The fall of Barcelona, anti-communism and exile in Isabel Allende's novel Long petal of the sea

Abstract

Isabel Allende's book Longa petal de mar, a historical novel, offers the reader an interesting panorama of the end of the Spanish civil war and the consequent exile in Chile. In dealing with the flight from Barcelona and the reluctance of democratic countries in the face of the mass of Spanish refugees, the author brings to light the drama of the Spanish anti-fascist fighters who faced anti-communism far beyond Spain. In the first part of the novel, the residents of the city of Barcelona, the last bulwark of the defenders of the republic and of the resistance to Spanish fascism, sense defeat and know what the women of the resistance would suffer at the hands of the Moorish troops fighting alongside the Francoists. In the second part, the novel addresses exile in Chile and the rise of the Chilean far right. That is why this work allows us to think of literature as a source of historical knowledge.

Keywords: Fascism. Memory. Exile.