This book follows the life of wealthy Irene Beltran, a journalist in a South American country under a military dictatorship. Irene meets lower-class Francisco Leal by chance when he is applying for a job at the company where she works. The two become close friends and eventually lovers.

         While their relationship is developing, the two discover a mine full of rotting corpses. From then on their mission in life is to bring justice to their country. Rebellion starts after the news of the bodies in the mine is made public.

          At the start of the book Irene was innocent and carefree since her aristocratic mother had always shielded from the evils of the world. But after an attempt is made on her life, Irene is forced to confront the fact that not every story has a happy ending.

          Irene and Francisco are fugitives of the law after it is made public that they were the people who discovered the bodies. They are forced to leave their country and everything that they have ever known in search of a better life together.

          I loved the fact that this book did not spare details about the tragic realities of the world. It frankly portrayed the hardships of the people. Also, I loved all of the romance.

          This book ends too quickly. The writing stops in the height of the action. It didn't have a definite conclusion.

         Read a sequel!

          This book really gave me a clue into the lives of people under a dictatorship. It want into great detail about unexpected raids, kidnapping, and murder. It made me feel helpless for the people involved.

          Allende acts as though she has experienced all that she writes about. She is very talented, but does tend to drawl on at points.

          If you don't like happy endings, then you would probably like this book. It candy-coats nothing and gets straight to the grit of real life.

          If you love the fairytale ending where everyone ends up happy, you probably won't like this book. Over half of the characters are killed and their deaths are described in detail. Also, most of the themes (lust, murder, homsexuality, sex, etc...) are very adult in nature and their are lots of instance of profane language. So i wouldn't recommend this book to children.

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Created Jul 17, 2002 at 5:23pm • Submit your own review...