A young girl returns to her village from hospital to find her entire community slaughtered. A small boy is thrust into the hands of strangers to seek asylum in England from a Hitler controlled Austria. Another child is ripped from the arms of her mother in America after fleeing a man set to kill her mother in El Salvador. What do all of these children have in common? Will their stories guide their lives, challenge their decisions, motivate their desires?

This book was extremely well written. The beginning is very intense, flowing into a deep narrative web with intertwining stories. Allende is an incredible writer, and The Wind Knows My Name is no exception.

Reflects the horrors that can impact young children with forced migration, whether due to the Nazi's and war in Europe parents trying to save their children to the horrors of politics in El Salvador and the El Mozote massacre. Migration especially forced due to war and politics impacts families and children. As I read the separate situations I kept wanting them to be brought together for some cohesiveness but this did not occur. Understanding the horrors that can happen at borders of countries I think following the people and/or tying to story together would provide for a better look. The way it was presented it 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. The plots felt rushed and incomplete as well as the characters not developed well. I usually enjoy Allende's work but this just felt incomplete, rushed and not well developed thus not conveying the message well that she wanted to pass along.

My thanks to Netgalley, the author and Ballantine Books

Many of Isabel Allende’s books are a nice blend of current issues, usually involving women and children, with a bit of magical realism stirred in. This novel is the perfect example. One storyline starts in Austria with a mother reluctantly putting her 5-year-old son on the train to get him to safety before Hitler’s army advances. The second finds a mother and 8-year-old daughter in current times running from El Salvador to safety in the States. The author deftly brings all of her story lines together for a satisfying conclusion. The historical events included and the timing of her plot are strong points; characterization takes a back seat to them. I did, however, love the story and respect her efforts to shine a light on the horrible ways in which children and parents are separated and the long lasting effects of that separation. And this is one of the most beautiful book covers!

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books/Penguin Random House for the ARC to read and review.

Immigration compelled by atrocities in one’s country of birth is the main theme in Isabel Allende’s new book, The Wind Knows My Name. The first segment begins in Nazi occupied Europe, where young Samuel Adler is placed on a Kindertransport to England, where he is ultimately living in a new home, with a new language, culture and religion.

Abruptly, the next segment brings us to a devastating massacre in El Salvador in the early 1980s which brings young Letitia Cordero over the US border.

In the year 2019, seven year Anita Diaz and her mother, flee a violent personal attack in El Salvador and are not fortunate enough to make it through the US border. They are apprehended and separated. Anita, who is almost completely blind, retreats to a pretend world when her stress level overloads and dreams of a reunion with her mother.

A social worker , Selena, and a lawyer, Frank, take unusual interest in Anita’s predicament and join forces to help her remain legally in the USA.

And what starts out as an interesting premise goes on and on and on, with an ever changing cast of multiple characters, who are never fully developed, and in circumstances that aren’t always credible ( would a social worker and lawyer devote endless personal hours and finances to help just one out of thousands of abandoned children?)

What resulted was a great beginning, which became disjointed by addressing too many sub plots that combined in an often confusing hodgepodge of social issues including :immigration, violence, women’s rights, and the Covid pandemic. Each taken separately would be worthy of Ms Allende’s talent. No doubt the author wanted to write about an important subject. Most readers would agree that ripping young children away from their mothers is inhumane and cruel. Yet somehow while this book made that point clear, it fell short, because the idea was overstated and felt more like a political diatribe interfering with the fluidity of the story line.

In summary, three stars for a book that worked hard at being important and compelling but never quite achieved its objective My thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine books for providing me with an ARC in return for my honest review.

Courtesy of Netgalley, I received the ARC of The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende. This novel of parallel experiences begins with 1938 Vienna, the young boy Samuel Adler, and the Kindertransport train, and compares his traumatic family experience to that of Anita Diaz, as she escapes a horrific life in El Salvador with her mother, to seek asylum in America 2019. Encompassing themes of commitment, resilience, persistence, adaptability, opportunities for second chances, and created families, this timely story is compelling and heartwarming. Highly recommend!

This book was received as an advance review copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Isabel Allende’s novel about leaving one’s home and the often-harrowing journeys that migrants take could not have been published at a better time. With immigration issues dominating the public discourse (as Title 42 ended in the US in May 2023) this book’s publication could not be more opportune.
Synopsis:
The book weaves together multiple stories centered around migration. In 1938 Samuel Adler is only six years old when he is forced to flee from Vienna as violence against Jews in Nazi-occupied Austria escalates. Arriving alone in the UK, Samuel uses his violin to make a place for himself first in the UK and then in the US.
In 2019, Anita Diaz is also forced to flee her home, in El Salvador, with her mother looking for safety in the US. Arriving at the border she is soon separated from her mother as the family separation policy is put into effect. Waiting for her mother she struggles to deal with traumas chasing her from home as she bounces from migrant shelter to foster care. Her social worker Selena Duran seeks help from a renowned lawyer, Frank Angileri to reunite her with her mother while navigating the US immigration system.
As Selena finds Anita’s distant relative Leticia Cordero in the US, she develops a bond with Samuel Adler who is now eighty-six years old and is being cared for by Leticia. As these stories intersect, the devastating impact of being forced to leave one’s home and the sacrifices our loved ones make for our safety are revealed.

