Maya's Notebook - Softcover

Isabel Allende

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007482876 ISBN 13: 9780007482870

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2013

Synopsis

From the author of The House of Spirits teenage Maya is in trouble. She s an alcoholic, an addict and deeply involved with a criminal gang. How did it all go so wrong?

Abandoned by her parents as a baby, Maya has been brought up by her tough grandmother Nini and her gentle grandfather Popo.

At school though, teenage Maya finds herself drawn towards the wrong crowd. Before she knows what s happened, Maya s life has turned into one of drug addiction and crime.

Things go from bad to worse as Maya disappears into the criminal underworld. To save her from her old associates, Nini sends Maya to a remote island off the coast of Chile. Here she lives among a traditional rural people, the Chilote, who have remained untouched by the materialism of the modern world.

Basking in the warmth of the Chiloé community, Maya feels compelled to write her story and slowly she begins to heal. But can she move beyond her pain, find forgiveness and learn to live with the scars of the past?

About this title

Review:

Praise for Maya s Notebook:

Another impressive feat with a dazzling cast and bold array of landscapes, woven together with the storytelling prowess that is Allende s trademark. Daily Telegraph, 4 stars

Isabel Allende is a mistress storyteller... [her] capacity to surprise keeps her readers page-turning, as do her descriptions of character and place Independent

Maya is the lightest of narrative guises: wise beyond her 19 years but convincingly coltish. Guardian

An exciting read, well paced. Daily Express

--Daily Express

From the Back Cover:

Neglected by her parents, nineteen-year-old Maya Nidal grows up in a rambling old house in Berkeley with her grandparents. Her grandmother, Nidia, affectionately known as Nini, is a force of nature--a woman whose formidable strength helped her build a new life after emigrating from Chile in 1973. Popo, Maya's grandfather, is an African American astronomer and professor--a gentle man whose solid, comforting presence helps calm the turbulence of Maya's adolescence.

When Popo dies of cancer, Maya goes completely off the rails. With her girlfriends Maya turns to drugs, alcohol, and petty crime, eventually bottoming out in Las Vegas. Lost in a dangerous underworld, she is caught in the crosshairs of warring forces--a gang of assassins, the police, the FBI, and Interpol. Her one chance for survival is Nini, who helps her escape to a -remote island off the coast of Chile. Here Maya tries to make sense of the past, unravels mysterious truths about life and her family, and embarks on her greatest adventure: the journey into her own soul.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0007482876
• ISBN 13: 9780007482870
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400