"Beautiful and heartrending. . . . Memoir, autobiography, epicedium,
perhaps even some fiction: they are all here, and they are all quite
wonderful."--Los Angeles Times
In this literary classic, New York Times bestselling author Isabel
Allende recalls the story of her beloved daughter and her remarkable
family's past.
When her daughter, Paula, became gravely ill and fell into a coma,
Isabel Allende began to write the story of her family for her
unconscious child. Bizarre ancestors are introduced; delightful and
bitter childhood memories are shared; amazing anecdotes of youthful
years are relived, and the most intimate secrets are quietly passed
along. Like Allende's first novel, The House of the Spirits, this
powerful memoir is infused with the real, the magical, and the
spiritual, creating a haunting, sad, and beautiful tale.