What’s to like:
For readers interested in migration issues/ current affairs and how these impact lives, this book is a great read. The first few chapters are especially interesting as Samuel’s childhood and Leticia’s ancestor’s stories are shared. Through the first half of the book, one wonders how the different stories will come together and that makes the last few chapters even more interesting as the paths of all the characters intersect.
If this is your first Isabel Allende novel, you will also notice how her writing style is so straightforward and refreshing. In a matter-of-fact way, she describes even the most heartbreaking circumstances and yet it does not fail to elicit an emotional effect on the reader.

What’s not to like:
Some of the side stories can get boring. Selena and Frank’s story did not seem as interesting and although the existence of Anita’s imaginary place, Azabahar, helps the reader learn about her, the relevant chapters describing it could only be skimmed.
Another aspect of the book I did not appreciate as a reader was the recurring mention of infidelity. Samuel and his wife’s relationship seemed very strange and made her particularly unlikeable to me. It always disappoints me as a reader to read about such vices discussed so casually and even normalized.

Isabel Allende can do no wrong! I absolutely loved this touching and emotional novel. This book feels like a love letter to the children of parents who have had to sacrifice during times of war for their children. It is scary how common these themes are for two very different time periods.

The book tells the story of Samuel and Anita. Samuel escapes Austria with only his clothes and violin during World War two. Eighty years later, Anita's family seeks refuge in the United States from El Salvador. With the family separation policy, she ends up alone at a camp. The two stories end up connecting in an interesting way.

I loved how beautifully written this was. This author's writing style is very impactful. I was very emotional while reading this book. These children suffered unspeakable things and I feel like books like this are very important to show society how cyclical history really is.

I highly recommend this book.

Isabel Allende is a brilliant and beautiful author - fans will be thrilled with "The Wind Knows My Name". Her storytelling and imagery are simply unmatched!

Thank you Megan Whalen at Ballantine for providing me with an advanced copy of the beloved Isabel Allende’s latest novel. Although I try not to miss a new Allende release, some of her novels are more successful than others. “The Wind Knows My Name” is a triumphant return to form. In this gripping tale that draws historical and political parallels between Hitler’s Europe and Trump’s America, Allende opens in Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938. Violin prodigy Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht. His mother, increasingly concerned with his safety, reluctantly secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train to England. Like thousands of other children, he makes the journey without his parents, who later die in the Holocaust. Samuel is raised in the foster care system, eventually settling in the Bay Area. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother flee escalating gang violence in El Salvador and seek refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita, who is partially blind, finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her fraught reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Allende has crafted an emotionally charged and intricately plotted tale that weaves history and social commentary.

Pro:
* Character development (as far as it goes)

Con:
* another WW2 story - the market is flooded with them, and the opening to this one feels pedantic in its explanation of the scenario. I feel like we’ve heard this story a million times already
* Multiple points of view/settings are so overdone
* Didactic/heavy-handed
* I get the point: children are the victims of political upheaval - ww2 kindertransport, civil war in 1980s el Salvador, put in cages at the border in 2019
* The prose feels choppy and simplistic, not the lush narration I’ve come to expect from Allende. Translation?
* I’m so disappointed

Thank you to Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle (translator), Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Once again, Isabel Allende delivers a wonderful novel. I absolutely loved A Long Petal of the Sea and couldn’t wait to read this book!

The book is about two children.

In 1938, Samuel Adams is a 6-year-old living in Nazi-controlled Austria. It is not a safe place to be and his mother manages to send him away to keep him safe. All he has are a few items of clothes and his treasured violin.

In 1919, Anita Diaz a 7-year-old blind girl, arrived in the US from El Salvador. With the new US separation policy, she is separated from her mother.

Two children, separated from their families. The rest of the characters are there for support, like Leticia who is now caring for Samuel who is in his 80s, and the characters who help Anita get through the tangles of US immigration.

It is clever and beautifully written, the way the two children (one now an elderly man) end up connecting with each other.

Oh my God I love Isabel Allende. This book starts off in Vienna during the early days of the Holocaust and ends in Berkeley 2022. I have been close to tears thru the book.5 stars.

Isabelle Allende releases another riveting book characteristic of her masterful storytelling, intriguing plot development, and fascinating characters. The Wind Knows My Name weaves together themes of forced migration, sacrifice, trauma, survival, and creating family. The story begins amid the horrific events of Kristallnacht with Samuel Adler, a six-year-old in Vienna, whose life is saved by his mother’s heart-breaking decision to ensure his safety by sending him to live in England. Samuel is bounced around a few living arrangements until eventually ending up in the home of a loving couple. The book later introduces the character Anita, a seven-year-old who flees violence in El Salvador seeking asylum in the United States with her mother, but is separated from her mother and is transferred among a detention facility and foster homes while a dedicated social worker and pro bono lawyer work tirelessly to get Anita asylum and reunite her with her mother.

