Paula

A Memoir

By: Isabel Allende

Narrated by: Isabel Allende, Cynthia Farrell

“Beautiful and heartrending. . . . Memoir, autobiography, epicedium, perhaps even some fiction: they are all here, and they are all quite wonderful.”—Los Angeles Times

In this literary classic, New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende recalls the story of her beloved daughter and her remarkable family’s past.

When her daughter, Paula, became gravely ill and fell into a coma, Isabel Allende began to write the story of her family for her unconscious child. Bizarre ancestors are introduced; delightful and bitter childhood memories are shared; amazing anecdotes of youthful years are relived, and the most intimate secrets are quietly passed along. Like Allende’s first novel, The House of the Spirits, this powerful memoir is infused with the real, the magical, and the spiritual, creating a haunting, sad, and beautiful tale.

The love for children

I love it such a bittersweet story and the love parents have for their children.

Amazing memoir ❤️ so touching and and heartwarming

Loved everything about this memoir . An incredible life journey by such a brave woman Isabel Allende. I learned so much about Isabel but I learned even more about me 💓

Enchanting

Beautifully written and captivating. Expertly woven story about love, loss and grief yet it refrained from becoming depressing. You are left with a feeling of hope and gratitude for friends and family.

Absolutely brilliant

This is a beautiful story of a mother’s love, family, life, grief and the journey of letting go. Thank you Isabelle. I loved it.

Beautiful book, good narration

I loved the juxtaposition of Isabel Allende's description of growing up in Chile (and then her life as an exile) with the sad sad story of her daughter's illness and death. It was also something of a history lesson, which we Americans can use.

The narration was a bit monotone, but otherwise very well done. Perfect enunciation and accent, with no weird breathing or background sounds like some other productions.

The writing in this book is amazing - so beautiful and evocative. It has made me want to buy the paper version, just to be able to re-read certain passages and mark the pages.

The love that remains 

The most beautiful, ending — comforting if you lost someone dear to you. Resistance, confusion, pain, political chaos,, love everything is beautifully intertwined.

Very Emotional story

As always the author is brilliant and explicit. But the story was a bit chaotic. Understandable since it was written under heart wrenching times.

Paula

The way she connects the ideas is awesome! I love it and I enjoy every little story within the story. The voice that read it was great for this book.

Events names tracking Characters were sometimes difficult to follow.

A story that needs to be required reading for understanding of current political events in the U S.

Words for the soul

For as long as I have memory I’ve known about this book, but I’ve prolonged reading this because I wanted to avoid feeling too much. I knew Paula died, and thus, not wanted to read something with such a sad ending.
I’m glad that I decided to listen to it.

For the first part of the book you can feel the hope Isabel has towards the recovery of Paula, and she intertwines the story of her life, her youth. And the second part when she knows Paula won’t wake up, you can se how she gradually learns to let go, and she tells you her struggles of adult life.

I just loved it.