My Invented Country by Isabel Allende

My Invented Country is Isabel Allende’s best book yet, but I have yet to read her version of Zorro which is getting rave reviews including an amazing review by Yxta Maya Murray in the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

This amazing biography takes the reader on a poetic journey though Ms. Allende’s young life. Her writing is stellar and poetic. This book is to be savored for its beauty of language. Writers dream of crafting sentences like these. Lovers of language will adore this book for it’s symmetry and grace. Readers of all ages will love it for its beautiful and absorbing story.

You know, it’s a funny thing about books and readers, the true book lover, not just the person who read the best sellers because they think they should or because everyone in the office is talking about it and they don’t want to feel left out. The true book lover anticipates and lives in hope that the next book will transcend the ordinary, take humble prose and uplift it to something else, something magical. That doesn’t happen often. There are plenty of good and well written books out there, don’t get me wrong. But the sublime, no those are rare.

My Invented Country is one of those to me. I opened the book with my usual hope and expectation, a little more hopeful because it was an Allende book, and was immediately caught up in the beauty of the language. The love Ms. Allende has for her country, her memories and family simply shine through.

I wonder just how many people after reading this book, made travel plans to Chile. I know I wanted to. I know I plan on going soon and that I think is the power of words, to transcend reality, to enthrall, to sweep away on a literary magic carpet, to urge the reader to expand their horizons, to see things in different shades. Gracias, Isabel Allende for the amazing trip!