The Sum of Our Days
A Memoir
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4.0 • 12 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Narrated with warmth, humor, exceptional candor and wisdom, The Sum of Our Days is a portrait of a contemporary family, tied together by the love, strong will, and stubborn determination of a beloved matriarch, the indomitable New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende.
"An inspiring and thought-provoking work." –Denver Post
Isabel Allende reconstructs the painful reality of her own life in the wake of the tragic death of her daughter, Paula. Narrated with warmth, humor, exceptional candor, and wisdom, this remarkable memoir is as exuberant and as full of life as its creator. Allende bares her soul while sharing her thoughts on love, marriage, motherhood, spirituality and religion, infidelity, addiction, and memory—and recounts stories of the wildly eccentric, strong-minded, and eclectic tribe she gathers around her and lovingly embraces as a new kind of family.
This unforgettable memoir is a powerful story of resilience, grief, and the unconventional bonds of family:
Grief and Loss: A mother’s candid account of continuing on after the tragic death of her daughter, Paula, turning profound sorrow into a celebration of life.An Unconventional Family Tribe: Meet the eccentric, strong-minded, and eclectic tribe of relatives and friends Allende gathers around her, bound by love and unwavering loyalty.Motherhood and Matriarchy: Explore Allende’s powerful reflections on love, marriage, and motherhood as she navigates being the matriarch of a sprawling, modern family.A Generational Saga: From her stepdaughter Jennifer’s battle with addiction to the miraculous birth of her granddaughter Sabrina, witness the raw and hopeful tales that define three generations.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this deeply revealing second memoir, after Paula, novelist Allende (The House of Spirits) utilizes her family and the complex network of their relationships as the linchpin of the narrative. While weaving in her candid opinions on love and marriage, friendship, drug addiction, the writing life and religious fanaticism, Allende continues to work through the grief over her daughter's death. "In these years without you I have learned to manage sadness, making it my ally. Little by little your absence and other losses in my life are turning into a sweet nostalgia." And though Allende's insight is keen, her prose polished and her language hypnotic, it's the stories of her close-knit family that move the memoir forward. "We lived as a tribe, Chilean style; we were almost always together." While much of the story is infused with melancholy, her world is by no means without humor, mirth and wisdom. She celebrates friends' triumphs and exploits their foibles, including the "odyssey of the boobs," without taking herself too seriously. This is a book to savor.
