Ever since I read Eva Luna , I was eagerly looking forward to read the other books by Isabel Allende.
When I got my hands on Island Beneath The Sea, I was very exited with anticipation, believing that a wonderful story was awaiting me, and I wasn't disappointed. The novel was yet another example of Allende's remarkable gift of storytelling.
The plot starts in 1770, in the French colony of Saint Domingue, Which is Haiti now.
The main character of the story is Zarit\, mostly known as Tet\, a born slave girl who's mother was an African slave and the father a white sailer. Though destined to be a slave for life, Tet\ is determined to be a free woman one day, and gives all she has to make that dream come true. Despite all the unimaginable hardships that come on her way, she keeps pushing through towards her goal.
The book illustrates an era of history when the mankind was in a distinctive stage of its evolution. The era of colonialism and slavery. It's terrifying to realize the kind of mess made when a few nations went about colonizing the world, robbing native people in various countries of their resources and making them slaves, destroying indigenous knowledge, ultimately making things really horrible for themselves too.
This book tells us that the unity of people can bring any system down, and even a determined individual can make a difference.
Isabell Allende's Island Beneath The Sea is entertaining with a powerful plot with many dramatic events, inspirational with convincing illustrations of will power, educational with so many historical facts, and mysterious with indigenous African culture with its voodoo loa. However, the ending was totally disagreeable for me. Read the novel and you would know why. Comparing Eva Luna and Island Beneath The Sea, Eva Luna is my favorite, mostly because it was more enjoyable a story, but Island Beneath The Sea is far more informative and inspirational.
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