On September 3, 1939, the day of the Spanish exiles’ splendid arrival in Chile, the Second World War broke out in Europe. Victor Dalmau is a young doctor when he is caught up in the Spanish Civil War, a tragedy that leaves his life – and the fate of his country – forever changed. Together with his sister-in-law, the pianist Roser, he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile.

When opportunity to seek refuge arises, they board a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda to Chile, the promised ‘long petal of sea and wine and snow’. There, they find themselves enmeshed in a rich web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations, destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world. 

'A powerful love story spanning generations… Full of ambition and humanity'  Sunday Times

'One of the strongest and most affecting works in Allende's long career'  New York Times Book Review

'A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile and belonging' Independent Online

'A defiantly warm and funny novel, by somebody who has earned the right to argue that love and optimism can survive whatever history might throw at us' Daily Telegraph

'A grand storyteller who writes with surpassing compassion and insight. Her place as an icon of world literature was secured long ago'  Khaled Hosseini