Of Love and Shadows

This is the story of a reporter and a photographer investigating a terrible crime. Isabel Allende is a wonderful writer and this book proves it. Spellbinding and moving, this book is one of Allende's best. The language she uses is rich and the trama extremely interesting.

This is an excellent book that took me a long time to read not being a native speaker of spanish, but I found it to be one of the best books I have read in a foriegn language. Este libro es bueno, pero era muy dificil por alguna persona que no habla español como un nativo.

In this book, the author achieves a perfect combination between love and terror, two topics which at first sight seem completely impossible to place together. Two stories in one are presented in this novel: the love affair between Francisco and Irene and the horror of the military ruling at the time. A young girl who disappears glues these two together, as the couple go through "the shades" in their quest for the truth about the matter. The horror they will face will change them forever, while strenghtening their love affair minute after minute...

There is no question that Allende masters the art of mixing story telling and political propaganda. We experienced that unique taste in her novel "La casa de los espiritus" and with " De amor y de sombra" she does it again. In her novel "De amor y de sombra," Allende provides the reader with a wonderful love story directly tied to the political abuse and oppression of the Latin American countries. A great narration of a young couple from different social classes and different political background united by their search for truth and justice in their country. It is in their search for that justice that they find themselves inlove and force to escape to the exile. In essence, "De amor y de sombra" is the story of thousands of Latin Americans who have been victims of the political system of the region but Allende has made of this historical fact a work of art. Great job as usual!!!

I have read almost all Allende's books (except for one) and I found this book very original, you must read it in the spanish version. It is probably this book what differenciates Allende from Marquez. Provides to the lector information of historical events, it is just an amazing novel!!