The Wind Knows My Name
-
-
4.2 • 305 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “The lives of a Jewish boy escaping Nazi-occupied Europe and a mother and daughter fleeing twenty-first-century El Salvador intersect in this ambitious, intricate novel about war and immigration” (People), from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea and Violeta
“Timely, provocative . . . emotionally satisfying . . . [a story about] the kindness of strangers who become family.”—The New York Times Book Review
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.
Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother.
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Refugee children flee from war and unrest in the powerful latest from Allende (Violeta). In 1938 Austria, five-year-old Samuel Adler is grudgingly placed by his mother on a rescue train to Great Britain. He completes the journey, and never sees his parents again. Samuel struggles in an orphanage until he settles in 1942 with a Quaker couple. At 25, he is a violinist with the London Philharmonic, and soon his interest in jazz takes him to America. In a parallel narrative set in 2019, Anita Diaz, seven, leaves El Salvador with her mother to escape ceaseless gang violence, and the two embark on an odyssey that sees them traveling on top of train cars and by foot. They make it to the U.S., where a new family separation policy leaves Anita, who is partially blind, alone in Nogales, Ariz., and her mother deported. Anita shuttles from one host family to another while a social worker and lawyer work tirelessly to safeguard her until she can be reunited with her mother. The two threads converge, first, with bitter irony—Samuel's grandson is a presidential adviser who advocates for harsh immigration policies (and will remind readers of Trump administration political adviser Stephen Miller)—and, by the end, with hope. The dual narrative structure gives historical weight to the contemporary story line, and Allende finds real depth in her characters, especially when portraying their sacrifices. This authentic and emotionally harrowing work is a triumphant return to form.
Customer Reviews
ThemWind Knows My Name
I’ve read everything Isabel Allende has written.
My first was “Daughter of Fortune”. My favorite is
“Island Beneath the Sea”. My two daughters are hooked as well. This is such a telling story of the tragedies on our border. My grandparents were Italian immigrants.
Such brave amazing people wanting the American dream.
Beautiful story of loss and acceptance.
This is a very touching story that laps together the horrific loss that Jewish children experienced during the holocaust to the atrocities that immigrant children face when separated from their families.
Who actually wrote this?
I have read most of Allende’s work and cannot connect the author of such previously elegant, languorous prose with the writer of this book. Allende’s voice, intelligence, insight, humanity and wit are sadly absent. In their place is a hasty series of cliché-ridden character vignettes in declarative, monosyllabic language better suited to readers of People Magazine. What a disappointment! Whoever translated this for her should apologize for trivializing and flattening her prose to such a degree. If you love Allende’s work, skip this one!