I have read almost all of Isabel Allende's books. There are very few that I found uninteresting. This is one of them.. There are two story lines that converge at the end of the book. I found the convergence awkward. While I understand and appreciate the topic, I did not love reading this book.

Isabel Allende presents a masterful novel that takes the reader from the Holocaust to the present immigration crisis. She brings these diverse times together with compassion. The Wind Knows My Name is a beautifully written book which will be a perfect choice for book club discussions. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine Books for granting my wish to read this book.

**A big thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine for giving me an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

‘The Wind Knows My Name” was the first book I’ve read by Isabel Allende, but I don’t think it will be my last.

The book starts by telling us about Samuel Adler, a 5 year old boy living in Vienna Austria with his parents after the Nazi Occupation. After the night of broken glass (Kristallnacht), Samuel is one of the children allowed to move to England via Kindertransport, leaving his family behind with the hopes that they are one day reunited. We then meet Anita Diaz, an 8 year old girl who, in 2019, was separated from her mother after crossing the border into the US. Blind and having dealt with extreme loss in her short life, we learn about Anita’s strength as she awaits her fate in a new country. Alternating between past and present, we learn about these characters, about the characters who support both, and eventually see how these two stories converge.

This is a powerful, emotional story for all the reasons one may think. In both instances we see children who are put through unimaginable situations and live through them. For Samuel, we are introduced to his story through his parent’s eyes, seeing their love for him as they fear what their futures may look like. They are willing to give their lives to keep him safe, and one of the most heartbreaking scenes in this book for me was the moment they had to say goodbye. For Anita, we first learn her story through her social worker Selena and lawyer Frank. Anita tries to stay strong even though everything and everyone she knows has been taken from her, and it’s her strength that pushes Selena and Frank to work hard to give her the security and love she deserves.

I think tying the separation of families during WW2 and then during the border crisis was a work of genius. It’s not often that we think of these two situations together, but the loss that the children felt during both are more similar that we’d realize. I also think tying something so current and derisive with history almost everyone is familiar with adds a different level of compassion to the story of Anita.

My only challenge with the book is that I wish the way Samuel and Anita’s story was explained was more uniform. We learn of Samuel’s history from the start from the ones who loved him most, which as the reader helped me form an emotional attachment to the character almost immediately. With Anita, we learn her story secondhand from Selena and Frank, and while they are compassionate, it’s not quite enough. We hear Anita in her own voice, but while we see her strength we don’t learn until later what hardships she’s had to overcome. We don’t see any interaction between her and her mother or grandmother. It takes awhile for us to learn her full story, and I think that delay also delayed the emotional attachment I had to her character. To be sure, by the end I come to love her character, but if we learned about her life earlier in the book, I think I would have been even more invested in the story.

Overall, I think this book is a 3.5/5 star read for me. I think it’s unique, it’s relevant, and by the end I was invested in the characters and the outcome…it just took me awhile to get there for both of them. I would definitely recommend it to others, and will be looking at other Isabel Allende books for future reading.

A few seemingly unrelated story lines are beautifully weaved together to showcase the strength people have to overcome loss. A great read.

Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors and this book did not disappoint. She describes the struggle of immigrants attempting to enter the US that are being separated from their children. She begins with the story of Samuel who is transported out of Austria in 1938 to escape Nazis. He was put on a train and sent to the UK, never to see his family again. In 2019, Anita gets separated from her mother, while they are escaping from El Salvador. They make it to Nogales, and she and her mother get separated. Selena Duran is the social worker that is determined to keep her safe and find her mother. Unbelievably, these two stories become intertwined, and the story of what can happen when someone goes above and beyond to help a child is so heartwarming. Although there are some very difficult situations that are described, I appreciated the underlying positivity that came forth in this story. I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House books for giving me the opportunity to preview this book in exchange for an honest review.

