The Sunday Times bestsellerVictor 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, he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile in Chile. 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.'One of the strongest and most affecting works in Allende's long career' New York Times Book Review'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 'Full of ambition and humanity' Sunday Times 'Allende's style is impressively Olympian and the payoff is remarkable' Guardian