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Book club questions for “A Long Petal of the Sea” by Isabel Allende explore the themes of hope, exile, and belonging through the story of two characters, Roser and Victor, who are forced to flee Spain during the civil war and embark on a journey to Chile. The novel is set in the late 1930s and spans several years, following the couple as they navigate their new lives in exile and their hope of returning home.
The novel has received positive reviews, with The New York Times Book Review praising it as one of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date and one of the strongest and most affecting works in Allende’s long career. It has also been named one of the best books of the year by various publications.
The novel has also been praised for its relevance to current issues of war, displacement, and the immigrant experience. USA Today called it a page-turning story rich with history and surprising subplots that keeps the novel unpredictable to the end, and also a reminder that these issues are made up of individuals and their love stories. For these reasons and many more, I deeply recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in historical fiction, love stories, and the journey of hope and belonging.
Below you will find my discussion guide for A Long Petal of the Sea, the detailed synopsis of the book, as well as fifteen book club questions you can use with your book clubs. Also, don’t forget to read my book recommendations below the questions!
The Synopsis
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Esquire • Good Housekeeping • Parade
In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.
Together with two thousand other refugees, Roser and Victor embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, the couple embraces exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, they face trial after trial, but they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they might go home. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.
A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.
Book Club Questions for A Long Petal of the Sea
The following book club questions have been tailored to this book’s specific reading experience.✨
1. Each chapter begins with a quote from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. How do those quotes frame the chapters? Was there a particular quote you liked best? Did your attention to these quotes change when Neruda became a character in the novel?
2. Discuss the significance of the title, A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA. What do you think it means?
3. Which character did you feel most drawn to, and why?
4. One page 41, Allende writes, “Despite this, the American officer still believed in the triumph of socialism. To him, equality was not only possible, but inevitable, and he practiced it like a religion.” How are ideals like socialism and equality represented in this novel? What other big concepts are examined?
5. What were your first impressions of Victor Dalmau and Roser Bruguera? How did your impressions change as the characters themselves transformed throughout the course of the novel?
6. When first asking Roser to marry him in order to secure a spot on the ship ferrying refugees to Chile, Victor asks if affection and respect can be enough for her. Do you think those two feelings are enough for any relationship, whether platonic or romantic? In what circumstances?
7. In the beginning of A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA, Allende writes about the many thousands of terrified refugees escaping to France, where a campaign of fear and hatred awaited them, about how nobody wanted these “filthy fugitives” or “repugnant beings who were going to spread epidemics, commit robberies and rape, and stir up a communist revolution.” Do you think those same sentiments towards refugees exist today? Why do you think refugees are so often stigmatized in history and in present day?
8. Each of the main characters experiences love at some point in the story — Roser, Guillem, Victor, Ofelia, etc. What did you think of their different love stories? Which did you find the most realistic, the most heartbreaking or the most compelling? In what ways does love drive the plot of the book?
9. What role do politics play in this novel? How does Allende use conversations between characters — like Juana, Felipe and Isidro — to portray the tumultuous political climate during this time period? Why do you think these characters had different political opinions? Do you think different generations are destined to have conflicting opinions?
10. What do you think of Ofelia’s storyline? How did you feel about her decision to keep the baby and her family’s deception in telling her it died during childbirth? How was her life shaped by the decisions of men, from her father to her eventual husband Matias? What would have happened to her if Matias hadn’t married her?
Bonus Book Club Questions for A Long Petal of the Sea
These are my bonus book club questions that take a different approach on analyzing certain themes of the book.
11. How did you feel about the ending of A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA? Was it what you expected, what you hoped would happen? If not, how would you have constructed the ending?
12. What did you learn from reading A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA — about this period in history, about Chilean culture or about human nature?
13. How does Allende use the characters of Victor and Roser to explore the theme of sacrifice and the sacrifices people make for love?
14. How does the motif of music play a role in the novel, both symbolically and in the lives of the characters?
15. Discuss the portrayal of motherhood in the novel, and the different types of mother figures present in the story. How do these relationships shape the characters and the plot?
I hope you will enjoy discussing my book club discussion questions for A Long Petal of the Sea! Have fun analyzing the themes of the story with your book clubs, and let me know what are your thoughts!
Additional Recommendations
Hope you enjoyed these original book club and discussion questions for A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende!
Here are some more of my book club recommendations:
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There–after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes–Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight.
At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.
A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian’s disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity.
Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian’s own story, as the two women’s fates–and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times–collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
“One of [Mandel’s] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet.” —The New York Times
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.
A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.
Thank you for reading my book club questions and as always, happy reading! ❤️