Like so many of Allende's books, this one is an important read. The novel mainly takes place during the pandemic, though Samuel, one of our main characters, lost his parents in the Holocaust.Most of the novel evolves around our current border issues where children are separated from their parents, as we follow Anita, the young girl who is separated from her mother, and Selena, the young social worker, and Frank, the young attorney who helps with the asylum case.

Unlike other of Allende's novels, the prose in this novel is more factual and rushed, making it less pleasurable to read, at least for me, who missed her more rich sentences. There weren't many surprises in the novel, but at least the novel reminds us there are humane people who care about others during tumultuous times.

Another gorgeous story by Allende. Noone does women of Sputh America, women in general, better than Allende. She manages to find the beauty in the horrific. Told from the point of view if multiple immigrants, we see intoned lives, the power of survival and perseverance for the human spirit.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Isabel Allende can craft a tale, and bring strong women to life. And interesting men too, for that matter. This book weaves together three sympathetic characters, and a host of others, linking their tales of survival. We start off with a small Austrian boy, sent to England in the early days of WWII to escape the holocaust. Then a girl who survives the brutal massacre of her village in El Salvador in the early 1980's. Finally, one of the children forcibly separated from their parents crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. in the recent past. How these lives are woven together takes Allende and her readers to a place of compassion and humanity in spite of the violence done in the name of politics and greed. My only complaint is that she is not very subtle in expressing her point of view, more from an artistic standpoint than any disagreement with her.

Wonderful read and true to author style. Setting and characters a joy to follo.w.easy flowing story. A delight fior any group and will recommend to all and good club read

I couldn’t stop reading this! It starts with young Samuel in Austria at the beginning of WWII and Carrie’s the story to modern day USA. Anita is separated from her mom at the border while seeking asylum. This book was beautifully written and one of Allende’s best!

This story is about how two young children, one a boy in 1938, Austria, Samuel Adler, six years old and Jewish, had to leave his family during the war, and his mother had secured a spot for him on the last Kinder transport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, where the children were fostered by families until they could be reunited with their own families.
Decades later in 2019 Anita Diaz a blind seven year old girl and her mother Marisol worked their way from El Salvador to Arizona fleeing danger in El Salvador, hoping to seek refuge in the USA. However, their arrival coincided with the new family separation policy, and Anita and her Mom were separated
This story takes us back and forth in these two lives as people along the way reach out to help them, care for them and love them.
This story is also about another Salvadorean woman Selena Duran who is the social worker, assigned to Anita. Selena Duran's family was killed in a massacre In El Salvador and she had fled there years ago, she is adamant on finding the separated parents for these children.
What a well told story, wonderful characters and settings throughout, you will get to experience wonderful connections in this story.
This Author is another one of my favorites, she writes beautifully and engages you in the story right away.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for a copy of this book.

Thank you to random house publishing group for this opportunity to read rage and review this arc which is out June 6 2023

I have loved this author since her first book in the 90s. She is word sorceress and a story weaver. This book was moving, powerful and impactful with our world today. It is told in dual POV. One is little Sam in 1938. He is out on a kinder transport train out of Austria to England. His story broke me.

The second POV is Anita in 2019. She and her mother come to Arizona on a train from El Salvador. It speak on the policy of separation of immigrant kids from their parents. I was an uncontrollable sobbing mess.

This felt real to me. It felt like my heart was ripped in two and I loved every second of it. This is a must read book.

This is the story of two children, separated by age and by country of origin whose stories run on parallel roads. Each torn from their families, brutalized and forced to make their own way in strange new lands, their stories separated by years, the trauma of one echoing the trauma of the other.

Peter Adler is forced to flee Germany in 1938 after the events of Kristallnacht devastate his family. He is brought to England, by way of a Kindertransport, where he must cope with the effect of separation from his family and suffer the brutal lot of a child with no friends or allies. Anita Diaz flees a corrupt and murderous regime personified by an evil security guard who has taken a fancy to Anita's mother. This time, it is the policy of the US government which effects the separation of a child from her mother. Yet, somehow, fortune and a pair of dedicated advocates unite the two refugees amidst a worldwide pandemic and they begin to help each other heal.

