From Publishers Weekly
The eponymous heroine of Eva Luna returns as the narrator of 23 tales, sumptuous marriages of Chilean writer Allende's earthy characters and her celestial version of magical realism. Although other figures from that novel also reappear (for example, Eva Luna spins her stories at the request of her lover Rolf Carle), this collection is in no sense a sequel: indeed, each piece here can stand alone. Allende's people are warm-blooded, original, memorable. A simple lyricism evokes European emigres to South America; social climbers; outlaws; schoolteachers; Indians; a nearly indefatigable imagination explores the critical moments in these figures' lives. Many of the stories build on the intricate attachments of unlikely lovers, such as a dictator and the foreign woman he abducts or a criminal and a judge's wife. Allende's inventiveness justifies her own comparisons of her literary creation to Scheherazade, and throughout all these short works whispers the mysticism of Eva Luna herself--her well-placed faith in a world of spirits and in the immortality of human love.

Isabel Allende is a gifted teller of tales. She writes with beautiful language introducing you to unforgetable characters and transporting you to far away tropical lands. By telling simple stories of every day life, and grand stories of war and its wastes, she infuses each story with mystical occurences that leave the reader wondering if we couldn't all harness our love and compassion to combat the greed and corruption that befalls us with equally miraculous results.

Loved it.

This is a seductive, richly sensual and unabashedly romantic book--laced with the richness not only in language but of life. Allende is a brilliant storyteller who will grip you from the first sentence to the last. You will truly love this book. I did.

a collection of short stories unified by the idea that Allende's character Eva Luna (from her novel by that name) is telling them to her lover Rolf Carle--they are stories of all kinds of love, mostly difficult and painful.

My edition is a QPB exclusive, so it doesn't look like what's pictured. Nevertheless, all the text is here. Enjoy!

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