The Wind Knows My Name: A Novel
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “The lives of a Jewish boy escaping Nazi-occupied Europe and a mother and daughter fleeing twenty-first-century El Salvador intersect in this ambitious, intricate novel about war and immigration” (People), from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea and Violeta
“Timely, provocative . . . emotionally satisfying . . . [a story about] the kindness of strangers who become family.”—The New York Times Book Review
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.
Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother.
Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.
“Timely, provocative . . . emotionally satisfying . . . [a story about] the kindness of strangers who become family.”—The New York Times Book Review
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.
Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother.
Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.
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Community Reviews
Allende never fails to deliver. For awhile I wondered how the disparate parts of the book would connect since there are three storylines: Sam Adler, who survived the Holocaust when his parents sent him to England; Letitia Corderas, from El Salvador, who narrowly escaped a mass execution in her village since she was in the hospital in another town at the time; and Anita, a young blind girl who was separated from her mother at the border crossing. Each has a tale to tell and Allende weaves them together. There are references to the CIA backed coup in El Salvador to get rid of the leftists, but which also brought right wing dictators and terror to El Salvador. Fast forward to the present time when nursing babes were taken from their mother's breasts at the border and women and girls are forced to cut their hair short and dress like boys so they will survive the perilous journey from their war-torn country to the U.S. This is a powerful book about family and what makes up a family.
Isabel Allende is always a good choice. Her stories are beautiful, moving, and the way they intertwine transports you to the era in which they are told. It's a moving book that I always recommend.
Content warning for genocide, state-sponsored violence, kidnapping, mass murder, sexual violence, forced migration, and related topics. I really enjoyed this story and was excited to see how the different timelines would connect. This is a short novel, and it feels very fragmented at times. I think it could have been longer and included more narrative to break up the factual depictions. You also have to suspend some disbelief, because I don't know how Serena would have been able to spend that much time with Anita. But I loved the last quarter of the book. This wasn't my favorite Allende work, but it's still a really good read.
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