This is the latest novel by Isabel Allende and is a historical novel set in the 1700s in Haiti, formerly known as Saint-Domingue, a French colony. We felt that even though there were some surprises, this novel was a bit disappointing as it failed to grab its audience. We found that the narrative of one of the main characters, Zarité, was not too believable as she is meant to be illiterate. Even though this novel did give the reader a good background to Haiti's past, we do question how historically accurate the author was to this period in Haiti's history.
The ending was a bit of a let-down as it was quite rushed for a novel of this length and we found that the magical realism doesn't quite come through for this novel, unlike some of Allende's earlier works.
For those who have read her previous works, they much preferred The House of The Spirits or Sum of Our Days instead.
We rate this book 6 ½ to 7 out of 10.
Our next book is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and will be at Marny's place on March 23 at 7:30pm.
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