- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (1 Mar 1996)
- ISBN-10: 0060927445
- ISBN-13: 978-0060927448
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
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Review
'Allende's best work to date…she has everything it takes: the ear, the eye, the mind, the heart, the all-encompassing humanity.' New York Times
'Allende's writing is so vivid we smell the countryside, hear the sounds, see the bright birds, smell and even taste the soft fruit. Moving through Paula's last days, we enter that world, and share it, gladly, sadly, gratefully, and ultimately changed by the very reading of it.' Julia Neuberger, The Times
'This is a tender, moving and vivid record of a mother's agony at the bedside of her daughter. Paula begins as a long letter as a way of giving her back the life that is ebbing away…the result is a mesmerizing story. In flawlessly rich prose Allende shares with us her most intimate feelings…an emotionally charged, spellbinding memoir.' Washington Post
'Allende brings the natural storytelling power so evident in her novels to this courageous testament. She shares her personal tragedy with a warmth and passion that make Paula exceptional.' Sunday Express
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Product Description
In December 1991, Allende’s daughter Paula, aged 28 fell gravely ill and sank into a coma. This book started as a letter to Paula written during the hours spent at her bedside, and became a personal memoir and a testament to the ties that bind families – a brave, enlightening, inspiring true story.
This book was written during the interminable hours the novelist Isabel Allende spent in the corridors of a Madrid hospital, in her hotel room and beside her daughter Paula's bed during the summer and autumn of 1992. Faced with the loss of her child, Isabel Allende turned to storytelling, to sustain her own spirit and to convey to her daughter the will to wake up, to survive. The story she tells is that of her own life, her family history and the tragedy of her nation, Chile, in the years leading up to Pinochet's brutal military coup.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
LISTEN, PAULA. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
LISTEN, PAULA. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book for two reasons. Firstly, because I love Allende's writing. I have all her books and I have even bought three of her novels in Spanish, as an incentive to make progress with the language. The second reason is that my secretary's daughter died in '02, after many years of slow decline, at the same age as Paula.
I hoped I might find something in the heart-wrenching account that Allende gives us of Paula's plight that might help me help my friend in her grief. The description of Paula's illness and death is masterfully written. Allende spares herself and us nothing in the intensity of her description: this comes through even in the midst of the dreadful pain that Allende suffered and continues to suffer. On finishing the book, completely wrung out by the end, I felt that there is nothing comparable to the grief of a mother bereaved. What Allende has described with such searing clarity, the furious, inconsolable grief of a mother whose child has died, is what I see in the eyes my friend. Those without children, as I am, cannot visit that place.
Her description of her family and Chile and life, alternating with the passages of the account of Paula's passing, are intriguing and colourful in the best Allende fashion. An interesting aspect, for me, is in trying to gauge how much Allende the story-teller is predominant over Allende the factual writer. After all, she admits that she has 40 versions of how she met her second husband - and he says they're all true. However embroidered her account of her family and life in Chile and elsewhere might be, it's rich in atmosphere and spirit, as we have come to know of Allende's writing - and it is blessed relief from the rigours of her account of her daughter's final year.
A tough and touching book.
I hoped I might find something in the heart-wrenching account that Allende gives us of Paula's plight that might help me help my friend in her grief. The description of Paula's illness and death is masterfully written. Allende spares herself and us nothing in the intensity of her description: this comes through even in the midst of the dreadful pain that Allende suffered and continues to suffer. On finishing the book, completely wrung out by the end, I felt that there is nothing comparable to the grief of a mother bereaved. What Allende has described with such searing clarity, the furious, inconsolable grief of a mother whose child has died, is what I see in the eyes my friend. Those without children, as I am, cannot visit that place.
Her description of her family and Chile and life, alternating with the passages of the account of Paula's passing, are intriguing and colourful in the best Allende fashion. An interesting aspect, for me, is in trying to gauge how much Allende the story-teller is predominant over Allende the factual writer. After all, she admits that she has 40 versions of how she met her second husband - and he says they're all true. However embroidered her account of her family and life in Chile and elsewhere might be, it's rich in atmosphere and spirit, as we have come to know of Allende's writing - and it is blessed relief from the rigours of her account of her daughter's final year.
