The Japanese Lover

by Isabel Allende

“The elderly are the most entertaining people in the world,” she eventually told Irina. “They have lived a lot, say whatever they like, and couldn’t care less about other people’s opinion.

Divorced once and twice a widower, he had never lacked lady admirers, whom he seduced with his magical charms. On one recent occasion he had calculated he had fallen in love sixty-seven times.

that in itself age doesn’t make anyone better or wiser, but only accentuates what they have always been.

Isaac Belasco liked to say that there was only one aristocracy, that of decency, and that this was not inherited or bought with money or titles, but was only gained through good deeds.

He did not want to mold her as he did his own children, simply to protect her, and that allowed him the freedom to love her.