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Maya’s Notebook

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About this listen

The author of ‘The House of the Spirits’ returns with a gritty yet transcendent tale of teenage addiction.

The narrator and protagonist of MAYA'S NOTEBOOK is a 19 year old girl who grows up in Berkeley, California, and falls into a life of drug addiction and crime. To rescue Maya, and save her from the criminal types pursuing her, Maya's Chilean grandmother sends her to a remote island off the southern coast of Chile. Here she lives among a traditional rural people, the Chilote, who speak an older form of Spanish and have remained largely isolated from the materialism, crime, and fast-paced contemporary life which is our own. The book alternates between the narrative in the US and that on Chiloe, the island, so the two strands of the story unfold for the reader at more or less the same time.

This new book is very different from Isabel's previous historical novels: a contemporary setting; an American (of Latino descent) teenage drug addict as the protagonist and narrating voice; a realistic style of writing rather than a magical realistic one (Chiloe exists, and one can visit it). Maya's voice is modeled on that of Isabel's teenage granddaughter, a native of the Bay area (San Francisco, Berkeley).

 Crime Crime Thrillers Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Thriller Latin American San Francisco

Critic reviews

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
All stars
Most relevant

Would you listen to Maya's Notebook again? Why?

Yes. Not only is it a very engaging story, but the narration is also extremely soothing and suits the character.

Beautifully narrated

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend it to an Isabel Allende aficionado, but if you don't like magical realism, you're not going to really like Maya's Notebook.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Maya's grandmother, she was an amzing woman

Which character – as performed by Maria Cabezas – was your favourite?

Maya herself

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The depths to which Maya sank.

An Isabel Allende clasic

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Took a while to get used to the narrators voice but the story made up for it

A very interesting story

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I fell in love with Maya, despite the fact that she took that $5, by her own admission, despicably. This is an impressively written book, beautifully read on Audible. I cannot recommend it too highly. As for my own recently completed novel, I must now revise it in the face of Isobel Allende’s smooth, detailed style with its great depth and feeling. No disappointment reading of Maya, after Clara et al in that magnificent novel, The House of the Spirits. No disappointment at all.

Compelling, moving, memorable

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it's a passionate story to follow. I will miss Maya. the narrator is very very good. I only didn't like so much the end. but it's my problem as I like different types of end.

maya will be in my heart probably forever.

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