The Wind Knows My Name

"When I learned Isabel Allende’s latest novel is set in my hometown of Nogales, Ariz., I put it on my reading list. I wanted to know: Is her story as dearly held as my memory of a childhood of blended language and culture, of my grandmother’s whistled greetings to her neighbors? Children trapped by geopolitical violence and left to navigate immigration by themselves are the inspiration for this story. The novel is a powerful love letter to them. Their catharsis is both reference and refrain, evoked as a whistling in the dark of a forever song of hope. You can hear it in these pages, as I once did in the resilient neighborhoods of Nogales."