The Japanese Lover - Isabel Allende

I really enjoyed this read and found myself lost in this lovely story of both Alma and Irina.  Alma who is sent from Poland at the end of the second world war to live with her uncle and aunty and cousins in San Francisco.  There she Ichimei the son of the gardener, whose own life changes as he and his family are interned for much of the war.

We also meet Irina, who after her own troubled past takes on a new job as a caregiver at Lark house,  home for the elderly.  She gets to meet Alma and her grandson Seth, and they wonder at the mysterious parcels and letters that arrive for Alma.

Isabel Allende is such a skilled storyteller, that the changing narratives and time periods flowed smoothly and I was sad when the story ended. 5/5