I like Isabel Allende a lot, and it had been a good while since I had read a book of hers, so I requested this one for my birthday, nearly two months ago. I only just began to read it. I must say that she really has her ups and downs, like how Sum of Our Days is simply perfect and then Maya's Notebook is a big soap opera. This one was good. They were short stories, you can't go wrong with short stories, short stories are gooooooooood. The main theme in pretty much all of the stories is love, of one or other kind. There are happy stories, sad stories, revenge stories, everything, pretty much. Centering in love, though the back page of my edition says there's violence too, and it's true. The story I liked more was the one about Roberto and Ana Blaum. It had that bittersweet air, and felt mostly happy. Also the one about Walimai, because you may recall he is a character who appears in City of Beasts, and... it felt nice to know more about it.

"My name is Eva, which means 'life', according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of those things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory" So begins the tale of the eponymous Eva Luna, a girl born in an embalmer's household to the voluptuous Consuelo and an Indian man she ended up saving. As she grows up through the confines of her society, Eva develops a talent for telling stories, meant to either reflect where she lives or to change it to add a bit more dimension. Alongside Eva's story is Rolf Carle, the son of a highly strict educator who ends up in this fictional country and grows up to meet his cousins and becomes part of the resistance. All of this blends together to create a societal fabric which always has its quirks. When I started the book, I expected to see Eva tell stories that change events in history, rather than simply going through her life story. Instead, she tells about different perspectives and how Eva strives to tell different stories. For example, her mother Consuelo, who grows up in a convent. She meets Eva's father when he was snake bitten, where "For the first time in her entire silent existence, Consuelo disobeyed an order and took the initiative" (18) in saving him. The subsequent scene, on the other hand, was really well-written in how it dealt with their consummation, and what would eventually give birth to Eva Luna. I'm intrigued by this, and appreciated how Eva grew up. Which made Consuelo's death a bit anti-climatic, in my opinion. Hearing the story of Rolf Carle, the child of a strict educator, was a bit strange on the other hand. It fits well in Eva's storytelling ability, but I didn't initially get it. It was interesting to see how he and his family reacted to his father's death. He then moves into the same country which Eva Luna lives, and goes off on his own adventures. It starts to make sense towards the end, but for a good 2/3 of the book, I didn't understand how they would meet (especially on how it focused on Eva's own life and affairs!) What Allende does well in particular is how she writes. She seemingly creates her own world in these pages, filled with these little stories one wouldn't note otherwise. In addition, she knows her way through more sensual moments, like when she notes the girls "seeing a fire in Rolf Carle's eyes; they watched them steal into their room like a wraith to paw furtively through their clothes, and they interpreted those actions as signs of love" (95). The scent of candles added to it too, though at times it gets repetitive with each and every interaction. The climax of the book, which involved a resistance trying to overthrow the government, was simultaneously interesting and confusing. Considering Allende's background, I understood the rise of authoritarianism in South America during that time, though it frequently switches off between Eva Luna's story and that of society. I did like seeing Eva reunite with Mimi, who frequently encourages her to go for her writing dreams despite the former taking menial work. There's also one where Eva confronts the Colonel, implying he wants Eva as a mistress. Very interesting stuff, if a bit derivative at times. I enjoyed Eva Luna, and got immersed into her world so well. Allende has a gift for writing; while sometimes it's hard to get all her stories together, I like how she does so and am engaged with Eva Luna's arc most of the time. As this is the first book of Allende's I've read, I look forward to reading more, before coming back to this one! (7/10)

Reseña en el canal: https://youtu.be/Js7BScLH86Y Este libro me acompañó por casi diez días y Eva me llenó de historias de personajes pintorescos e historia latinoamericana con la imaginación y la pluma que sólo Isabel Allende sabe manejar.

23 cuentos donde el amor siempre está presente atravesado por diferentes culturas, gobiernos, épocas y circunstancias. Hay algunos que disfruté muchísimo y otros que no me convencieron tanto pero la caracterización de cada uno de estos personajes son sublimes, como sólo Allende puede hacerlo. Es un buen libro para comenzar con la autora si es que aún no la conocen porque en cada cuento está la esencia y el estilo que se puede percibir en sus novelas.

"When everything else fails, we communicate in the language of the stars"

No sé qué decir de eso. Supongo que me gustó, pero no es un libro compulsivo, si eso tiene sentido. La mayoría del libro sigue Eva Luna mientras una larga serie de cosas le pasan; sólo al final estas cosas me parecían ponerse conectadas. Por eso, fue difícil motivarme leer más después de cada vez que terminaba un capítulo. Hay interés en el libro pero todavía luchaba :p