Through powerful prose, an array of characters, and a twisting plot, the book kept me wondering how the characters' lives would unfold and perhaps intersect with one another. At points the story could have delved deeper into developing some of the characters, but still it is an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. On a side note, there are moments in the book that briefly describe realistic situations of violence and abuse that can be difficult to read and may be triggering for some readers.

Isabelle Allende is one of my favorite authors, and like her other books, I highly recommend The Wind Knows My Name.

Thank you Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC.

To what extent does a parent protect their child? Isabel Allende weaves a story of two children, Samuel Adler in Vienna 1938 escaping the Nazi's and Anita Diaz in 2019 in Arizona escaping form danger in El Salvador. Thinking of how unrelated these stories are but yet so similar. Their journeys become your journey in this intriguing story. I rated this four stars instead of five due to the politics of immigration policies written into the story line.

The Wind Knows My Name, by Isabel Allende, is a skillful tapestry of loss, love, and family, including those you create and those to which you are born. Allende masterfully weaves together the stories of several diverse individuals in less than 300 pages. The characters are vividly drawn, and so different in generations, age, culture, and circumstance. Yet, they share much in terms of loss, heartbreak, and perseverance. There is much to love about this book, and the characters may live in your memory for longer than you expect. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballentine for the opportunity to read a digital ARC. It was a pleasure!

Allende has done something interesting here by introducing us to different refugee situations and then having their lives entwine. If you think about it, writing this must have been quite difficult to do successfully. It's a smooth read and engaging enough that I didn't want to put it down until I reached the end. It's the kind of story that stays with you and this would be a great pick for book clubs. And... I wish every politician would read this book so that they could put more of a face on the people whose future they are impacting.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I hope it gets a very wide readership.

A beautiful and stunning story.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I so wanted to love this book, its premise is intriguing, and it could have been a deeply emotional eye-opening story - but, there was little of the great storytelling we have come to love from Allende, and it was written with a curious sense of detachment. It was impossible to feel much for these characters whose lives unfold like a history lesson told to get the facts across without much feeling behind the tragedies depicted. Disappointing.

The power of Isabel Allende’s writing once again grasps her readers hearts and takes control. This beautiful read follows the lives of Samuel, who was thrust into a horrific situation as a six year old when his mother sent him to England to escape Nazi Germany. His losses and sense of abandonment remained with him throughout his life.
Many many years later his own experiences aid him in helping Anita, a blind seven year old who has been caught in the illegal immigrant disaster after leaving El Salvador and losing her mother. Their stories so tugged at my heartstrings and left sadness and frustration for these poor children abandoned by their parents in hopes that they will live a better life.
The other characters in this story add so much more - Leticia whose caring and curiosity made such a difference, Nadine whose independence was thought provoking, Selena whose perseverance and concern for children made such a difference and Frank, whose introduction to Selena caused him to realize the important things in life, totally changing his own life.
I so appreciated Isabel Allende’s political stances, particularly on the subject of immigration. I have long wondered what I would do if I had young children that I felt were so endangered that their lives were at risk. Would I be able to turn them over to strangers hoping they will have a better life? Allende brought forth the horrors of living in the different conditions these innocent children are subjected to, not knowing the language, being moved from place to place, and , most of all, wondering where those they love are and when they are coming back for them.
Many many thanks to Isabel Allende, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this recently published book that so captured my heart.

"The Wind Knows My Name" by Isabel Allende is a beautifully crafted novel that weaves together history, love, and self-discovery into a mesmerizing tapestry. Allende's prose effortlessly transports readers to a bygone era, immersing them in the turbulent times of the early 20th century.

The story follows Alma, a determined young woman who embarks on a quest to unravel the mysteries of her family's past. Allende masterfully brings to life the characters and settings, painting vivid landscapes and crafting complex individuals with unique personalities and motivations. Alma's journey takes us from the bustling streets of San Francisco to the enchanting landscapes of Chile, providing a rich backdrop for the emotional and historical threads of the narrative.

One of the highlights of this novel is Allende's ability to blend historical accuracy with a touch of magic realism. The seamless integration of fantastical elements adds an ethereal quality to the story, enhancing the exploration of themes such as identity, love, and the profound connection between humans and nature. The wind itself becomes a character, whispering secrets and guiding Alma's path.

While "The Wind Knows My Name" is a captivating and immersive journey, some readers may find the pacing to be a bit slow at times. The intricate details and extensive historical context can occasionally slow down the narrative, requiring patience from those seeking a faster-paced story. However, for those who savor the journey as much as the destination, this novel will undoubtedly leave a lasting impression.