_______________ THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER _______________ 'A powerful love story spanning generations... Full of ambition and humanity' - Sunday Times 'One of the strongest and most affecting works in Allende's long career' - New York Times Book Review _______________ On September 3; 1939; the day of the Spanish exiles' splendid arrival in Chile; the Second World War broke out in Europe. Victor Dalmau is a young doctor when he is caught up in the Spanish Civil War; a tragedy that leaves his life - and the fate of his country - forever changed. Together with his sister-in-law; the pianist Roser; he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile. When opportunity to seek refuge arises; they board a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda to Chile; the promised 'long petal of sea and wine and snow'. There; they find themselves enmeshed in a rich web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations; destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world. A masterful work of historical fiction that soars from the Spanish Civil War to the rise and fall of Pinochet; A Long Petal of the Sea is Isabel Allende at the height of her powers. _______________ 'A masterful work of historical fiction about hope; exile and belonging' - Independent Online 'A defiantly warm and funny novel; by somebody who has earned the right to argue that love and optimism can survive whatever history might throw at us' - Daily Telegraph 'A grand storyteller who writes with surpassing compassion and insight. Her place as an icon of world literature was secured long ago' - Khaled Hosseini 'A novel not just for those of us who have been Allende fans for decades; but also for those who are brand new to her work: what a joy it must be to come upon Allende for the first time' - Colum McCann 'Allende's style is impressively Olympian and the payoff is remarkable' - Guardian 'Epic in scope; yet intimate in execution' - i