“This engrossing, expertly paced novel links two women, centuries apart, touched by battles against smallpox and AIDS. It's clear by story's end that the past informs the present and that altruism has its costs.”
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People
“An intriguing and engrossing novel. ⦠Two stories with two totally different endings are melded into a riveting tale by master storyteller Alvarez.”
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Extremely readable and deeply felt.”
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The San Diego Union-Tribune
“[An] entertaining meditation on salvation and loss.”
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The Baltimore Sun
“This latest work reflects Alvarez's creative agility, political insight and spiritual depth.”
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Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
“Weaving pandemics from different eras is the compelling and timely plotline in Julia Alvarez's newest novel,
Saving the World
.”
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USA Weekend
“Two complementary stories that raise tough ethical questions. ⦠Alvarez's prose is a pleasure to read; she has a gift for interpretation, surprising insights, and observations that hit us right between the eyes.”
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Journal of the American Medical Association
“Lyric, expansive. ⦠[
Saving the World
] is an impressive bit of writerly acrobatics.”
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Time Out Chicago
“
Saving the World
artfully braids together the stories of two women separated by 200 years. ⦠Beautifully written.”
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Chicago Tribune
“Entertaining and enlightening. ⦠An elegant novel in which the two storiesâso far apart in yearsânevertheless meld smoothly, due to [Alvarez's] ability to masterly interweave their similar ethical, cultural and human issues. Grade A.”
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Rocky Mountain News
“The conceit of
Saving the World
is sublime, its execution almost flawless. ⦠[A] superb novel.”
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The Santa Fe New Mexican
“Alvarez takes fascinating historical facts and gives us a novel that comes alive and enlightens. This is one book you'll reflect upon long after turning the last page.”
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The Birmingham News
“This is the triumph of Julia Alvarez's own storytelling. She accomplishes what Joseph Conrad asserts is the mission of fiction: âto pre sent an unrestful episode in the obscure lives of a few individuals out of all the disregarded multitude of the bewildered, the simple, and the voiceless.'”
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Sea History
“A powerful novelâon a par with such major works as Philip Roth's
American Pastoral
. Politically savvy, astutely written, smart, and rich in poetic imagery, this hybrid of a novel is nothing less than a work of art.”
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Burlington Free Press
“This truly engaging story pulls the reader in from the first page.”
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VOYA
“Alvarez's descriptions of nature and character are both naturalistic and poetic, creating a psychological novel-with-a-novel that is intense and riveting.”
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Library Journal,
starred review
“Alvarez depicts her two heroines with insightful empathy and creates vivid supporting characters. ⦠The narrative culminates in a compelling scene in which greed and ineptitude trump idealism, dramatizing the question of whether the means are ever justified by the ends.”
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Publishers Weekly
“In this cleverly structured and seductive page-turner, Alvarez uses romance and suspense to leaven probing inquiries into plagues, poverty, and politics; altruism and self-aggrandizement; good intentions gone wrong; and the way stories are told.”
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Booklist