the Lovers

She was a romantic, sentimental child, with a preference for solitude, few friends, and a propensity to be moved to tears when the roses in the garden bloomed, when she smelled the rags and soap the nuns used as they bent over their tasks, and when when she stayed behind to experience melancholy stillness of the empty classrooms. She was considered timid and morose. Only in the country, her skin tanned by the sun and her belly full of ripe fruit, running through the fields with Pedro Tercero, was she smiling and happy.

The above is an excerpt that struck me while reading The House of the Spirits (from the chapter entitled "The Lovers"). It's been 1 year and 3 months since I've left the country and I'm feeling a bit like Blanca right now, ready for the sun, ripe fruit and the country.

Isabel Allende writes in a style similar to Marquez, rich with detail, intertwining stories, bouts of magical realism, in an epic that spans numerous generations, wars, revolution and love. I'm only about halfway through with the book and its already become one of my favorites.