In the Midst of Winter - Isabel Allende

In the Midst of Winter - Isabel Allende

She Read

Release date: Oct. 31, 2017

Evelyn is a young woman who escaped the atrocities of the MS-13 gang in Guatemala; Lucia, an older woman who experienced her own horrors in the political turmoil of Chile; Richard, also older and an acquaintance of Lucia’s, has fled from his own miseries in Brazil.  They are all drawn together during a blizzard in New York City when Richard is involved in a minor accident with the car driven by Evelyn.  The car conceals a secret with which they must deal.  As they do, they share their life stories and love blossoms between Evelyn and Richard.

Isabel Allende is a skilled storyteller, and she is at her best when weaving the history of the various Latin American countries into the personal narratives of her characters.  While she is to be applauded for at least tangentially touching on the plight of many immigrants today who are forced into human trafficking, I thought the storyline involving the present day actions of the characters was a bit amateurish.  While that was a flaw, it does not detract from my recommending this book.  When focusing on the backgrounds of the three characters, the book was fascinating and her reflections on aging sometimes painfully accurate.