Violeta – Isabel Allende

In 2020 Violeta Del Valle is one hundred years old and dying as the coronavirus pandemic rages worldwide. She finds it oddly appropriate, as she was born during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1920. The story of her life is related in an extended autobiographical account addressed to Camilo (whose identity is revealed about halfway through the book).

Violeta’s childhood is spent as the spoiled daughter of a wealthy businessman in Santiago, Chile, but when the business fails and her father dies shamefully, her family choose to exile themselves in the far southern wilderness of the country. From there, she and her brother start to rebuild.

We get Violeta’s perspective of growing up, getting on, surviving life’s knocks, and growing old in twentieth century Chile. Over the years she gets through a few relationships and sees the carnage wreaked on the country by a succession of regimes, dictatorships, and brief periods of democracy. Her business acumen, in partnership with her brother, gives her some financial independence and protection that helps her manage her less successful personal and family life.

The twin tale of Violeta’s life and her country’s trials carry the reader effortlessly forward, keen to discover the next development. Allende skilfully conveys how a life story is a succession of lives lived in changing contexts, be they personal, political, economic, or cultural. The sixteen-year-old is different at thirty-six, fifty-six, seventy-six. Different priorities, different loyalties, different abilities, but at heart the same core values and underlying personality.

A thoughtful, interesting, and insightful read.

Great Rides According to G – Geraint Thomas

Geraint Thomas, or ‘G’ as he is known in the cycling fraternity, here shares some of his favourite rides with the reader. Of course, as he is a winner of the Tour de France, these are not Sunday afternoon pedals for the family, but challenging routes for the enthusiastic amateur or aspiring professional.

And be prepared to ship your bike around the world. After a couple of settlers in his Welsh homeland, he is off to exotic locations in Italy, Spain, Monaco, Tenerife, California, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. In each location we are treated to undulating roads, steep ascents, great views, treacherous descents and, universally, a plethora of coffee shops and cafes. It seems a pro-racer’s training schedule includes obligatory coffee at the start, during, and towards the end of each route.

Well that bit sounds good to me; it is the cycling in between where I would struggle. Which is why the book makes pleasant armchair reading, imagining the ride, enjoying G’s descriptions of the terrain, landscape, and yes, the coffee. Anecdotes are told, and names such as Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish, are dropped. The odd non-cycling sporting icon gets a mention too.

G’s style is relaxed and conversational, so reading the slim volume is as easy as the flat 2km stage from the front gate to the newsagent’s and back.