Isabel Allende's New Novel Centers Pablo Neruda's 'Ship of Hope'

The "far-reaching humanist act" conducted by Pablo Neruda to save over 2,000 Spanish Civil War refugees is at the heart of Isabel Allende's 17th novel, notes Paula McLain at the New York Times. From her review of A Long Petal of the Sea:

...Allende, we learn from her author’s note, first heard about Neruda’s “ship of hope” in her childhood, when it caught in her memory and remained there for 40 years. Now she has deftly woven fact and fiction, history and memory, to create one of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in her long career.

Spanning generations and continents, the novel follows an unforgettable pair of exiles granted passage on the Winnipeg: Victor Dalmau, an auxiliary medic in the war, and Roser Bruguera, a young woman carrying the child of Victor’s brother Guillem, missing in action. As the special consul for Spanish emigration, Neruda has been ordered to select candidates clinically, rejecting radicals and any candidates who are overly political or intellectual. His compassion becomes the stronger factor, however, an unexpected blessing for Victor and Roser, who manage to impress the poet with their selflessness and commitment to save the child at any cost.

Find the full review at the NYT.