Quick yet insightful short story about what it means to be in love and revel in the magical and dreamlike feeling. While the lovers’ one-night excursion wasn’t wholly explained nor concluded, I think the lesson I gleaned from it is that there’s no easy or logical way to rationalize the actions of a person deep in love.

This is my first foray into Isabel Allende’s writing and I like it! I’ll definitely check out her other works that I’ve been seeing around for years.

Love, even spontaneous just-left-my-fiancé-at-the-altar stranger love, can transcend reality.

Sharp, vivid writing that blends fun mystery with contemporary fiction and magical realism. My mother described this as “totally a story Eva Luna [also by Isabel Allende] would tell”.

A great short story, and one that gives me the same feeling as Haruki Murakami's “Barn Burning”—is wanting just a little bit more a me problem? Both stories, written by brilliant authors, are crafted in ways that leave you with the weight of interpretation.

Already looking forward to my next Isabel Allende read.

This was a wonderful short story about two young adults intoxicated by love, and what may or may not be a haunted museum. After being found naked in the middle of the museum by a cleaning lady, the story tells the interrogation of the two adults and their seemingly mystical adventure of last. It was funny with a hint of mysticality. You can't really ask for more.

This was a fun short story about a man and a woman who spent the night together in a museum. The detective is shocked because of the museum’s security so it remains a mystery as to how they got inside in first place. The way the man and the woman describe love and the museum is colorful, descriptive, and magical.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this access!

This story didn't take long to read at all but I was engrossed the whole time. I've enjoyed Allende's use of magical realism since I read her in high school and this was no different. I wanted more time with these characters and highly recommend this to anyone who just needs a few minutes to feel a bit of love and wonder. What a treat!

Lovers at the Museum by Isabel Allende is a sweet short story with magical realism, mystery and love.

Absolutely loved it. The storytelling is mesmerising, Allende is a very talented author. I kept finding myself wishing it wouldn't end.

Magical event in a magical building….this short story makes me think author Allende keeps a dream journal.

A quick read, with delightful details.

oh my god. this feels like a fever dream, but in a happy way. it revolves around this strange case investigated by a detective, involving a woman in a dress and a naked man found inside a museum late at night. we don’t know how they got in without passing the guards, and these two strangers don’t know each other’s names. questions remain unanswered in this very short story, but it’s fun? and magical? and unhinged? truly, the vices of love is inexplicable. i would love to read more from this story, it shouldn’t be this short!

Lovers at the Museum is a short, 25-page journey through the dichotomous relationship between logic and love. Allende expertly explores passion, mythology, religion, scandal, and art. When two strangers spend a night at the Guggenheim Museum, a detective has to piece together how exactly they arrived at the high-security location.

Allende's writing style is fluent and embraces the underlying concerns of whimsy and realism. While I believe this book could have benefitted by being a little longer, the mysterious and unresolved nature of the novella fits the thematic concerns excellently. Lovers at the Museum is, at its core, a representation of love and lust's complexities and mysteries. This is achieved successfully through Allende's parallels to the Grecian Bacchanalia.

Overall, Lovers at the Museum is a quick, thoughtful text exploring the mysterious blend of the irrational and the rational.

A great fan, but unfortunately the writing lacked the author’s usual mesmerizing style.

With thanks to NetGalley & Amazon Original Stories for this e-ARC.

This was a nice quick read and something totally out of my comfort zone.

It was rather bizzare and I'm unsure what I think of it.

Only Isabel Allende could write a story about two strangers fornicating in a public building and turn it into something so poetic and magical. (Okay, maybe Gabriel García Márquez could have also done it, but it would almost certainly have had a much higher “ick” factor because the man would have been sixty and the girl would have been fourteen.) It's a surreal little tale that leaves you guessing as to what really happened in the museum that night – is it possible that the building is truly bewitched, or were the two lovers simply overwhelmed by their passion for each other?

Allende's prose, as always, is simply exquisite. There's some humor – the “brain of a chicken” comment made me chuckle – and also just a hint of the erotic. (For those looking for the graphic details, it's a no-go – most of the “action” occurs just before this story begins.) There's also magic and romance (of the insta-love variety, anyway) and even a light bit of detective work.

It's not exactly The House of the Spirits (it'd need another 400+ pages for that), but Lovers at the Museum is definitely a must-read for devoted Allende fans. That's not to say that her new readers couldn't enjoy this story, as well … it's a lower-commitment entry point to her work than her more famous (and much more lengthy) novels, yet still manages to showcase her elegant prose and tremendous talent.

My overall rating: 4.4 stars, rounded down.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for providing me with a copy of this story to review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want to read a pointless short story that only has a quirky narrative voice going for it?

