Some will first make a stop at the notorious detention camp in Argeles-sur-Mer, in the French Pyrenees. Make that mostly Chile, the 'long petal of the sea,” according to Pablo Neruda, or that 'long worm at the far south of the map” in the mind of a character Allende sends there in the aftermath of the war. With this scene, master storyteller Isabel Allende opens the curtain on a story of war, love and displaced persons, 1938 to 1994, moving from Spain to France, Chile and Venezuela. Here, med student Victor Dalmau is about to raise one of them from the dead. To fight the hopeless battles immediately preceding the victory of General Francisco Franco, the boy soldiers of what was called 'the baby bottle conscription” were called in. The bloody Spanish Civil War is almost over, as there are 'no more men, old or young, to fight the war” on the side of the Republicans. Victor was never able to explain to himself why he inserted three fingers of his right hand into the gaping wound, gently grasped the organ, and squeezed it rhythmically several times.” 'This was to be his most stubborn, persistent memory of the war: that 15- or 16-year-old boy, still smooth-cheeked, filthy with the dirt of battle and dried blood, laid out on a stretcher with his heart exposed to the air.
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