We will meet on Tuesday, November 19, at 7:30 via Zoom to discuss the fiction book, “TheWind Knows My Name“ by IsabelAllende, translated by Francis Riddle. The book is 260 pages and was publishedin June 2023. The book is available in hardback, large print, paperback,ebook and audiobook formats. It is available at the Oakland and BerkeleyLibraries, as well as through Link+.
ANNPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
This powerful and moving novelfrom the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea weavestogether past and present, tracing the ripple effects of war and immigration onone child in Europe in 1938 and another in the United States in 2019.
Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler wassix years old when his father disappeared during Kristallnacht—the night theirfamily lost everything. Samuel’s mother secured a spot for him on the lastKindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, whichhe boarded alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.
Arizona, 2019. Eight decadeslater, Anita Diaz, a blind seven-year-old girl, and her mother board anothertrain, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the UnitedStates. However, their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy,and Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes through hertrips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination she created with hersister back home.
Anita’s case is assigned to Selena Duran, a young social worker who enlists thehelp of a promising lawyer from one of San Francisco’s top law firms. Togetherthey discover that Anita has another family member in the United States:Leticia Cordero, who is employed at the home of now eighty-six-year-old SamuelAdler, linking these two lives.
Spanning time and place, TheWind Knows My Name is both a testament to the sacrifices that parentsmake and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomabledangers—and never stop dreaming.
