Isabel Allende

Quakers are always to be found where they’re most needed. They’re saints; the only saints I respect.”

Isidro del Solar was her destiny, but marriage weighed on her like a burden.

without all the distractions Laura suffered from: without having to worry about the melodramas of children and relatives, or do battle with domestic staff, waste time on social visits, and fulfill her role as a dutiful wife. Isidro was omnipresent: the universe revolved around him, his wishes and demands. That was how his grandfather and father had been, that was how all men were

the del Solars had experienced a luxury unknown in Chile, where sobriety was a virtue and the more money one had, the more care was taken to hide it

narrow South American country that clung to the mountains so as not to topple into the sea

Ofelia was confronted for the first time with the challenge of being taken seriously

For him it had been pleasure with no risk; for her there was risk with little pleasure

“I understand, my child, but you must accept your discomfort. It’s normal in your condition: offer it up to God Almighty. As the holy scriptures say: man has to work by the sweat of his brow, and woman has to give birth in pain.”

“As far as I can tell, Father, you don’t sweat when you work.”

You want to know if I told my confessor the name of the father of this child . . . It didn’t seem to me necessary, because what matters is the sin, not with whom one sins.”

Isidro preferred to know as little as possible, remaining faithful to his habit of staying away from the emotional extravagances of the female members of the family