Author: Isabel Allende
Genre: Historical Fiction
Subject: Slavery
Publisher: Harper
Release date: May, 2010
Length: 457 pages
I got this book: from the library
From Goodreads:
"Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue, Zarité -- known as Tété -- is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. Though her childhood is one of brutality and fear, Tété finds solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and in the voodoo loas she discovers through her fellow slaves.
When twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770, it’s with powdered wigs in his baggage and dreams of financial success in his mind. But running his father’s plantation, Saint-Lazare, is neither glamorous nor easy. It will be eight years before he brings home a bride -- but marriage, too, proves more difficult than he imagined. And Valmorain remains dependent on the services of his teenaged slave.
Spanning four decades, Island Beneath the Sea is the moving story of the intertwined lives of Tété and Valmorain, and of one woman’s determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been battered, and to forge her own identity in the cruellest of circumstances."
Personal opinion:
It took me a good while to finish this book. This is because it is really detailed and spans over a huge amount of time. Also it is written from different perspectives even though every character is bound to Tete in some way, and he story is the red thread throughout the book. She is a very strong female who is stubborn and determined to make the most of the situations in every way she can. She also seems to be extremely lucky in most situations but it is mostly her strength that eventually enables her to make a life of her own. Even though it took me a few weeks to finish while reading other books in between, this doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy this book. In fact I found it a very good read. Almost every side story line was interesting and it gave the story more depth. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read within the historical fiction genre.
I really liked it!
Purchase links: Amazon
Other reviews: None yet
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