Pre-reading:
Amazon first reads is so nice. I LOVE this cover.

Thick of it:
It’s reminding me of Anxious People.

Literally so pointless.

Post-reading:
The narrative voice is ironic and fun but it just feels borrowed. And there’s no plot and no romance.

Nothing gets solved. It doesn’t feel like a complete story. Don’t waste your time.

Who should read this:
Quirky narrator fans

Do I want to reread this:
Nope

Similar books:
* Anxious People by Fredrik Backman-quirky narrative voice, bumbling detectives

What an intriguing short story! The descriptions were so Vivid and enthralling. We may never know what happened to those lovers, but we wish them the best. Thank you, Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

5★
“A night watchman found the lovers sleeping in a knot of arms, legs, and tulle, enveloped in the foam of a ruined wedding gown in one of the galleries of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.“

That opens this quirky little fantasy by noted Chilean-American author Isabel Allende. She writes in both Spanish and English – this began its life in Spanish and she translated it into English. As a result, it has the interesting cadence of a translated work, which I enjoy.

To understand what makes this particular fantasy (almost) believable, do a virtual tour of the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain.

https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en

Surely anything could happen in a place (or palace, as the girl insists) like this. She is wearing a wedding dress, but the fellow is starkers, still with the obvious signs of arousal, which a thoughtful policeman tries to hide by hanging his hat on it.

Why was she clothed? ...she was in her white dress because I couldn’t unfasten the little buttons, tiny as fleas.’”

She was escaping her wedding, saw this guy, was instantly smitten, and off they raced together, straight into the museum where the fellow said ” ‘we did it like rabbits all over the place.’ “

But how did they get in? Apparently everyone knows the building has magical properties. The detective investigates.

“He was determined to be delicate with the girl so as not to frighten her. ‘Are you a whore?’ he asked.”

Allende tells this story with such heart-warming affection that I’m prepared to believe anything . A bit of bewitching and floating through palaces can’t be all bad. It’s the tonic I needed.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for a copy of #LoversAtTheMuseum for review. It’s free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!
This was my first story from Allende (but definitely not the last). I loved how Bibiña described the museum at night and how she knew they were meant to each other <3 I picture, this is how love at first sight happens!
It's also interesting how the sceptic Detective Larramendi starts to believe in magic because, yes, it's the only explanation left.

Firstly I would like to thank Isabel Allende, Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of ' Lovers at the Museum ' to read and review. Having heard of this author very positively in the past , but not having the opportunity to read any of her previous works I was very excited to delve into this new short story.

The novella follows the tale of Bibiña Aranda - a runaway bride who wakes up in the Guggenheim Museum still wearing her wedding dress and draped in the arms of a naked man whose name she doesn’t know. The Museum should be impenetrable at night due to the many security measures in place. Nobody including the perplexed Detective Larramendi can understand how the couple could have entered undetected as they try to unravel the enigma that defies explanation.

Whilst the story is a short and impactful read it is told in such a quirky writing style that captured my attention from the very start.
It is a book that can be interpreted very differently and left me with more questions than what it gave answers , but this is part of its whimsical appeal and what kept this tale in my mind long after the last page had been turned.
With elements of magic and fantasy one has to wonder whether the lovers were even in the Museum at all . The reader's mind is set upon a journey of imagination and thrown into a make-believe safe space of pleasure and self indulgence. For me visions of Greek Gods such as Aphrodite were conjured.

When both Bibina's and Indar's recollections of the night before matched completely , the reader can only imagine that celestial forces may have intervened. Overall it is a beautiful story of lust and living for the moment.
My only criticism is that it ended much too abruptly and harshly and the conclusion seemed very rushed hence I reviewed it at 4 stars instead of 5 . I wish the novel had been longer as it was so captivating and unlike anything I have read previously . Imaginative , poetic and well written I will certainly be recommending it to friends and family.

#LoversattheMuseum #NetGalley

This short story was interesting!
A night guard comes across two young lovers in a museum who can’t seem to remember where exactly they are and how they came to be there! They open a case for indecency and try to troubleshoot how the two lovers entered and got past the guards. The lovers, questioned about where they ended up meeting, describe a room that is not even in the museum, which raises a mysterious investigation.

Such a beautifully written short story!
Two lovers are found one morning in the Guggenheim in Bilbao, and according to the cleaning lady who found them, they looked like art- the woman in a beautiful wedding gown, the man bare naked, both with their limbs intertwined. The detective who finds them believes they were drunk, but how did they get inside the museum without alerting the alarms or being picked up on camera? The couple describe their experience, and it sounds like pure magic!
So beautifully written!