As with Violeta, Allende populates her story with strong, likeable women who must separate themselves from the men around them in order to live the lives they want and need. As with Violeta, she brings us into worlds few of us would know and makes them vivid through the power of her storytelling. I read this book over the course of two nights, finishing at 230 in the morning still wide awake with the power of the story. I am very grateful that I was given this ARC by Penguin Random House and Netgalley in turn for an unbiased review.

Allende is a brilliant author, and the story contained in this book is an important one, but I didn't feel like the work overall was well-executed. The novel meandered and was a bit repetitive and needed some brutal editing. I cared about the characters, but they fell flat and I didn't find them believable. Allende's other works are lyrical and show a depth of character that was remarkable; this one was lacking. I wanted desperately to love this story, and to feel it, but about halfway in, I began to wonder if the book was submitted against a deadline. It just didn't feel full.

Allende is such a heartfelt moving author. Her characters become so real you feel you are right there in the room with them. Samuel Adler is a Jewish child transported on the last Kindertransport never to see his family again who die during the Holocaust. Anita is removed from her mother’s arms in the US after seeking refuge fleeing El Salvador. The resulting story is moving reminding me of the sacrifices people make for those they love. Thank you #NetGalley for the advanced copy of #TheWindKnowsMyName.

Gorgeous book! Each story is perfectly woven into the other. I cried happy tears as the book came to a close. This tale brought me so much joy during such dark times. Allende handled such sensitive but real topics with care and respect. I can’t wait to re-read this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for the advanced reader’s copy of the book in return for an honest review.

3.8. Isabel Allende is a very talented writer and I very much enjoy her novels. Although I liked this novel and found it very poignant, I just personally felt it was a wee bit more political for my taste. The premise was good and focused on separation and loss of parents among very young children and the profound impact on them throughout their lives, mostly emotionally. The story weaves around very young children who are separated from their families: Samuel lost his parents when he was sent to London with other kinder during WWII after Kristallnacht in Austria, Anita who was forcibly separated from her mother after crossing the border into the United States after a treacherous trek from El Salvador to escape from a person who was terrorizing her mother., and Leticia who lost her mother and other family members to a Salvadoran death squad who erased a whole village on the false premise the occupants were “communist.” The story is about the pain of loss, parental separation resulting in the children living in foster homes or orphanages without knowing what happened to their parents and forever hoping to be reunited, the legitimate plight of immigrants including escaping from horrors and atrocities inflicted on innocent populations, but it also shows love, compassion, the strength and temerity of the human spirit in spite of daunting odds and circumstances beyond a persons control, and the oppression of women generally. All characters were very well defined. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an advance copy in exchange for a candid and unbiased review.

This book definitely pulled on my heart strings. Anita is such an amazing young lady, taken away from her mom at the border to enter the United States. Anita had to go through so much at such a young age. Reminded Samuel of his life as interrupted by the holocaust. Such similar situations many years apart. Now it is only women being killed and tortured. Such a compelling likeness.

As I was reading this book I got so mad, so upset, and also felt some hope and love this book made me feel so much! I wish I could do something to help the current situation with our borders

This was a great book that I will be recommending to everyone I know!!

Thank you to net galley for this earc copy.

I enjoyed the 3 different perspectives/stories and how they intertwined with each other due to many factors including war, immigration and covid.

I have read one other book by isabel allende and I am willing to read more . her writing style is unique and very descriptive. At times it feels like it drags on for not good reason. the first book by her I dnf'd , however I finished this one. I like the character development and I love how her stories involve real life events from different timelines that we find out intertwine with each other is some way. the storylines were easy to follow and you get invested in all of the characters.

overall I rate this a 4 star rating . it was hard to get into but once I did I enjoyed the stories involved.

Though not my favorite book from the great Isabel Allende, I appreciate her take on the Covid pandemic through her trademark characterization and political lens. A sweet story of found family, this novel shows that the care and support from others can be a source of hope and safety for those who have lost everything.