Review -- Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende

Ines of My Soul
by Isabel Allende
HarperCollins, 2006
336 pages
*I borrowed a copy from the library.

Summary (from Barnes and Noble): In the early years of the conquest of the Americas, Inés Suárez, a seamstress condemned to a life of toil, flees Spain to seek adventure in the New World. As Inés makes her way to Chile, she begins a fiery romance with Pedro de Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Together the lovers will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage war against the indigenous Chileans—a bloody struggle that will change Inés and Valdivia forever, inexorably pulling each of them toward separate destinies.

Review: This novel is so richly descriptive and wonderfully written. The novel's heroine, Ines Suarez, is a strong woman living during a turbulent and tragic period of Spanish history. The great strength of this book is author's description of the lengths that the Spaniards went to in order to conquer Chile. The journey is impossibly difficult but Ines takes the reader through it one step at a time in her strong and proud point of view. However, there are breaks in her story that show the humble and wise old woman she becomes. A remarkable character driven novel that also educates the reader about a time period very rarely written about. Rating: **** out of 5.

Book Club Spotlight -- Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende

One of the books that the library book club will be reading over the next few months is Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende. Here is the Barnes and Noble description:

Born into a poor family in Spain, Ines works hard to make ends meet. It is the sixteenth century, and when her shiftless husband disappears to the New World, Ines uses the opportunity to search for him as an excuse to flee her stifling homeland and seek adventure. After her treacherous journey takes her to Peru, she learns that her husband has died in battle. Soon, she begins a fiery love affair with a man who will change the course of her life.

I have started this book and am really enjoying it. Unbelievable description of how they lived makes it hard to put down. Have you read this? If so, what did you think?