A Long Petal of the Sea (Original Spanish title: Largo pétalo de mar) is a 2019
Historical Fiction novel by
Isabel Allende. It is set against the background of the
Spanish Civil War. Víctor Dalmau and his late brother's love Roser Bruguera are caught up by the war. Somehow, they manage to reunite and board the SS
Winnipeg that will take them and several other Spanish refugees to some remote country in South America called Chile. The novel covers the next few decades of their lives in Chile, as well as that of other characters.
This book contains examples of:
- Big Brother Instinct: During the Del Solar Christmas feast, Felipe warns his sister Ofelia that if he catches her flirting with Víctor Dalmau (a married refugee who is dirt poor), he'll tell their father.
- Deliberate Underperformance: Víctor learned on the job as a medic during the Civil War. After he goes to Chile and enrolls in in med school, he has to be careful in laboratory and practical classes because he does not want to embarrass his professors.
- Establishing Character Moment: Victor, who has been serving as a medic for three years in the front lines, ends up saving the life of a young soldier by applying direct compressions on the boy's heart, even though he could have given up much earlier.
- Ethnic Menial Labor: Juana Nancucheo, a woman of Mapuche ancestry starts working for the Vizcarra family when she is around six or seven. Then when Laura Vizcarra marries Isidro del Solar, she brings Juana with her.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: When Juana learns about Ofelia's pregnancy, she tries lighting candles to St. Jude, rue tea (which is very poisonous but Juana figures the risk is worth it to prevent the birth of a "huacho" or bastard), and parsley stalks. They don't work.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Some of the Spanish refugees on board the Winnipeg sing poet Jacint Verdaguer's "L'Emigrant" as the ship departs. The chorus is quoted without translating:
«Dolça Catalunya,
pàtria del meu cor,
quan de tu s'allunya
d’enyorança es mor».translation "Sweet Catalonia,/homeland of my heart,/to be far from you/ is to die of longing"
- Historical Domain Character:
- Pablo Neruda convinces the Chilean President to grant asylum to Civil War refugees. He ends up filling up the Winnipeg with 2000 Spanish refugees. Later, Víctor finds himself offering him shelter when Neruda has to hide from the police.
- Minister of Health Salvador Allende is among the figures that greet the Winnipeg upon arrival. He is a friend to Felipe del Solar and later intervenes so that Víctor can get credit for his medicine studies in Spain and finish in three years.
- Francisco Franco's rule after the Civil War ends is a dictatorship. Roster mentions that he prohibited speaking Catalan. After he dies Víctor and Roser move back to Spain but only stay for six months because there is really no place for them.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: While on board the SS Winnipeg, Víctor and Roser arrange to get together by the lifeboats for some privacy in a ship with more than 2000 refugees. Subverted in that since theirs is a Marriage of Convenience, they don't have sex. Ironically, their chats bring them closer together than sex would have.
- Marriage of Convenience: Víctor marries Roser so that she and her son can go with him to Chile and start a new life. He is motivated by loyalty to his late brother, not romantic intents.
- Old Retainer: Juana Nancucheo, the housekeeper to the Del Solar family, has been with them for so long, that she has to remind them that she is not family but an employee, and could they please pay her a little bit?
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Felipe del Solar uses his own connections to help Víctor get an evening job at the Club Hípico that will allow him to study medicine. Felipe also reassures Víctor that it will be easy to enter the School Of Medicine because the headmaster is related to Felipe on his mother's side.
- Sexless Marriage: In the beginning, sex is out of the question for Roser and Víctor. She still misses Víctor's late brother Guillem. As for Víctor , he sees her as his partner and best friend, but feels that a romantic relationship would be betraying Guillem. Things change when Ofelia Del Solar sends Víctor "Dear John" Letter and Roser gets into his bed to comfort him. He welcomes her.
- Sinister Minister: Priest Vicente Urbina. He conspires along with Ofelia Del Solar's mother and a midwife to keep Ofelia drugged before and after giving birth to a healthy baby girl. Ofelia is tricked into believing she had a stillborn boy, even showing her a grave. He ends up giving the baby away for adoption to a wealthy couple, obtaining a generous fee. On top of that, he is a supporter of the dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet, even praising measures like executions and tortures as valid to ward off Marxism. And he is primarily interested in the souls of rich people.
- Smart People Play Chess: Víctor goes to thank Minister of Health Salvador Allende for his help with his studies in medicine and they end up forming a friendship based upon games of chess, which after the 1973 coup will result in Víctor spending eleven months in a concentration camp and then going into exile.
- Title Drop: From a line in one of Neruda's poems used to describe Chile: "largo pétalo de mar y vino y nieve" (the long petal of sea and wine and snow).
- War Refugees: Víctor Dalmau and his brother's bride Roser Bruguera escape the violence of the Spanish Civil War and end up settling in Chile.
