"The unforgettable first novel that established Isabel Allende as one of the world's most gifted and imaginative storytellers. The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their...

This book is the personal memoir of protagonist Peter Wake, a veteran of espionage operations for the Office of Naval Intelligence who also has considerable sea and combat experience. At the beginning of this book, it is three years after the war and Wake is called in to explain his decisions and actions in the Caribbean during the wartime summer of 1898.