03 Magazine: October 02, 2023

Read | Magazine 73
PICCADILLY PICKS
THE WIND KNOWS
MY NAME
Isabel Allende
Bloomsbury, $40
A story of two child immigrants
and their tumultuous journeys
to resettlement in the United
States. The past and present
narrative interweaves the lives
of Samuel, an Austrian Jewish
boy in 1938, escaping Hitler, and
Anita, a young girl caught up with
El Salvador criminals in 2019 after being cruelly separated
from her mother at the Arizona–Mexico border.
Both children, 80 years apart, suffer similar wretchedness
during their respective journeys, as they are suddenly and
helplessly torn away from their families and homelands.
Samuel survives several foster homes in England until
he meets a Quaker couple who become his family. His
lifelong love of music lures him to New Orleans to follow
the jazz scene.
Anita, whose experiences with foster homes parallel
Samuel’s, is taken under the wing of a Mexican social worker.
Together with a US lawyer, they relentlessly follow up leads
to discover the whereabouts of Anita’s mother.
I recommend you read this engrossing, compelling book
where Isabel Allende has expertly combined historical facts
with fiction.
– Helen Templeton
DARK RIDE
Lou Berney
HarperCollins, $35
Hardly is 21 and works part
time as ‘The Dead Sheriff’’
at the Haunted Frontier
amusement park. He has grave
doubts about himself and his
lack of motivation, earning
just enough to eat, drink, buy
gasoline and smoke weed.
He sees two children, and
they react when he notices a pattern of cigarette burns
on both, which they try to hide. Their mother appears,
and rushes the children out of the building.
He convinces Eleanor (the goth chick behind the
counter) to give him the mother’s name and reports
her to Child Protection. He gets nowhere and decides
that saving these children is up to him, and he has
to investigate.
His surveillance is spotted and it’s not long before
he’s beaten up by Big Beard and Scrawny Drunk on the
instructions of the children’s father, who happens to be
both a lawyer and drug dealer. The family disappears and
the hunt continues. Can he trust the children’s mother or
will he be drawn into a trap and murdered?
This book is a clever blend of humour and danger with
Hardly a likeable and brave lead character.
– Neville Templeton
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