Together with two thousand other refugees, Roser and Victor embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, the couple embraces exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. Named One of The Best Books of The Year By Esquire

“One of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in long career.” ( The New York Times Book Review ) And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm.Īs the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution.

Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom-and their hearts. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.Īnoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. *Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control.īlue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance.Ĭlear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.*

A long petal of the sea a novel