The Wind Knows My Name

Content Warning: This section of the guide refers to mass violence, antisemitism, discrimination, genocide, and hate crimes, which are depicted in The Wind Knows My Name.

The initial protagonist of the work, Samuel Adler grows into a sage or mentor archetype in his later years. When the novel begins, Samuel is a Jewish child living in Vienna during Nazi occupation, and he loses both parents and his aunt to the Holocaust. Fortunately, he’s sent to England, but once there, he loses his connections to music, language, and his heritage, which were all prevalent in his life in Vienna. Samuel’s displacement and loss of family and identity form the basis for Allende’s connection between turmoil in Europe during World War II, conflicts in Central and South America during the late 20th century, and the refugee crisis at the US border during the early 21st century. Reclaiming his love of music, Samuel moves to the US, where he marries Nadine Leblanc, beginning a tumultuous relationship that spans almost to the novel’s present day. After Nadine’s death, Samuel forms a closer bond with Leticia, which allows him to accept Anita into his life and build a new family with them.