The Wind Knows My Name

The powerful and moving new novel from literary legend Isabel Allende

Praise for the author

'A grand storyteller' - Khaled Hosseini

'A new novel by Isabel Allende is always a treat' - Daily Mail

'What a joy it must be to come upon Allende for the first time' - Colum McCann

No, we're not lost. The wind knows my name. And yours too.

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht — the night their family loses everything. As her child’s safety seems ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Duran, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother.

Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make, and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers — and never stop dreaming.