another masterpiece!!

It is told in two primary timelines - the story of Samuel in Austria/England/USA as a child refugee from WWII and Anita in El Salvador/Arizona/California as a child refugee from the violence in El Salvador. The frightening part is that the stories are similar, violent, and still happening after almost 100 years. Obviously, we have NOT learned from the past and our history!!

It is an extremely powerful book. It is shameful, horrifying, and convicting that we as a country allow the same things to happen over and over again. The comparison between El Salvador and Austria is on point!

It is an amazing book - I read it in one day. The character development, storyline, and beautiful Allende writing is perfect.

HIGHLY recommend (also, ANY book by Isabel Allende)

Isabel Allende's best work yet! I will admit to confusion when the start of the book is the tale of Samuel and his escape from Austria on a Kindertransport train. The importance of this historical event of childhood trauma is resolved later in the book. But then, the book presents a realistic portrayal of the horrendous policy of separating families at the Southern US border. Ms. Allende carefully crafts a narrative, portraying the violence that drives those seeking asylum and the trauma faced by the children. The publisher's review sums it up best, "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." Well done Ms. Allende.

I have loved previous novels by this author, but this one just didn’t grab me. I found the characters a bit formulaic and too good to be true. I struggled to get through this novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this wonderful book in advance of publication.

I just finished reading this a few moments ago and am full of emotion. The way Isabel Allende wrote this story was so beautiful even as I was grasping the connections between the various POVs in the beginning of the book. It is a multi-generational story across different families and perspectives but all at once a single story about a very young girl separated from her mother shortly after migrating to the US from El Salvador just prior to the COVID pandemic. As soon as the various POVs started to converge, I was immediately invested in how little Anita would navigate her world without knowing if her mother would be found. I am usually not a multi-POV fan but this was done spectacularly.

In 2019 a police officer in El Salvador shot Marisol, who fled with her seven-year-old, blind daughter Anita knowing he would kill her if she stayed. After a difficult trip to the United States, she and Anita were forcibly separated at the border, and she was deported. Selena, a Latina social worker, took a personal interest in Anita. Though she had been trying for years to reunite separated children it had proven difficult because the U.S. didn’t keep good records of where children were sent. She was determined to find Anita’s mother.

In 1938 six-year-old Samuel was a violin prodigy in Vienna, but everything changed on Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass. That night his father was beaten and sent to a concentration camp, and his mother put him on a kindertransport to England thinking it would be a short separation. A few years later Samuel found out his parents, grandmother and aunt had all been murdered in the concentration camps. As the years passed music was the only thing that kept him going. The day he met Anita, everything changed.

Anita, Samuel, Selena, and others tell their interwoven stories which recount how separation from their parents affects children, but also splices in the poverty and murders migrants are forced to flee on their desperate journeys to the United States. “The wind knows my name” educates, saddens, but also gives hope.

Highly recommended for Adults.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Wind Knows My Name has a feel good endgame about triumphing over adversity but first it makes you experience several versions of hell through its lead characters before you get there. Starting the story with Samuel's childhood trauma is a strategic move on Allende's part: these atrocities have happened before and they are happening again. Samuel and Anita are quite the pair of contrasting characters living similar experiences. This is not the first book I've read featuring the Trump administration and the COVID-19 pandemic, and it won't be the last, but I appreciate Samuel and Letitia's found family as established via an employment agreement.

3.5 stars, rounded down
This heart wrenching book tackles the horrors of forced immigration on children. It shows that no matter where or when, it’s children that pay the price.
The story begins with Samuel Adler, a six year old violin prodigy when Kristallnacht occurs in Vienna. His father is attacked by a mob and lands in a concentration camp. His mother secures Samuel a spot on the Kindertransport to England and then, she, too, disappears. He was fortunate to end up with a loving Quaker family, but loses his true family.
Flash forward to Leticia Cordero, who was in the hospital when the El Mozote massacre occurred in El Salvador, wiping out all her family, save her father. The two make the trek north across the Rio Grande to the US.
And finally, Anita Diaz, an almost blind seven year old, who escapes El Salvador with her mother and ends up at Nogales in a children’s home. Trump’s asinine family separation policy has just gone into effect, so Anita is alone. Like me, Allende makes no secret of her politics.
More characters are brought into the story as it coalesces around Anita. Serena Duran is the social worker who runs the nonprofit trying to assign volunteer lawyers to the immigrant children’s cases. Frank is the young lawyer who volunteers to help because he has the hots for Serena. As the story progresses, all of the characters are brought back into the current picture in 2020 while Covid adds another layer of turmoil.
Allende wanted to make the maximum impact on the reader, so she crammed a lot of facts about our border situation into the book. At times, it almost came across as if she were reporting on the immigration issue, not writing a novel. But she accurately paints the issues at play here and in the countries of origin. While I was impressed with her ability to make the reader understand the problems, I was less than impressed with the book itself. There were multiple side stories that added nothing to the plot and made the pacing uneven. At times, it felt like a series of vignettes strung together. At other times, though, her ability to create the perfect phrase shines through.
I also had trouble believing the scenario - that a social worker and lawyer could devote so much time to one single case. Or that a young corporate lawyer would have so much time to devote to nonprofit work, including several trips to El Salvador.
My thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this book.

Yikes! I was expecting to love this as I love Allende’s writing .. but this did not hit the mark for me.
Too bad.. beautiful title and cover…

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine books for the Arc!

I love Isabel Allende, but this one seemed a little disjointed to me. I felt that the writing was more straight forward and "to the point". I loved the concept and the messages, but was overall a bit disappointed.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Historical Fiction

The Wind Knows My Name is a story set in dual timelines and follows multiple characters’ perspectives. The past timeframe focuses on the Adler family and the tough circumstances they were placed in during the Holocaust when they were living in Vienna. Samuel, the couple's kid, makes a recurrent appearance in the present throughout the entirety of the book. There is also the present-day timeline, which has the characters Anita, Selena, and Leticia. Every single one of them must contend with the myriad difficulties that are exclusive to their era.

This is the second time I read a novel by the author. The first one was last year’s Violeta and it was one of my favorite novels of 2022. Although this one, for me, is not as engaging as Violeta was, it is still a fascinating story. I feel the main reason for not loving it as much is because unlike Violeta the story does not concentrate on one single character but follows several ones at different timelines. Ignoring the other book as a point of comparison, I still believe that this story possesses significant virtues and appeal, and I believe that this is mostly due to the pleasant writing style of the author.

The Wind Knows My Name is a tale of love, loss, and self-discovery, set against the backdrop of a world undergoing major social and political upheaval. Allende's rich and evocative prose draws readers into these characters’ tumultuous lives and leaves them with a profound sense of hope and inspiration.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.