LOS ANGELES TIMES - May 31, 1987

Of Love and Shadows
By Carolyn Forche

This is a novel about institutional violence, of the sort perpetrated by authoritarian states; it is about human rights and their loss, and the difficulty of documenting that loss, so as to move the collective conscience of the world.

Allende has married the world of magic and political evil most credibly.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE - April 19, 1987

Chile enters the dark ages
By Mary Morris

Isabel AllendeÕs novel explores the hellish world of Ôthe disappeared onesÕ

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY - May 8, 1987

Allende is a smashing storyteller “who brings the most minor characters vividly to life. A tale of love and political commitment.É this absorbing new novel should win her an even wider readership.”

THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR - May 10, 1987

Lauded Chilean writer Allende outdoes herself
By J. C. Martin

Allende is a superb writer.

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS - May 17, 1987

Horrors seen with eyes of a poet
By Martha Sheridan

Allende stirs the emotions, touches deep feelings and offers hope that love can indeed rise from the darkest shadows.

THE SAN DIEGO TRIBUNE - May 22, 1987

AllendeÕs ÔShadowsÕ elegant, timeless
By Charles Harrington Elster

“Of Love and Shadows” has all the ingredients of excellent fiction: tense drama, rich detail and characterization, and timeless themes.

WASHINGTON POST - May 24, 1987

Passion, Politics And Grace
By Jonathan Yardley

Isabel Allende is a writer of deep conviction, but she knows that in the end it is people, not issues, who matter most. The people in Of Love and Shadows are so real, their triumphs and defeats are so faithful to the truth of human existence, that we see the world in miniature. This is precisely what fiction should do.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - May 27, 1987

Searching for truth and finding love in todayÕs Latin America
By Marjorie Agosin

Finally, the book is not a political tract nor a dogmatic treatise; it is a novel in the best sense of the word. It has been beautifully translated by Margaret Sayers Peden, one of the best translators of works of Pablo Neruda. Here she very successfully recreates the beauty and lyricism of AllendeÕs poetical prose.

ATLANTA JOURNAL & CONSTITUTION - May 31, 1987

Allende novel is extraordinary story of love and politics
By Carrie Allen

Ms. AllendeÕs second novel will undoubtedly reap as much acclaim as her first, “The House of the Spirits.” Melodramatic, serious, and unfunny, it is as the end of all burdensome dictatorships should be. Ms. Allende does not develop characters, for her characters were born and grown long before she put pen to paper. She tells us a story she may not have witnessed, but knew enough of to re-create.

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER - June 21, 1987

Triumphant novel of Latin American terror
By Alan Ryan

Now, with her second novel, Of Love and Shadows, Allende has demonstrated that she is, beyond question, one of the great Latin American writers of today.

It is a rare and exciting experience to discover the work of a writer as good as Isabel Allende. Of Love and Shadows is a dark and disturbing novel in many ways, sometimes bloody and frightening. Yet AllendeÕs writing, in this fine translation by Margaret Sayers Peden, is so warm, so human, so filled with love for her characters and her country, that in the end human nature, in its goodness and its strength, counteracts the horror and casts light and love where before there was only shadow.

THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL - June 21, 1987

Love story and a political thriller
By Raymond E. Johnson

There is wit and romance in “Of Love and Shadows,” as well as a hard, gritty edge. AllendeÕs second novel is a major achievement and worth anyoneÕs time.

THE VIRGINIAN PILOT AND LEDGER-STAR - June 28, 1987

Extraordinary loyalty, sensational events
By Judith Pascoe

These surreal elements and the parallels between this novelÕs tragedies and actual events make “Of Love and Shadows” intriguing reading as well as pure, gobble-it-up summer fare.

NORTHCOAST VIEW MAGAZINE - August 1987

Of Love and Shadows
By Ed Hughes

AllendeÕs touch is gentle. She does not hold back the details of horror, but her characters are so tenderly given to us that we can allow ourselves to feel with them.

SAN ANTONIO LIGHT - October 25, 1987

LIGHT to challenge the DARK
By Carolyn Nizzi

Chilean novelist Allende offers a dialectic on love and death, feminism and politics.