Isabel Allende
Biography
Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru, of Chilean parents (her father was a diplomat) in 1942, the niece of Salvador Allende, president of Chile from 1970 to 1973 till overthrown by the Chilean army, under General Pinochet, with the help of the CIA. Her parents divorced when she was three and she was brought up by her grandparents in Santiago. Isabel Allende left Chile after her uncle was overthrown and has since lived abroad, initially in Venezuela and more recently in the United States. She never intended to be a writer and only started writing when she was nearly forty. It initially started as a letter to her grandfather but became the book, La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits). She married Miguel Frías by whom she had two children. Her daughter, Paula, died in 1992 and the novel of the same name is about her. Allende later divorced Frías and married Willie Gordon. Her books are characterized by the ability of women to surmount adversity, coupled with a magic realism aspect found in many Latin American novels.
Other links
Isabel Allende (her home page)
Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende (interview)
Isabel Allende (interview)
Interview
Interview
Interview
Isabel Allende (in Spanish)
Isabel Allende (in Spanish)
Isabel Allende (in Spanish)
Bibliography
1975 La casa de los siete espejos
1982 La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits)
1984 De amor y de sombra (Of Love and Shadows)
1984 La gorda de porcelana
1987 Eva Luna (Eva Luna)
1988 Los cuentos de Eva Luna (The Stories of Eva Luna)
1991 El plan infinito (The Infinite Plan)
1994 Paula (Paula)
1997 Afrodita : cuentos, recetas y otros afrodisíacos (Aphrodite : a Memoir of the Senses)
1999 Hija de la fortuna (Daughter of Fortune)
2000 Retrato en Sepia (Portrait in Sepia)
2002 La Ciudad de las Bestias (City of the Beasts) (young adult)
2003 Mi País Inventado (My Invented Country) (memoir)
2004 El Reino del Dragon de Oro (Kingdom of the Golden Dragon) (young adult)
2004 El Bosque de los Pigmeos (The Forest of the Pygmies) (young adult)
2005 El Zorro (Zorro)
2006 Inés del Alma Mia (Inés of My Soul)
2007 La suma de los días (The Sum of Our Days: A Memoir)
2009 La Isla bajo el Mar (Island Beneath the Sea)
2011 El cuaderno de Maya (Maya’s Notebook)
2014 El juego de Ripper (Ripper)
2015 El amante japonés (The Japanese Lover)
2017 Más allá del invierno (In the Midst of Winter)
2019 Largo pétalo de mar (A Long Petal of the Sea)
2020 Mujeres del alma mía (The Soul of a Woman)
2022 Violeta (Violeta)
2023 El Viento Sabe Mi Nombre (The Wind Knows My Name) (novel)