Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende, born in 1942, Chilean author, one of the first female Latin American writers to win worldwide recognition and popularity. Allende was born in Lima, Peru, where her father was a diplomat. She attended private schools and traveled before moving to Santiago, Chile. There she finished her schooling and worked at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. She later worked in journalism, writing articles on provocative topics. She also held positions in the television and motion-picture industries.

In 1973 Allende's uncle Salvador Allende, president of Chile, died during a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. Isabel was exiled from Chile and sought refuge in Caracas, Venezuela. She later lived in the United States. Her exile ended in 1988, when Chilean voters rejected another presidential term for Pinochet; this development set the stage for democratic elections in Chile in 1989.

Allende's first novel, La casa de los espíritus (1982; The House of the Spirits, 1985), is a family chronicle set against the turmoil of political and economic change in Latin America. It was well received by critics, who saw resemblances in the book to the magic realist technique (a blending of the real and the supernatural) that is found in the works of Latin American novelist and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. In 1993 Danish director Bille August adapted the book as a motion picture. Allende continued her exploration of personal and political themes in two subsequent novels—De amor y de sombra (1984; Of Love and Shadows, 1987) and Eva Luna (1987; translated 1988)—and a collection of short stories, Cuentos de Eva Luna (1990; The Stories of Eva Luna, 1991).

The nonfiction book Paula (1994; translated 1995) is an autobiographical account of her relationship with her daughter told in the form of a letter. Paula, who suffered from the genetic disorder porphyria, lapsed into a coma in 1991 and died in 1992. Allende returned to fiction with Hija de la Fortuna (1999; Daughter of Fortune, 1999), a historical novel about the gold rush in California, and Retrato en sepia (2001; Portrait in Sepia, 2002), a family saga set in Chile in the late 19th century. Ciudad de las bestias (2002; City of the Beasts, 2002) is a magic realist adventure written for young adults. Allende produced a memoir that has many features of magic realism with Mí pais inventado: Un paseo nostálgico por Chile (2003; My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile, 2003). The historical novel Inés del alma mía (2006; Inés of My Soul, 2006) is based on the life of Spanish heroine Inés Suárez, who traveled to South America in the 16th century and helped found Chile.