A tough and touching book.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read Allende's work before and was aware of this particular book. But I was not sure what led me to read Paula. My motivation most probably would have been trying to deal with an illness that has befallen a family member close to me. What Allende did do was allow me to better understand the complexities, mysteries and anger of dealing with such tragic events.
Paula is very accesible to read, yet operates on many levels. It allows the reader to take out of the book both deep emotional meaning or just enjoy, albeit with great sorrow, the amazing and unique style of Allende.
Read this if you are interested in how national and international politics and changing social mores affect one family; how humans confront the manifold experiences, good and bad, laid before us. As trite as it sounds, Paula reminded me there is more to life than the immediate moment and surroundings. It shows us to both live life to the fullest, but also be patient when times are hard. Or simply read Paula if you are after a great piece of writing that would be fitting for a fictional novel, if it were not for the real tragedy that inspired it.
Befitting Allende's style of writing, magic-realism transcends the book, especially Allende's references to the spirits of her family that come to her at certain times. The meaning I drew from this was that we can draw inspiration, reflect and use our memories of those past to guide us forward and assist us in times of sadness, or emphasise the happiness we feel other times.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can't believe no-one else has yet reviewed this book! I haven't stopped recommending it since I read it last year. One of the reviewers of this book referred to it as 'melodramatic in the best sense of the word' and this is the essence of why this book is so compelling. The stories contained in this novel provide an extended expression of a mother's love for her daughter and like a mother's love the book is passionate and simultaneously sentimental. The boisterous, funny and poignant images of Allende family life that are evoked are familiar to all. Yet the South American influence gives the story a colour, clarity and a depth that take it outside the realm of the domestic. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying this novel. The sentimental will cry buckets, the passionate will recognise characters as themselves, the 'sensible' will hanker after a life lived with such extreme feeling and spirituality, the hard hearted will be shamed into compassion in the presence of a desolated mother at the death of a beloved and incredible daughter. NB. I read this novel whilst working on the Reception of the Institutional Banking department of the Commonwealth Bank, Sydney, Australia. My sincere apologies to those visitors who, on interruping my reading, were met with my tearful red eyed expression - Read it for yourselves and abandon any hopes of maintaining your composure.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Heartbreaking but Beautiful
A brave, heartbreaking account of the last days of Allende's daughter Paula, who fell ill from porphyria in her twenties, fell into a coma and (partly due to a medical error) never... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Excellent and moving book
A very moving real life story of the loss of a daughter in the prime of her life by a rare illness. The book explores the deepest of feelings as well as giving a very good... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Spanish Scribe
Great read
This book will take you on a whirlwind tour de force of recent Chilean history, combined with the heart breaking story of a mother's grief. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Alex Quinn
one of my favorite books ever
a book in which intense pain coexists with humour, laughter, and love. and yes it makes you feel wiser about the mystery of life and the depths of human experience
Published on 12 Sep 2009 by nayia
very touching but a bit pretentious
I've read a number of Isabel Allende books and found them all a very good read. Paula was the last one I read and felt really touched by the tragedy of Allende's daughter. Read more
Published on 21 Oct 2004 by A. Kubicek
Beautiful
I have never cried so much with a book. In this book Isabel Allende talks about her own life and the life of her family with the same magic as if she was talking about one of the... Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2001 by ortiz_gloria@excite.co.uk
Possibly her best book, wonderful !
Although being an admirer of Allende and having red all her previous books (in addition to being hispanophile with several trips to S-American countries including Chile) I decided... Read more
Published on 12 July 2001
Heart-breaking!
This is Isabel Allende's finest work to date. The heart-break we the reader feel is not only for the dying Paula, but for the Chilean people and the torture they suffered at the... Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2001
I cried and laughed at the same time!!!
This book is absolutely amazing! While you read it, you think that Isabel Allende is talking to you and tells you all her story. Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2000
Best book written by Isabel Allende
In this book Isabel Allende is able to delight the reader with all her talent. Her prose is so vivid that scenes and situations seem to be happening to you. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2000
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