Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Other Demons and the Wind

You'll understand the meaning of this title, if you aesthetically combined my two other super favourite books that are translated-from-Spanish-into-English. Combine them both titularly and thematically. Yes, combine the themes of Of Love and Other Demons and The Shadow of the Wind and to quite an extent their themes: a possessed girl, exorcism, incestuous siblings, a curious boy close to his father and fond of reading, an already engaged girl, who he's irrevocably attracted to ; combine these and you'll get Of Love and Shadows .

What's unique, then? you ask me.

Well, add the atrocities committed by the Junta in Chile, the ruthless, inhumane nature of the military coup. A heart-wrenchingly gorgeous tale of love and well, shadows cast by the despotic rule of the so-called good doers, here's a book which swam across my eyes like a movie. Effortlessly, scene by scene, without a pause, it has that unique quality of being gloriously original because well, let's face it, it was released way before The Shadow of the Wind and almost a tribute to Of Love and Other Demons .

In fact, Allende pays a rich tribute to Marquez right in the very beginning when Irene posts a letter and says, "No one writes to the Colonel."

You could not possibly read a more beautiful book within a couple of hours, I assure you. Nothing but an English translation from Spanish could capture you so! My second Isabel Allende novel and undoubtedly, yet another favourite!

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