I know, this is the second Isabel Allende book I picked this week, but as I was scanning my bookshelves this morning, I was searching for a book on motherhood and mother daughter relationships. Since my book isn’t done yet, I turned to Isabel Allende and Paula. This non-fiction book is a love letter to Allende’s daughter who passed away at a tragically young age. It is a telling of Chilean history and one Latin American woman’s struggle before, during, and after the Pinochet dictatorship in that country. It is an autobiography but also a confessional in a way that asks, “What would you tell your daughter if she were on her deathbed?”

Isabel Allende answers this question be connecting generations through stories and history.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I first read this book the summer before I moved to Chile, in 1996. And the book still makes me cry today.

Purchase Isabel Allende’s Paula here.