A Long Petal of the Sea

Accustomed to “the effect he had on women” (30), Guillem is not surprised that Roser has fallen in love with him, and while at the front, he does not share her feelings. When he returns home extremely ill, their feelings become mutual and strengthen. From afar, Victor diagnoses Guillem with typhus, which carries symptoms of a high fever, breathing difficulties, and diarrhea. Guillem is “as skinny as a skeleton” (34), and his mother and Roser nurse him back to health with Victor providing advice on the phone. Roser provides the brunt of the care for Guillem, as Carme continues to teach. As Guillem convalesces, he and Roser share conversations about their lives, and Guillem resolves to marry her after the war. Roser invites him to bed with her when he has regained his strength. As a result, Roser becomes pregnant with their child. Guillem returns to the front.

The war is going poorly for the resistance, a fact that becomes clear at the battle of the Ebro River. Franco and the fascists have the help of German and Italian troops, but the resistance never gains official help from France, Great Britain, or the United States. Over 30,000 soldiers die at Ebro, including Guillem. Aitor learns of Guillem’s death and breaks the news to Victor, who questions the proof. Explaining that a bomb blew several men into pieces, Aitor shows Guillem’s identity card and photo of Roser to Victor. Victor still refuses to accept Guillem’s death and therefore postpones breaking the news to his mother and Roser.

Meanwhile, Franco’s troops continue “their inexorable advance” (43) and are merciless in victory. It is increasingly obvious that Barcelona and all of Catalonia will fall. The consequences for the conquered resistance are devastating, including mass executions, with tens of thousands killed.

With Franco’s forces on the verge of total victory, a mass exodus, known as the “Retreat” (47), to the French border begins. Busy evacuating the wounded, Victor asks Aitor to take Roser and Carme to France. Carme is reluctant to leave but agrees to do so in response to Roser’s pleas for help with the pregnancy and baby. Traveling at first in Aitor’s old German motorcycle with a sidecar, they make very slow progress. The flight from Barcelona is “a Dantesque spectacle of thousands of people shivering with cold in a stampede that soon slowed to a straggling procession” (50). There is little food. Worse still, no one wants these refugees, and there is mounting concern that France will close its border.

Fearing that she is slowing the group’s progress, Carme slips away at night. Aitor and Roser search for her to no avail. Given the rumors about the closing border, Aitor and Roser decide to cross the Pyrenees into France by foot. The crossing requires climbing in snow, with one false step potentially leading to a “crash to the ground a hundred yards below” (55-56). It becomes apparent that they need help. Luckily, they come upon some fellow comrades who promise a guide will come to take them to the border. The guide, Angel, takes a fee and then helps them take a secret route, especially dangerous in winter, to avoid guards, as the French border is indeed closed. After three days, Aitor and Roser reach France.

There is no welcome in France. Instead, the refugees are taken to camps. Roser goes to a camp with tens of thousands of Spanish refugees. Guarded by soldiers and surrounded by barbed wire and sea, they are imprisoned under terrible conditions. There are no latrines nor any drinkable water; food is in short supply. As a result, “Between thirty and forty people died every day, first the children from dysentery, then the elderly from pneumonia, and later on the others, one by one” (67). Later, it is learned that almost 15,000 people died in these French camps. After a period of time, some improvements are made, and the Red Cross arrives to offer assistance. That intervention enables Roser to get word to Victor’s friend Elisabeth Eidenbenz, requesting her help.

Elisabeth comes to Roser’s aid immediately. She is shocked at the sight of “this disheveled, filthy young woman, ashen-faced and with purple eyes inflamed by sand” (69). Sponsoring Roser, Elisabeth successfully extricates her from the camp and gets her to a house used as a maternity unit, where Roser is cleaned up and given food.

During this time, Victor is working to transport the wounded out of Spain. Some have to be left behind because they cannot survive the journey. The difficult journey nearly breaks Victor, yet he is allowed into France with the wounded, with whom he stays to offer care. This last group of refugees receives no warmer a welcome than Roser and Aitor, and they are also placed in camps.

Isidoro del Solar, his wife Laura, and one of their daughters, Ofelia, are on board the Reina del Pacifico, traveling from Chile to Liverpool, England. The wealthy Chilean couple have six children and several servants. Juana Nancucheo supervises the staff at home and takes care of Leonardo, the youngest child, who has special needs and heart problems. Isidoro is a conservative businessman, while his wife Laura is from an old-monied family that looks upon commerce somewhat disdainfully. Their marriage was approved because of a scandal in Laura’s family and Isidoro’s good reputation.

While Laura considers Isidoro her destiny, she is unhappy on the ship. She would prefer to be home in Chile and has gained weight. She reluctantly performs her social duties and at times wishes her husband dead. Curious about the lives of those in the lower classes, Laura wanders the boat. She questions why she has so much but also notices that there is more joy on the lower decks. Considered “absentminded, flirtatious, and too pretty” (80) by her father, Ofelia is not interested in marrying the man her father intends for her, Matias Eyzaguirre. Isidoro intends to leave her at a girls’ finishing school in London at the conclusion of the trip, unbeknownst to Ofelia.

Back at the family’s home in Santiago, Chile, no one particularly misses Isidoro and Laura. Felipe, the eldest son, is left in charge of the house, but his attention is elsewhere. Unlike his father, Felipe is an idealist who disagrees with his father’s conservative politics. While they argue frequently, their biggest dispute was about a presidential election, with Felipe supporting the progressive Pedro Cerda and his father backing a conservative. Cerda won the election. After this argument, Felipe rented his own house six blocks from his parents. He hosts meetings with like-minded friends, which Juana dubs the “Club of the Enraged” (90). The hot topic over the past few years is the situation in Spain and now the fate of the Republican refugees who have “been left to rot and die in French concentration camps” (91). Advocates of these refugees, the club hosts a special guest, Pablo Neruda. Known as “the best poet of his generation” (91), Neruda is headed to Paris to find a ship to bring some of these refugees to Chile.

Neruda charters the Winnipeg, which will bring approximately 2,000 refugees to Chile. Felipe telegrams his father in frustration because Juana refuses to house any refugees in the family home. Isidoro is relieved by Juana’s resistance, as he does not want the refugees in Chile, let alone his home. He considers them to be communists and atheists.