The House of the Spirits

A Novel

De: Isabel Allende

Narrado por: Thom Rivera, Marisol Ramirez

The unforgettable first novel that established Isabel Allende as one of the world's most gifted and imaginative storytellers.

The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their daughter, Blanca, embarks on a forbidden love affair in defiance of her implacable father, the result is an unexpected gift to Esteban: his adored granddaughter, Alba, a beautiful and strong-willed child who will lead her family and her country into a revolutionary future.

One of the most important novels of the 20th century, The House of the Spirits is an enthralling epic that spans decades and lives, weaving the personal and the political into a universal story of love, magic, and fate.

©1982 Isabel Allende. All rights reserved. (P)2016 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Didn’t Finish, Literally Couldn’t

I was very open minded going into this and listened to the first two hours before returning it. There is no discernible plot, the characters are very 2-dimensional and the book normalizes a few controversial things - women are referred like property to be stolen and owned with no argument, and there is a particularly disturbing scene where a man is described kissing between the legs of the corpse of a woman he wishes he’d kidnapped and locked away before she died.. it felt gross to even listen to. I wouldn’t waste a credit on this.

Historical fiction that leads to understanding the assassination of Salvador Allende

I liked the generations of a family that lead to understanding the perspective of wealthy landowners, of peasants on their land, of socialist reformers, and even of the right-wing military dictadictators who took over Chile and other South American countries. Of course, I like the stream of feminist comments and the portraits of 4 generations of women.
I tolerated the magical realism of Clara moving furniture.

A must hear

I read Isabel Allende’s classic over 20 years ago and found it transformative. Some books open your eyes to the world, to history, to culture and to humanity in ways that really help you to grow as a person. This is one of those books. If you have already read it, it is well worth listening to again. The narration is perfect. I challenge you to try to listen to this without crying at least 3 times.

A wonderfull story by a great storyteller .

I truly enjoyed this novel! I know the story of her uncle’s demise and I appreciate what the people of chili went through. Isabel is a wonderful storyteller and I will continue to read everything she has written. God bless her.

No wonder it’s considered a very important book of the 20th century.

Although the narrator is not as good as the one in “the daughter of fortune “ the amazing storytelling of Isabella Allende concours all resistens. I recommend this book highly.

Loved the saga told from female perspective

Reading was excellent quality and I enjoyed the story and talented readers or actors. Message of forgiveness came through strong and the importance of understanding inter generational impact of trauma

Strong characters

The book is long, but the characters start strong and continue to develop with the story. I couldn’t tell who was weaving the story until the end.

not big on the narrator

great story but the narrators didn't quite do for me. might have liked the book more otherwise

Bad performance

I wonder how you could release an audiobook with such a poor reading. Marisol has clear pronounciation, but no cadence. At times it is like a child reading, at others, looks like she read all the words separarely and they were strung together by computer editing. Her pauses are so erratic and out of place that sometimes you loose the sense of a sentence and have to go back to understand. Really annoying. I believe the book lost a lot of its “magic” due to her subpar performance. Otherwise, it is a great romance.

One of my favorite writers

This book is beautifully written and held my interest. Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors and this book did not disappoint me.