galaheadh 's review for:

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

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this book had me from the first description of Rosa's tablecloth embroidery: "creatures that were half bird and half mammal, covered with iridescent feathers and endowed with horns and hooves, and so fat and with such stubby wings that they defied the laws of biology and aerodynamics. She rarely thought about her fiancé, Esteban Trueba, not because she did not love him but because of her forgetful nature..."

a wildly impressive book - it's a lot, and it's mostly very very good