I’m a huge fan of Isabel Allende and was thrilled to get an advance reading copy of The Wind Knows My Name.

I think this book is really timely dealing with the topic of migration.

The Wind Knows My Name moves between two migration stories, one set eighty-five years ago in Europe with the backdrop of the rise of Nazism. The other set more recently highlighting the recent American policy in separating children from parents at the borders. I think it’s a powerful statement flagging that children are still fleeing countries, they are still very vulnerable, and they still need better protections.

The story begins in Vienna in 1938 and centres on the Adler family. It chronicles the rise of the Nazism and antisemitism, culminating with Kristallnacht in which Samuel’s father disappears. Rachel Adler, Samuel’s mother, realises in order to keep Samuel safe, she will have to send her only son away to England on the Kindertransport to flee the Nazis. The story then unfolds from Samuel’s perspective of moving to England and having to try to settle, learn a new language and also deal with the uncertainty of what happened to his family.

The second story of emigration follows Marisol Diaz and her daughter Anita, fleeing the violence of El Salvador. They are detained and separated at the American border. This migration story unfolds from the perspective of Anita and her detainment, her foster homes, not knowing where her mother is - Which has parallels with Samuel’s experience in England. It also unfolds from Selena Duran, her social worker’s perspective, as she tries to help with her asylum claim and locating her mother.

The story weaves in a few other characters who support and help Samuel and Anita in the new countries they find themselves. They were kind and selfless and the book restored my faith in human nature - in that there are still some good people out there.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Bloomsbury, for making this e-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'm a huge Isabel Allende fan and am so lucky to get to have read this! A very poignant book. I did prefer her previous works though. This one read to me like a collection of short stories, and it took a long time for the characters and timelines to combine