Lovers at the Museum: A Short Story

3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars | 15,106 ratings

Price: 0.99

Last update: 01-01-2025


About this item

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wind Knows My Name comes a mesmerizing tale of two passionate souls who share one magical night that defies all rational explanation.

Love, be it wild or tender, often defies logic. In fact, at times, the only rationale behind the instant connection of two souls is plain magic.

Bibiña Aranda, runaway bride, wakes up in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao still wearing her wedding dress, draped in the loving arms of a naked man whose name she doesn’t know. She and the man with no clothes, Indar Zubieta, attempt to explain to the authorities how they got there. It’s a story of love at first sight and experience beyond compare, one that involves a dreamlike journey through the museum.

But the lovers’ transcendent night bears no resemblance to the crude one Detective Larramendi attempts to reconstruct. And no amount of fantastical descriptions can convince the irritated inspector of the truth.

Allende’s dreamy short story has the power to transport readers in any language, leaving them to ponder the wonders of love long after the story’s over.


From the Publisher

GREAT LOVE IS A WORK OF ART

Top reviews from the United States

Glynn Young
5.0 out of 5 stars A short story that's like stepping into magic realism
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024
A night watchman at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, makes a startling discovery – a young man and woman are asleep in one of the galleries. They’re discovered in front of a metal sculpture entitled “Rising Sea” by the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui. The young man is naked; the young woman is wearing an elaborate bridal gown.

Inspector Larramendi of the Bilbao police is one the case, except he’s not sure exactly what the case is about. No one knows how the lovers got through the locked doors; the couple say the door was open. They claim they were in the museum throughout the night and never saw a guard. The would-be bride had fled her wedding ceremony, sobbing. She found a young stranger, and the got exceedingly drunk. They both independently claim the museum had suddenly appeared in front of them, like a magician’s trick.

They suspect the museum might be enchanted. Inspector Larramedi, the “Hound of Bilbao,” is inclined to agree.

“Lovers at the Museum” is a new short story by the acclaimed writer Isabel Allende, and the reader will be forgiven for thinking he or she has taken a step into magic realism. This might happen in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Macondo or the Lima of Mario Vargas Llosa (in fact, I was reminded of the telenovelas of “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter”). The Guggenheim in Bilbao is a real museum, whose architectural style might be called “anti-architecture” or “melted metal.” The sculpture cited in the story is a real metal sculpture, and the inspector can be forgiven for at first thinking it’s a large curtain.

Allende has previously published “The House of the Spirits” and some 25 other books. Born in Peru, raised in Chile, and now living in California, she founded a charitable foundation after her daughter died in 1996. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, and the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2018.
LA in Dallas
4.0 out of 5 stars Deniably magic fun from Allende
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024
Isabel Allende is, I think, my favorite Spanish-language author, and one of my favorite authors full-stop. La casa de los espíritus is a great work of Magical Realism, better even than Cien Anos De Soledad in my personal opinion. Thus I was delighted to learn of the existence of this story. I was taken aback to find that it is not for sale in Spanish anywhere that I could find, although Amazon will sell you an English translation by Allende herself under the title Lovers at the Museum.

The Museum referred to in the title is the Guggenheim Bilbao. One morning when the museum opens two lovers are found inside, a naked young man, Pedro Berastegui, and a young woman, Elena Etxebarría, in a bridal gown. (The names in the English version are different.) She is questioned by Detective Larramendi

—Why are you wearing a wedding dress? Aitor Larramendi asked her.
—Because I didn't have time to change.
—Where was the wedding?
—Whose wedding?

It transpires that Elena and Pedro spent the night in the museum doing you-know-what, and that no one noticed. Even the security cameras have no record of them. It is just barely possible, if you really really want, to imagine that nothing magical happened -- that the guards were negligent and that there were unexplained electronic faults. But of course you're not going to believe that. This was a lot of fun.

The Spanish booklet but not the English translation follows the story with an essay called "El oficio de contar", which Google translate will tell you means "The job of counting". That is a mistranslation. The Spanish verb "contar" does mean "count", but it is also the verb used for telling a story. (The English verb "tell" also means "count" -- it is rarely used in that sense now, but that is why the person who counts out money at the bank is called a teller.) The essay tells how Allende became an author and what story-telling means to her.
B. Colyer
3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful imagery in short story
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2024
Thank you to the publisher for my gifted copy of Lovers at the Museum. All opinions are my own.
I've never read the author's work before, but she is my mother's favorite writer, so I thought a short story would be a good introduction to her writing.
This short story was interesting. The descriptions of the museum and the outfits were incredible. I envisioned an ideal image of the setting for the story. However, I didn't really connect with the characters or the plot. I think I need to read more than 25 pages by the author to decide if I am a fan.
JeffreyDurbin
5.0 out of 5 stars Quick Atmospheric Read
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2024
Actual Rating: 4.5

This was my first story by Allende and I had such a fun time with it. This was a nice dip of my toes into someone that has written a number of novels that I’ve heard about in the past.

I found myself really enjoying the writing style as well as the magical atmosphere the Lovers describe both in the museum and their first meeting. Of course, because this is so incredibly short, we don’t get a ton of backstory on the museum or our characters. I would be so interested in just a little bit more about the museum and some of the magic it’s done elsewhere!
Her Royal Peepness Princess HoneyBunny Blayze
2.0 out of 5 stars Lovers At The Museum (A Short Story)
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2024
Lovers At The Museum; is a "Bonus" short story being offered with any March First Read.

Going in I knew it only had 25 pages to it; I still expected to read a complete story. Meaning a beginning and ending within a brief tale.

Ever picked up a book and opened it at random and started reading? If you have then you will understand how doing this can be off putting. This is all Isabel Allende accomplished with this offering for this reader.

Here's why: It opens with a inspector interrogating the lovers found in the museum , then shifts to a unfathomable ending. Giving it what I imagine it's like to preview a rough draft of a work in progress to a novice writer .

At the end of it I am left wondering 2 things. What is the criteria for a New York's Best Selling Author? ; (As someone whose never read A.O. before)__ Are All Amazon Originals like this? Neither question I take away from this experience is one I believe was hoped for; however neither were my hopes met by this download. Couldn't really recommend.

Best Sellers in

 
 

The Ghost Writer (Never Tell collection)

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 2328
1.99
 
 

Everywhere You Look (Never Tell collection)

3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 1887
1.99
 
 

Worst Wingman Ever (The Improbable Meet-Cute collection)

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 29954
0.99
 
 

Two Women Walk into a Bar

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 11639
1.99