The Sum of Our Days LP
A Memoir
By Isabel Allende
(HarperLuxe, Paperback, Large Print, 9780061563102, 528pp.)
Publication Date: April 2008
Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover, Paperback
Categories: Literary, Personal Memoirs
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In this heartfelt memoir, Isabel Allende reconstructs her own life in the wake of tragic loss—the death of her daughter, Paula. Recalling the past thirteen years from the daily correspondence she shared with her mother in Chile, Allende bares her soul in a book that is as exuberant as its author. She recounts the stories of the wildly eccentric and eclectic tribe she gathers around her that becomes a new kind of family.
Throughout, Allende shares her thoughts on love, motherhood, spirituality, infidelity, addiction, and memory. Here, too, are the amazing stories behind Allende's books, the superstitions that guide her writing process, and her adventurous travels. Ultimately, The Sum of Our Days offers a unique tour of this gifted writer's inner world and the relationships that have become essential to her life and her work.
Narrated with warmth, humor, exceptional candor, and wisdom, The Sum of Our Days is a portrait of a contemporary family, tied together by the love, fierce loyalty, and stubborn determination of a beloved, indomitable matriarch.
Isabel Allende is the author of nine novels, translated into more than twenty-seven languages, including the New York Times bestsellers InÉs of My Soul, Portrait in Sepia, and Daughter of Fortune. In 2004 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Born in Peru and raised in Chile, she lives in California.
“...Ms.Allende...executes this epistolary memoir with the same authenticity and poetry that grace her fiction...Ms. Allende is a survivor worth reading and emulating.”
-Dallas Morning News
“Allende is a genius.”
-Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Allende’s trademark magical realism is ever present...This high-spirited, emotionally packed book enables readers to get a closer look at the life of a much-loved writer.”
-Library Journal
“A powerful memoir”
-Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Allende’s THE SUM OF OUR DAYS adds up to an exuberant love letter—not only to her daughter, but to her tribe and anyone lucky enough to belong to one.”
-St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“THE SUM OF OUR DAYS is terrific. It’s funny, insightful, moving and filled with Allende’s unique voice.”
-USA Today
“A vibrant voice, which is at once introspective and forthright…an inspiring and thought-provoking work…The insights resonate, on page after page.”
-Denver Post
“A deeply revealing memoir . . . Allende’s insight is keen, her prose polished and her language hypnotic . . . This is a book to savor.”
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A warm meditation on family and love…A book to be savored and reread.”
-Kirkus Reviews
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1Q84 Haruki Murakami Knopf |
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The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
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The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes Knopf |
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Death Comes to Pemberley PD James Knopf |
