[reviews]

“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.”
—Carolyn Forche, Los Angeles Times

“Isabel Allende’s novel explores the hellish world of ‘the disappeared ones.’”
—Mary Morris, Chicago Tribune

“Allende is a smashing storyteller who brings the most minor characters vividly to life. A tale of love and political commitment.”
Publishers Weekly

“Allende is a superb writer.”
Arizona Daily Star

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

“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.”
—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

“[T]he 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 Allende’s poetical prose.”
—Marjorie Agosin, The Christian Science Monitor

“Ms. Allende’s 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.”
—Carrie Allen, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“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 Allende’s 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.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer

“There is wit and romance in Of Love and Shadows, as well as a hard, gritty edge. Allende’s second novel is a major achievement and worth anyone’s time.”
Milwaukee Journal

“These surreal elements and the parallels between this novel’s tragedies and actual events make Of Love and Shadows intriguing reading as well as pure, gobble-it-up summer fare.”
The Virginian Pilot and The Ledger-Star

“Allende’s 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.”
North Coast View

“Chilean novelist Allende offers a dialectic on love and death, feminism and politics.”
San Antonio Light