We were beside ourselves. My head reeled, as if I’d had too much to drink. I took the novels out of the suitcase one by one, opened them, studied the portraits of the authors, and passed them on to Luo. Brushing them with the tips of my fingers made me feel as if my pale hands were in touch with human lives.
- an extract from "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" by Dai Sijie (China, born 1954)
One of Nicola's 100 best books for inspiration in the 21st century!
‘My name is Eva, which means “life,” according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of these things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory.’
This is the voice that carries us through “Eva Luna”, the assured voice of a naturally inventive storyteller, a woman who relates to us the picaresque tale of her own life and of the people - from all levels of society - that she meets along the way. As Eva tells her story, Isabel Allende conjures up a whole complex South American nation - the rich, the poor, the simple, and the sophisticated - in a novel replete with character and incident, with drama and comedy and history.
Most readers really enjoyed the book. They loved the rich descriptions of the different places and people. They liked Allende’s style of writing, which they described as confident and captivating. Most of the discussion centred on the part of the story set in South America and focusing on the character of Eva, since readers found it more appealling than the parts set in Europe and focusing on Rolf. They liked the humour and the views on society that were subtly portrayed. However, some readers found the novel too full of ideas and stories that at times were just a little predictable. The book averaged an 8.1 out of 10.
Read in Season 7 of Nicola's Book Club, whose theme was "Future World Classics - the future is feminine" (for full list, type BCS07 in Search box).
