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This renowned Latin-American writer
was born on August 2nd, 1942. Although she was born in Lima, Peru,
Isabel Allende has always considered herself Chilean. After her parents Tomás
Allende and Francisca Llona got divorced when she was only three years old, Isabel Allende moved to Chile with her mother and siblings. She also lived in Beirut
and Bolivia, where she attended an English
speaking high school. She returned to Chile
in 1958, and married the Chilean engineer Miguel Frías in 1962. A year later she gave birth to Paula, who died of porphyria
in 1992 and inspired by her daughter’s death, she wrote the book ¨Paula¨ (1994). She spent the years after her daughter’s
birth living in Europe, and upon her return to Chile
she had her son Nicolás in 1966.
A year
after Nicolás was born, Allende became involved with journalism and published two stories for children, and then, in 1973
her play The Ambassador premiered. On the same year, her uncle and godfather, Salvador
Allende was assassinated in a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet. After the socialist president’s death, Isabel Allende
was reluctant to abandon her homeland and hoped that the new government would not last. Realizing her life was in danger,
Allende finally fled to Venezuela where
she resided for 13 years. While in exile, Allende wrote a letter to her grandfather which became her international bestseller
The House of the Spirits (1982). After the success of her first novel, Allende
published Of Love and Shadows in 1984, which was followed by Eva Luna (1985) and Stories of Eva Luna (1991). Her success as a writer
deeply deteriorated her relationship with Frías. After her divorce, she married Willie Gordon in 1988.
During
the nineties, Allende wrote the above mentioned Paula, as well as The Infinite Plan
(1993), Aphrodite (1997) and Daughter of
Fortune (1999). Her most recent novels include Portrait in Sepia (2000), My Invented Country (2003) and Zorro (2005).
She has also written a series of novels for young adults, including The City of the
Beasts (2002), Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (2003) and Forest of the Pygmies (2005).
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