The Sum of Our Days: A Memoir – A Warm, Humorous Story of Motherhood, Love, and Eccentric Family - Softcover

Allende, Isabel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0063021803 ISBN 13: 9780063021808

Publisher: HarperVia, 2020

Synopsis

“An inspiring and thought-provoking work.”—Denver Post

The sequel to Isabel Allende’s beloved bestselling Paula—a loving portrait of a makeshift extended family whose beating heart is its remarkable matriarch—a strong, stubborn, fiercely loyal, and loving woman—who must carry on after an unbearable loss.

In this powerful memoir, Isabel Allende reconstructs the painful reality of her life after the death of her daughter, Paula. But The Sum of Our Days is not a tragedy; narrated with warmth, humor, exceptional candor, and wisdom, it is a remarkable story of life that is as exuberant and passionate as Allende herself. Baring her soul, Allende reflects on love, marriage, motherhood, spirituality and religion, infidelity, addiction, and memory—and tells poignant stories of the wildly eccentric and eclectic tribe who become a new kind of family.

What does it take for a family to heal after the unthinkable?

• A Mother’s Grief: A candid look at the years following the death of her daughter, Paula, as Allende navigates sorrow not with tragedy, but with passion, warmth, and life.
• An Unconventional Tribe: Meet the eccentric and eclectic family that forms around her, a chaotic circle of stepchildren, grandchildren, and friends who redefine what it means to belong.
• Dealing with Addiction: An honest and heart-wrenching account of her stepdaughter Jennifer’s battle with addiction, and the search for hope in the midst of a family crisis.
• Spirituality, Humor, and Hope: Discover how Allende finds light in the darkest of times through reflections on motherhood, marriage, memory, and a touch of everyday magic.

About this title

About the Author

Isabel Allende, born in Peru and raised in Chile, is a novelist, feminist, and philanthropist. She is one of the most widely read authors in the world, having sold more than eighty million copies of her books across forty-two languages. She is the author of several bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, and Paula. In addition to her work as a writer, Isabel devotes much of her time to human rights causes. She has received fifteen honorary doctorates, been inducted into the California Hall of Fame, and received the PEN Center Lifetime Achievement Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and in 2018, she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. She lives in California with her husband and dogs.

You can visit Isabel Allende at IsabelAllende.com or follow her on Instagram @AllendeIsabel, on Facebook at Facebook.com/IsabelAllende and on X @IsabelAllende

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperVia
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0063021803
• ISBN 13: 9780063021808
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448