Isabel Does It Again, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         The opening of this novel reminded me so much of "Wuthering Heights," which gets it off to a great start.  A poor, vulnerable immigrant housekeeper named Evelyn arrives, at the titular time at a Brooklyn apartment, shared by Richard Bowmaster, a disillusioned academic now teaching at NYU, and Lucia, his tenant, who lives downstairs.

                                          All have their own set of baggage, which Allende chronicles in excellent, heartbreaking, detail.  I found Richard's story the most tragic, as the amount of grief he is asked to carry around is enough to break anyone.  I am amazed it did not break him.

                                           In addition to shifting between time and places--Brooklyn, Chile, Guatemala--Evelyn, in the present, involves Richard and Lucia in a mystery that ups the ante of the reader's pleasure.

                                            Allende is one of the few authors who could meld these elements together so skillfully.  I was spellbound to the last page.

                                              Girls, you must read it!  In the dead of the Winter we are now in, this is a shining, beacon of hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!